Good Sports Positive Effects Of Sport On

Good Sports: Positive Effects Of Sport On Youth Essay, Research Paper

INTRODUCTION

Sports provide many opportunities for our youth today. In fact the British used

sports in educational institutions to develop socialization, social control, and character

on their youth (Sage 1986). Sports also provides an obvious form of entertainment in

many societies as well. Many role models, heroes, and idols can originate from sports.

It also provides a mean of recreation for youth to participate in and spend some free

time on something constructive. This study agrees that sport does apply a lot of

benefits for our youth, but what does it do for youths that are in a higher risk

environment.

Children brought up with factors that increase their chances of involvement with

lifestyle compromising activities, for the purposes of this study, will be referred to as

“at-risk youth”. Lifestyle compromising activities can also be seen as a type of

delinquent behavior. These kinds of behaviors are not kinds that are ideal for a youth to

grow up with into adulthood. Some of the delinquent behavior performed by at-risk

youth include criminal activities such as the use of drugs and alcohol. Other behaviors

like violence, truancy, and depression can also be originated by delinquent behavior

(The Bureau for At-Risk Youth 1996).

What can be done to prevent at-risk youth to participate in lifestyle

compromising activities. Many studies have recommended many different kinds of

solutions. This study will discuss, although it is not the answer, how sport positively

effects the behaviors of an at-risk youth.

METHOD

One of the first tasks that the writer had to accomplish was to learn how to write

a research paper. This feat was attempted by reading articles and notes that were

provided in the note package from the Physical Activity and Sport Studies course,

taught by Thomas Patrick. Secondly, the writer also had to learn how to obtain

analytical research information that is provided by The University of Winnipeg. For

example, there are many journals that have subject matter on the effects that sport

have on youth in general, but not many journals that have articles about the effects that

sport have on at-risk youth. The difficulty of this task was to use the proper search

techniques that could determine the difference between the two topics. The search for

the different articles were found by using the University of Winnipeg Library databases

which could be accessed via the Internet. The University offers a large selection of

journals and books that can be found through the databases.

After selecting the Sport Discus index from the database, a search was started

to find articles pertaining to relevant subject matter. This search had to be done by

using a “keyword search” in the WebSPIRS search engine that The University of

Winnipeg provides for its students. The search provided results of which journals had a

relationship with the keyword. Some keywords that were used to find articles of the

subject matter were: delinquency, youth, crime, at-risk youth, developmental theory,

and youth violence. These keywords offered an abundant amount of literature that was

relevant to this study. Some of the journals and books could be found on the shelves of

The University of Winnipeg library, while other journals were found on microfilm. Other

articles were available via email.

The articles found were based on surveys done at elementary, middle, and/or

high schools. Most of the subjects used in these studies were male and female youths

ranging in age from 10-17 years old. All of them attended an educational institution.

RESULTS

Various studies pertaining to this subject matter stated that sport could effect

youth or at-risk youth in different kinds of ways. One way, is that sports could assist in

social development by providing model relationships in sport that the youth could

transfer to real life, as discussed later in this study. Sports also offer a healthier lifestyle

because it includes physical activity, and also that there is a relationship with physical

fitness and positive behaviors that are needed in order to support a health enhancing

lifestyle.

DISCUSSION

The age that is usually regarded when referring to at-risk youth is the same age

of the adolescent stage of our life. This stage in life is regarded as the high-risk stage

of our life. High-risk because it is the stage of our life when we develop more of a

health enhancing or compromising lifestyle (Collingwood, 1997).

The collection of articles used in this study agreed that sport, in general, have

many positive effects on youth. One agreement was that sport promotes a healthy

lifestyle. Since sports involve physical activity and physical activity is a part of living a

healthy lifestyle, it is hard to argue that it does not. In a study offered by Pal

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