Youth Interest in Sport and Other Domains: A Scoping Review

The purpose of this review was to summarize knowledge on formal interest constructs across common youth domains and to identify literature gaps. The Joanna Briggs Institute’s guidelines and the PRISMA-ScR extension guided this study’s design. Five databases were searched: APA PsycInfo, SPORTDiscus, Sports Medicine & Education Index, Education Source, and Web of Science. Peer-reviewed, English-language studies with participants aged 5–25 were eligible for inclusion. There were 228 articles included in this review. Through a descriptive content analysis, we found that: interest research has primarily been conducted in educational domains, while voluntary domains such as sport have received less attention; quantitative methods dominate research; and interest has been inconsistently defined and measured. Future research should focus on consistent interest definitions and employ longitudinal, person-oriented, and qualitative designs in voluntary youth domains such as sport.