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Social factors take into account a number of different factors including a person's background in relation to their parents, how they have been brought up, their culture, the school they go to and the area in which they live as well as the people that they choose to spend time with. All of these will influence the type of sports a person has access to and what they are interested in taking part in. For example, polo is a sport that is not played by many people. It is usually only available to wealthy people as it costs a lot of money to own a horse. Relatively few people have been to watch a polo game compared to other sports such as football which is widely available and accessible.

Family and peers

Over the course of a person's life, they typically take part in a number of different communities such as school, sports club and friendship group. These groups change throughout their life but our family grouping remains very consistent. For this reason, family has a huge impact on how people to choose to participate in physical activity.

Parents and siblings, as well as the wider family, can have either a positive or a negative impact, as shown in the following examples:

Positive

• Moral support - congratulating a son/daughter for trying hard in an athletics taster session
• Financial support - paying a golf club membership fee on behalf of the child
• Transport - driving a child to a regional table tennis training two hours away from home every Sunday

Negative

• Moral support - never attending the child's school hockey matches due to being too busy
• Financial support - not paying for new pointe shoes in dance when the older pair become too small for the child
• Transport - relying on a teammates' parent to drive the child to netball practice every Sunday

Peers or friends are also extremely influential and can be either a positive or a negative influence. As young people reach adolescence, their friends might begin to take part in other social pastimes such as partying. It is in the teenage years that many young people tend to drop out of regular participation. Supportive friends might watch their friend play or perform, they will ask about their competitions and will show interest and moral support whether they win or lose.

Role models

Role models are people whose actions are emulated by others; people look up to them and want to copy what they do. Successful sportspeople in the media spotlight often become role models, inspiring others to take up sport.

Some sports or groups do not have many role models, for example Asian footballers, women's rugby.

Here are some sports role models:

Women's boxing

Nicola was the first ever women's boxing Olympic Champion in 2012

Ade Adepitan

Wheelchair basketball

TV presenter

Rebecca Adlington

Swimming

Won four Olympic medals, two of them gold

David Beckham

Football

Won 20 major trophies including one Champions League title and six Premier League titles

Jessica Ennis-Hill

Athletics

Olympic champion 2012; World champion 2015

Athletics

Olympic, European and World Champion at 5000 m and 10,000 m