This research study is to investigate if there is a prevalence of academic quantitative research studies within the sociocultural area of sport. Sociocultural of sport is defined by Harris (1989) in two levels, which were: "Suited Up Level": expressive meanings that sports have for people who encounter them, "Stripped Down Level": social structures within and beyond sport. Sociocultural of sport from her definition needs to encompass both levels when analyzing the cultural and social underpinnings of sport.

The research study looks to answer how much have sport sociologists used quantitative research methodology within their academic work within the sociocultural area of sport. From the University of Leicester (nd), quantitative research is of an importance due to the following reasons: more reliable and objective, can use statistics to generalize a finding, often reduces and restructures a complex problem to a limited number of variables, looks at the relationships between variables and can establish cause and effect in highly controlled circumstances, tests theories or hypothesis, assumes sample is representative of the population, subjectivity of researcher in methodology is recognized less, less detailed than qualitative data and may miss a desired response from the participant.

For this investigation, the method of research consisted of a content analysis of selected academic journals from 2008 to 2011; the Sociology of Sport Journal (SSJ), the European Journal for Sport (EJSS), and the International Review for the Sociology of Sport. These journals were selected as they are the most relevant and regarded within the sociocultural area of sport. Additionally, a content analysis was conducted on abstract submissions from the 2011 International Sociology of Sport Association (ISSA) Conference and the 8th European Association for Sociology of Sport Conference.

The content analysis for this research study was themed into the following categories: geographical location of researchers, area of research within the sociocultural area of sport, quantitative or qualitative research method, quantitative research method used (if the academic research used a quantitative research methodology), sample size.

A quantitative approach was conducted to look and analyze the descriptive statistics of the content analysis and to see the correlation and variance of the data collected within the research; correlation analysis, correlation matrix, t test of independent samples.

This research study is of importance to the academic field, as it shows if there is a prevalence or underrepresentation of the usage of quantitative research methodology within the sociocultural area of sport. It is of importance, as the method of quantitative research has advantages and can address the limitations of qualitative researches done within this field.