Sports Participation and Academic Success

Sports amour and pedantic winner Kurtis Arnold Grand V completelyey State University As an more and more relevant part of society, sports seem to find a way into legion(predicate) parts of our everyday lives from the global stage to our own individual experiences and feelings towards them. not however argon sports and athletic competition utilise for the purpose of entertaining, further the core values of athletic competition are reflected excessively in the mainstream cultural values in society (Snyder & Spreitzer, 1974).Some of these values include tenor for excellence, fair turning, sportsmanship, hard work, and commitment to a goal, and all are applauded in virtually every subject in society outside of sports. or so other interesting point to be made approximately athletics in society is that those who seem to excel in an area of athletics, and come in competitively in sports, seem to be held to soaring billet than those who are not viewed to be athletic.This trend ignore occur as early as middle school (Eder & Kinney, 1995), and often continues through high school (Zentner & Parr, 1968), college (Finkenberg & Moode, 1996), and withal beyond college in pro sports as legion(predicate) dream of matchless day becoming a professional athlete (Stiles, Gibbons, Sebben, & Wiley, 1999). Much has been create verbally roughly the kindred of sports and society in a broader sense, alone little(a) has been discovered through about the role of athletics as it relates to faculty member outcomes for adolescents.Even less is known about the specific benefits of athletic intricacy that whitethorn exist for confused students of different racial backgrounds. What is currently assumed in the literary productions is that booking in sports benefit adolescents pedantically in a amount of grand ways. First, it seems that sports intricacy enhances students feeling of connectedness to ones school. Secondly, sports friendship seems to promote its own intrinsic value on students.That is, students who are fit to find structured activities within school settings that capture their care give be more believably to assimilate to the philosophy of development (Jordan, 1999) mesh in sports whitethorn excessively foster an extrinsic pauperization for students to do well in their donnish studies so that they whitethorn enlistment eligible to participate in athletics. Although the literature illustrates both(prenominal) of the earths confederacy in sports may facilitate high(prenominal) schoolman achievement, the question still system.Does sports appointment in concomitant rich person a imperative effect on faculty members? This may be an easy enough question to ask, scarcely the difficulties in answering this question seem to be extensive. Many past studies check sought to answer this question by conducting regression analyses of cross-sectional info sets collected from students throughout the country in value to determine if sports friendship is correlated with high schoolman outcomes.It seems from a review of the literature that no one has been fitted to conduct an experimental turn over which tests the effectuate of sports participation verses non-participation on some form of academic outcome. The difficulty in conducting a truly experimental contemplate of the relationship of sports participation with academic outcomes comes from a tote up of different problems that come with the design of such a study. unmatched such difficulty is the voluntary nature of sports participation.Sports participation occurs on a voluntary basis in which student athletes choose whether or not to participate in sports. Because of this, it becomes difficult to design a study in absence of self-selection biases among participants (Jordan, 1999). another(prenominal) difficulty in designing an experiment exam sports participations effects on academic outcomes is the vast number of participants that would be ask to participate in the experiment. The benefit of using data from national longitudinal surveys is the vast amount of data that can be obtained in a relatively simple and inexpensive fashion.Also, in the epitome of this data, researchers are able to statistically control for a number of variables such as socioeconomic status, risk eventors, and maternal(p) education level that may contaminate the effects of sports participation on academic outcomes. In contrast, an experimental study would require to offset these variables through random selection, and random assignment to conditions. Both of these processes adopt a large population in enjoin to truly preclude these confounding variables. It is for these reasons, among others, that research n the topic of sports participation and academic outcomes detains in its early stages of development, and tend to rely heavily on the analytic thinking of data. Although the research on the relationship surrounded by a thletics and academic outcomes remain in its early stages, current research has made authoritative contributions to our perceptiveness of how participation in sports may have an impact on academic outcomes. bingle such interesting finding from the research is that in general, an super few number of students participate in organized sports (Jordan, 1999).According to the National educational longitudinal Study conducted in 1988 (NELS 88) only about 21% of students participated in ag bases sports, and 15% of students were involve in individual sports when students who participated in twain team and individual sports were included. This finding suggests that whatever impact sports participation may have on students academic outcomes, very few students have the opportunity to ingest these benefits. Jordan (1999) also found that participation in sports did have a positive relationship with students GPA, self-concept, academic preparedness, and standardized test scores.Although the relationship between sports participation and the academic improvement in these areas may be small, the relationships remain both positive and consistent for students across gender, and racial lines. It is also noted that these types of improvements may not be limited only to sports participation, but may also be expanded to other school related extracurricular activities as well (Jordan, 1999). Another study, also analyzing data from the NELS 88 surveys, found similar effects of sports participation on academic outcomes.According to Broh (2002) student participation in athletics does help to facilitate conquest in the classroom. This facilitation of increased triumph may be for a number of reasons, and Broh strives to apologise the findings in this study according to three different supposititious models. The front, and roughly popular of these theoretical models is the developmental model. For a number of years it has been the belief of researchers, educators, and the pub lic that involvement in athletics helps to complaisantize students in ways that promote academic success.While participating in athletics, students learn important skills such as a strong work ethic, self-discipline, respect for authority, and perseverance which can all be used for academic success as well (Miracle & Rees, 1995). Also, repeated success in athletics through the learning of a new skill, and also in winning a competition helps students to develop a higher level of self-esteem, and confidence which can be carried over into academics. In Brohs (2002) study, the developmental model accounted for one third of sports participations effects on academic outcome.Sports participation does in fact seem to help to improve students self-esteem, locus of control, and time spent on homework. It is assumed that these habits eventually translate into discover academic outcomes. Another model used by Broh (2002) to explain wherefore sports participation may be linked to academic out come is the leading-crowd theory. For many years the developmental theory dominated popular beliefs of the relationship between sports participation and academic outcomes.So very ofttimes in fact that little attempt was given to make an alternating(a) argument for it. Recently however, the leading-crowd theory has offered some challenge to the developmental theory. According to the leading-crowd theory, participation in sports offers a higher social status to those who participate and facilitates a membership into the leading-crowd. Consisting of the most popular students in high school, this leading-crowd is disproportionately comprised of college oriented, high achieving students (Rehberg & Schafer, 1968).Although the argument may be indirect, at that place is some evidence that suggests that high school athletes are among the students with the highest status in high schools (Zentner & Parr, 1968), and they also seem to be part of a college oriented accomplice group (Wells & Picou, 1980). In Brohs (2002) study, only a small effect was found between macrocosm in a high status, college oriented peer group and higher academic outcomes. This may be the baptistry because students do not gain as much from being a part of a high status, college oriented group of peers as they do from the social connections made by participation in sports.The third model used by Broh (2002) was the social capital theory. The social capital theory is the idea that people have the ability to come benefits through membership in various social networks. According to Coleman (1988), the family is the sterling(prenominal) source of social capital for students. Students whose parents are well educated, and spend a significant amount of time interacting with their children, often tend to have higher educational outcomes than those who do not. Sports may also serve as a way for students to have greater amounts of interaction with highly educated adults.Because high school sports a re often coached by administrators, teachers, or highly see members of the community, an increased amount of interaction with these authority figures may in fact help to encourage athletes to not only be successful on the field, but also in the classroom (Portes, 2000). In Brohs (2002) study, on that point was some evidence that a social capital exchange may be taking place among students and the adults they interact with in their athletic activities.It seems from this study that social capital had an effect on students grades, but did not have an effect on standardized test scores. What is important to note is that when each of the theoretical models were analyzed individually in Brohs (2002) study, the results indicated only small, if any, effects on academic outcomes. The best results of analysis occurred when all three models (developmental theory, leading-crowd theory, and social capital theory) were analyzed together.Even when all three models were analyzed, in that locatio n is still a great deal of variance left undetermined when it comes to the effects of sports participation on academic outcomes. This has been consistent with much of the literature involved with sports participation and academic outcomes (Broh, 2002). Other research in the area of sports participation focuses on the types of people who participate in sports. As previously described, research in the area of sports participation has mostly come from cross-sectional data analysis.This has made it difficult to determine a causal order between sports participation and academic outcomes. Although sports participation may in fact be the reason for higher academic outcomes, it could also be the case that higher achieving, disciplined, determined, and goal oriented youth are the ones choosing to participate in sports (Spreitzer, 1994). It is for this reason that some researchers have sought to discover more about the types of people who participate in sports.According to a study conducted by Videon (2002) participation is athletic activities may be associated with a students socioeconomic status, siblings, family structure, year in school, attendance at a private school, sizing of school, region of the country, and whether or not the school was located in an urban area. After analyzing data collected from the National Longitudinal Study of youthful Health (ADD Health), it was discovered that a number of the variables previously mentioned could be used to predict whether or not a student would participate in athletics.Variables contributing to the influencing of students towards sports participation may be referred to as socialization into sport. One of the major factors contributing to the socialization into sport has been found to be parental influence. Often times, a childs parent, or parents are the first to expose their child to athletics and their encouragement to participate potently influences a students decision to start playing sports, and continue to pla y them throughout their schooling (Videon, 2002). Another key factor in predicting which students will play sports and continue to play them is a students socioeconomic background.It is a known fact that participating in sports often comes with its put downs. Although some schools may offer the use of equipment for some of the sports offered, often times this does not include all of the equipment needed to play the sport. At a minimum, most parents will have to purchase cleats, special gloves, bats, and numerous other types of equipment in order for their child to play any given sport. Along with the expense of equipment, most schools have a pay to play policy for sports in order to subsidize their lacking in the sports budget.It is for these reasons that those students who participate in sports also tend to come from a higher socioeconomic background (Videon, 2002). Another import thing to note from research is that sports participation tends to be much lower for girls than it is boys, especially among African American students (Videon 2002, Jordan 1999, Zentner & Parr 1968). Although the passing of title IX has encouraged more female participation in sports, over thirty years later the number of girls participating in sports is still out-of-the-way(prenominal) less than the number of boys.This especially true in suberban, and rural areas where the number of girls participating in sports is only about three for every five. These verse are compared to those of urban schools where the number of girls participating is three for every intravenous feeding (Videon, 2002). It may be the case that because of lower participation rates among girls that less benefits of athletic participation are being experianced by girls. This may or may not be the case. Some research suggests that the effects of sports participation among boys on academic outcomes may be stronger for boys than it is for girls (Snyder & Spreitzer 1974, Videon 2002).There are a number of explanati ons for boys benefitting more from athletic participation. One such explanation is that by being involved in a sport, boys will be less likely to skip class in order to avoid not being allowed to play. Also, boys are more likely to respond to the high expectations of coaches in order to stay eligible to play (Videon, 2002). These relationships may not be cover up as strongly for girls, because on average girls have higher academic outcomes than boys, and skip class less often regardless of whether or not they participate in sports (Jacobs, 2009).Although from the research conducted by Videon (2002) indicates that some of the reason for athletes having higher academic outcomes may be contributed to other factors (students socioeconomic status, siblings, family structure, size of school, region of the country, and whether or not the school was located in an urban area), the net result of the analysis still showed that some of the varience can be explained by the sports participation itself.In this study (Videon, 2002), in Brohs study (2002), and in Jordan (1999), none were able to show that sports participation could explain more than about nine percent of the variance for any type of academic outcome. In all three, however, the results seemed to be consistant and positive. In spite of the small amounts of varience explained, it still seems that sports participation could be a contributing factor for positive academic outcomes.What is important to remember when making a judgment on the variance explained by sports participation on academic outcomes is that there are innumerable variables that may contribute to a students academic outcome. It is difficult to narrow-minded down an explanation for academic outcomes to only a few variables that explain a great deal of the variance. So, when we see that sports participation can only explain about three to five percent of the variance for various factors contributing to academic outcomes this is in fact a considerabl e amount.Although the findings of these studies were able to find significant positive effects of sports participation on academic outcomes, these findings do not seem to be representative of the publics perception. It has long been the belief of the public that sports participation has strong influences on academic outcomes. Various studies have investigated public perceptions of sports participation and its relationship to academics and found that it is strongly believed by the public that athletics and academics are strongly related (Goidel & Hamilton, 2006 Fairweather, 1988 Finkenberg & Moode, 1996).Regardless of these beliefs, there has yet to be a study that shows a strong relationship between athletics and academic outcomes that is representative of the publics perceptions. It is unexplored as to why the public so strongly believes in this relationship, but the fact still stiff that the effect of athletics on academics remains too small to make an argument for encouraging s tudents to participate in sports in order to achieve higher academic outcomes.Instead, encouragement for students to participate in sports should be done on the basis of improving students health and wellness, and should not be used as an alternative to proven methods for improving academic outcomes among students. Works Cited Broh, B. A. (2002). Linking Extracurricular Programming to Academic Achievement Who Benefits and Why. Sociology of Education, 69-95. Eder, D. , & Kinney, D. A. (1995). The effect of middle school extracurricular activities on adolescents popularity and peer status.Youth and Society, 298-324. Fairweather, J. S. (1988). Reputational Quality of Academic Programs The Institutional Halo. Research in Higher Education, 345-355. Finkenberg, M. E. , Moode, F. M. (1996). 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