Beyond the Pitch and the Screen: Convergent Mechanisms of Affective Self-Exclusion in Sport and Digital Practices among Italian Pre-Adolescents. A Mixed-Methods Inquiry

Abstract

Pre-adolescent disengagement from organised sport and withdrawal from digital social environments are usually treated as separate concerns. We argue they often share a common affective grammar rooted in perceived inadequacy. Drawing on the Italian project Non Fermateci, the study combines a survey of 8,933 pupils aged 8-13 with two focus groups in primary school. Quantitative analysis tests self-exclusion drivers — “I didn’t feel cut out”, “I didn’t feel involved by coach or peers” — across age, schooling level and family structure, deliberately setting aside the gender axis already addressed in a previous paper. Thematic coding of focus groups traces how the same grammar resurfaces in image manipulation, refusal to be photographed and the silent presence of unrecognised SEN. Motivational deficit, as teachers commonly read it, frequently masks an inclusion failure with affective and digital implications.