The concept of sport persistence, i.e. behavioural commitment to sport, involves a combination of sports performance and commitment, resulting in an athlete's unwavering commitment to their chosen sport. This incorporates cultivating attributes such as resilience, adaptive coping mechanisms, and positive personality traits (K. E. Kovács, 2021). The athlete is, therefore, not merely persistent in the sporting activity but also qualitatively committed to it. This refers to the attempts to resolve, process and utilise stressful circumstances associated with performance plateaus, failures, injuries, successes, and positive events. The concept of sport persistence encompasses this behaviour and performance, an under- researched area in international practice (counts), as research in this field typically focuses on sporting habits, sports motivation and engagement. Overall, sport persistence can be regarded as a performance indicator that refers to a person's performance through sustained physical activity (regardless of the level of activity). Young athletes, particularly those talented, may drop out of sport prematurely during their school years before reaching their peak performance due to individual psychological, social and contextual factors (Fraser-Thomas et al., 2008). A combination of gender, socio-economic status and peer (parents, coaches, peers) support factors may predict sport persistence and its opposite, dropout from the sport in childhood (Strandbu et al., 2019). Therefore, both sport persistence and dropout can be identified as multifactorial and complex phenomena, strongly influenced by different socio-cultural backgrounds and behavioural factors, as well as personal characteristics, types of sport, attitudes and motivations. We use Bronfenbrenner's socio-ecological model as a starting point to explain the differences in the manifestation and background of sport persistence. The fundamental precondition of Bronfenbrenner's socio-ecological model is that individuals are intimately connected to and influenced by their environment. In particular, Bronfenbrenner argues that individual behaviour can be understood in terms of four environmental systems: micro, meso, exo and macro systems. hese different systems are layers of nested systems (like a matryoshka doll set), with the innermost layer representing the self. The microsystem comprises a complex of close relationships, such as family members, the workplace, the school class, close neighbours and peers. The meso-system represents the second layer. It is the context in which the microsystem components mentioned above are interrelated. The meso-system thus refers to the relationships between micro-systems. The exo-system is the third layer and refers to supporting environments where individuals are inactive participants. Exo-system factors that influence sport participation include formal settings and the physical characteristics of the sports environment, such as sports facilities, parks, recreation centres, sports clubs and community centres. The fourth and outermost layer of Bronfenbrenner's model is the macro-system, which represents an overarching consistency of the previously defined systems (micro-, meso- and exo-system) at the level of society as a whole. Bauman et al.’s (Bauman et al., 2012) model uses a multi-level comprehensive framework that categorises all the variables influencing physical activity into levels. Because of its ecological nature, the model encompasses the interactions between individuals and their social and physical environments. The fundamental premise is that a comprehensive understanding of the determinants of physical activity provides the opportunity to develop multi-level action plans that are significantly more likely to succeed. The model incorporates individual variables, such as biological and psychological factors, and allows for a broad examination of micro, meso, exo and macro variables. The combination and interaction of political, environmental, and global factors are considered to have a wide range of impacts on sporting activity, but they have only been tangentially examined so far. 

The research used a semi-structured interview methodology for data collection. The interview schedule included question blocks as follows: • Sociodemographic background • Sport-specific questions • Competitive activities • sport persistence concerning individual, micro-system (family, peers, coach), meso-system (family-school and family-teammates relationship), exo-system (sporting environment), macro-system (national culture and traditions) The data were collected through theoretical sampling. The sampling was guided by clarifying the categories identified through open, axial, and selective coding. The expert criteria defining the broader range of potential interviewees were as follows: (1) participation in sport (any individual or team sport, as appropriate) with some regularity (at least three times a week); (2) pursuit of secondary or tertiary education; (3) age between 14 and 25 years. The research involved Hungarian participants, living in the North Great Plain region. A total of 133 high school and university-level athletes were surveyed qualitatively using a semi-structured interview technique. The recruitment process entailed contacting sports clubs, students enrolled in sports schools, and university students engaged in athletic pursuits. The data were analysed using the Grounded Theory (GT) method, which is inductive and iterative. The Grounded Theory was employed to move beyond the confines of our existing knowledge on the subject and to develop theoretical justifications based on the data obtained from the interview analyses while progressing through the stages of abstraction. The semi-structured interview questions serve as the starting point for the inquiry, allowing for free-associative reflection to cultivate a discussion about matters the interviewees might deem necessary related to the subject matter(Camic et al., 2007; Rennie, 2000). Concurrently, deductive category analysis is employed to structure the analysis. A qualitative, category-driven text interpretation is employed, emphasising the potential for feedback and intersubjective testing. The content analysis was conducted using the ATLAS.ti software (22.2.5 Student version). In accordance with the constructivist approach to meaning- making espoused by GT, our analysis focuses on the 'what' and 'how' questions, with the aim of identifying the specific components that shape the sport persistence of young people engaged in sporting activities at the high school and university level. The GT techniques were employed to identify themes and patterns and create categories of factors involved in the formation of sports persistence.

Regarding the micro-system, family, peers, and coaches were mentioned as influential factors. Concerning the family, general, person-specific, family value-related, future-oriented, introjected, and disadvantage-compensating motivational components were identified. General, individual, community and relational factors were identified concerning peers. Concerning the coach, general, individual, community, and coach-personality-driven motivational segments were detected. In terms of support related to the specific person, family motivation and sporting history were prominent in the interviewees' responses. The subjects' commitment to sport is strongly influenced by family background and sporting history. In the case of the support related to family values, health maintenance could be distinguished, suggesting that the subjects' motivation to exercise is primarily to maintain health and good physical condition (K. Kovács et al., 2024). Many people exercise to avoid diseases that affect their relatives and to stay fit and healthy (Gao et al., 2024). There was also a dominance of factors supporting persistence among peers. A certain group of factors could be registered in this case as well, which represented a kind of general non-concretised motivation and support. In addition, three larger groups of motivational factors could be established: individual motivation, community motivation, relational motivation. A small number of interviewees said that the coach's role was irrelevant to them, as they play a type of sport or practice a level of sport that does not require a coach. There was a separate category of 'not influenced' type responses where the coach's role is not emphasised for individual or sport-specific reasons (as in the case of the 'not relevant' type responses). The types of support can be grouped into several categories. General support is presented as general support, as well as total support. For the former, respondents refer to a kind of general, generic support, while for the latter, they refer to all-round support.

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