Re-Assessing the Relationship between High School Sports Participation and Deviance: Evidence of Enduring, Bifurcated Effects

Does Sport Participation Protect Adolescents from Alcohol Consumption? A Scoping Review

(1) Background: Participation in youth sports is believed to protect against alcohol consumption. Although this concept has been questioned for over 40 years, the review of methodologically reliable evidence data is scarce. This review summarizes the state of knowledge on the association between practicing sports and alcohol consumption among adolescents (10-19 years old) and its moderators. (2) Methods: The review covers only random-sample-based and population research. A systematic search was conducted on Scopus, PubMed, and WoS, for articles published between 2000 and 2021. From the 1944 identified records, 139 advanced to the full-text review, and 32 to the final data extraction and quality review. (3) Results: About two-thirds of the studies, including all the longitudinal ones, showed a positive association between sport participation and alcohol consumption. The most common mediators were gender (males were at higher risk), discipline (odds for team sports were higher, but professionalization could reduce it), and race, which intersected with gender, putting white males at the highest risk. (4) Conclusions: Further longitudinal research based on random samples using standardized indicators, including psychological and social variables, may provide more consistent outcomes and allow for the identification of mediating mechanisms.

Exploring the design of a sport for employability program: A case study

Rates of young people who are neither in employment, education, or training (NEET) are fairly high in the European Union. Correspondingly, there has been a growing tendency to regard sport as a suitable tool to develop soft skills and raise NEETs' level of employability. However, if and how such sport for employability (SfE) programs are able to realize these major claims has been called into question. The purpose of the present study was, therefore, to explore how an actual SfE initiative constructs and delivers its program. In addition, the article assessed whether the investigated program operates in line with researchers' recent calls for theory-based approaches. Guided by a case study approach set up within an initiative located in Flanders, data were gathered through 12 semi-structured interviews with 8 program providers. Results, analyzed using thematic analysis, indicated that the program was characterized by an absence of well-defined desired outcomes, imprecision as to how the program should contribute to these outcomes, and consequently minimal attention to the follow-up of participants' progress. As such, these findings and the accompanying challenges point to the absence of a theory-based approach. Several possible sources for the lack of a systematic approach are discussed.

Team Sports and Sexual Violence: Examining Perpetration by and Victimization of Adolescent Males and Females

The authors examined whether team athletic involvement is related to sexual violence victimization and perpetration among male and female high school students. A secondary data analysis was conducted with Minnesota Student Survey data gathered from 122,501 Minnesota eighth-grade, ninth-grade, and 11th grade students. Multivariable logistic regression indicates that sport-involved youth are more likely to be involved in sexual violence than peers not involved in sports. For example, highly sport-involved males are significantly more likely to coerce a partner into sex (odds ratio [OR] = 1.35, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.01, 1.67]) and be coerced (OR = 1.19, 95% CI = [1.02, 1.38]) than nonsport peers. The results suggest high school sport programs could be an important site to implement comprehensive sexual violence prevention programs targeted at individual actions as well as harmful cultural norms and systematic inequities.

Assessing the Association between Participation in Extracurricular Activities and Delinquent Behavior among Justice-Involved Young Men

Extracurricular activities (ECAs) have been found to promote positive youth development and protect against misconduct and minor delinquency. However, little research has examined whether ECA participation predicts delinquency among at-risk young men or considered how delinquent behavior, in turn, impacts ECA participation. This study examined extracurricular participation over three years in a sample of 1,216 justice-involved young men (M_age  = 15.29). Approximately half of the sample participated in ECA each year. A cross-lagged panel model was used to examine the bidirectional association between ECA participation and two types of delinquency, school misconduct and criminal offending. The results suggest that ECA participation did not consistently predict subsequent delinquency. Rather, justice-involved young men who engaged in more delinquency were less likely to participate in ECAs.

How Does High School Extracurricular Participation Predict Bachelor's Degree Attainment? It is Complicated

This study answered novel questions about the connection between high school extracurricular dosage (number of activities and participation duration) and the attainment of a bachelor's degree. Using data from the Common Application and the National Student Clearinghouse (N = 311,308), we found that greater extracurricular participation positively predicted bachelor's degree attainment. However, among students who ultimately earned a bachelor's degree, participating in more than a moderate number of high school activities (3 or 4) predicted decreasing odds of earning a bachelor's degree on time (within 4 years). This effect intensified as participation duration increased, such that students who participated in the greatest number of high school activities for the most years were the most likely to delay college graduation.

Organized Sports for Children, Preadolescents, and Adolescents

Interest and participation in organized sports for children, preadolescents, and adolescents continue to grow. Because of increased participation, and younger entry age, in organized sports, appropriate practice, game schedules, and content become more important, taking into account athlete developmental stage and skills. Parental support for organized sports in general, with focus on development and fun instead of winning, has emerged as a key factor in the athlete's enjoyment of sports. Schools and community sports organizations who support multiple levels of sport (eg, recreational, competitive, elite) can include more youth who want to play sports and combat sport dropout. This report reviews the benefits and risks of organized sports as well as the roles of schools, community organizations, parents, and coaches in organized sports. It is designed to complement the American Academy of Pediatrics clinical reports "Physical Activity Assessment and Counseling in Pediatric Clinical Settings" and "Sports Specialization and Intensive Training in Young Athletes" by reviewing relevant literature on healthy organized sports for youth and providing guidance on organized sport readiness and entry. The report also provides guidance for pediatricians on counseling parents and advocating for healthy organized sports participation.

Transcendent motivations and virtue development in adolescent marathon runners

OBJECTIVE

To understand how health, prosocial, and spiritual motivations correspond to changes in the virtues of self-control, patience, and interpersonal generosity among adolescents and emerging adults.

METHOD

Participants included adolescent and emerging adult athletes (N = 396; 12-22 years, M = 18.42, SD = 2.03) on marathon training teams fundraising for a faith-based charity. Participants completed self-report questionnaires four times over six months. Participants were 63% female and identified as 61% Caucasian, 17% Latino/a, 10% African American, 6% Asian American, and 6% other.

RESULTS

Bivariate latent growth curve models showed positive relations between baseline levels of transcendent motivations (spiritual, prosocial) and all three virtues (self-control, patience, interpersonal generosity) as well as baseline health motivation and self-control. Linear slopes in all three motivations were positively correlated with change in patience, and greater decreases in these motivations from wave 1 to wave 2 before recovering motivation in subsequent waves correlated with less change in patience. Only the linear slope in prosocial motivation positively correlated with change in generosity. None of the motivation slopes correlated with change in self-control.

CONCLUSIONS

More than just sport participation is required to cultivate virtue in adolescents; instead, transcendent and non-transcendent motivations are concurrently developing for athletes who increase in prosocial virtues.

Differential impacts of participation in organized activities and maltreatment types on adolescent academic and socioemotional development

Participation in organized activities has been largely regarded as beneficial for academic and socioemotional development for adolescents, but the impacts of various types of organized activities for adolescents at risk for maltreatment have been rarely tested. In this study, we investigated the differential impacts of five types of maltreatment exposure (physical maltreatment, sexual maltreatment, neglect, other type, and multiple types) on the associations between four types of organized activities (mentored groups, art and music clubs, sport clubs, and academic clubs) and academic and socioemotional development (school engagement, delinquency, depressive symptoms, and trauma symptoms) of adolescents who were investigated by Child Protective Services (CPS) for maltreatment exposure. Data came from a national, longitudinal sample of 790 adolescents in contact with CPS in the U.S. After controlling for demographic characteristics of participants and prior levels of each outcome, multiple linear regression models were fitted to the data with interactions between the organized activities and the maltreatment types. The main findings of this study included: 1) adolescents who participated in mentored groups, sport clubs, and academic clubs reported higher levels of school engagement; 2) adolescents who participated in academic clubs reported fewer depressive symptoms; 3) adolescents who participated in art and music clubs reported more trauma symptoms compared to non-participants; and 4) the effects of participation in mentored groups on delinquency and trauma symptoms differed by maltreatment type. These results indicate both possible benefits and risks of organized activity participation for adolescents with certain maltreatment exposures.

A Quarter Century of Participation in School-Based Extracurricular Activities: Inequalities by Race, Class, Gender and Age?

Extracurricular activity participation is linked to positive development, but it is also a setting for inequality. Using a quarter century of data from Monitoring the Future (N = 593,979; 51% female; 65% non-Hispanic white; 13% non-Hispanic black; 12% Hispanic; 4% non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander; 7% other race), this article documents patterns and trends in school-based extracurricular participation by race, social class, gender, and age, and their links to academic and substance use outcomes. Findings reveal differences by race and confirm a division by social class that has worsened over time. Further, girls are gaining on boys and surpass them in some types of school-based activities. Participation is linked to better academic outcomes and less substance use, affirming the importance of redressing the inequalities revealed.

Pick your Poison: Examining Adolescent Substance Use Through Opportunity Theory

The present study examines substance use behaviors of middle and high school students, focusing on how varying influences of opportunity measures impact use of specific types of substances. The data used in the present study come from almost 4,000 students within 89 school contexts from students attending public school in a Southern state. HLM is used to explore the influence of various opportunities at both the student and school-level on the use of different types of substances. Results indicate measures of opportunity at both the student and school-level were significant; however, measures at the individual level were consistently more influential.

Sports at Work

Do former high school athletes make better employees than nonathletes? Two studies examine how participation in competitive youth sports appears to be relevant for early-career job prospects as well as late-in-life outcomes. In the short run, Study 1 shows that people expect former student-athletes to display significantly more leadership, self-confidence, and self-respect than those who were active outside of sports—such as being in the band or on the yearbook staff. In the long run, Study 2 uses biodata to discover that men who participated in varsity-level high school sports an average of 60 years earlier appeared to demonstrate higher levels of leadership and enjoyed higher-status careers. Surprisingly, these ex-athletes also exhibited more prosocial behavior than nonathletes—they more frequently volunteered time and donated to charity. These findings open a wide range of possibilities regarding how one’s participation in competitive youth sports might influence the development of important skills and values beyond simply signaling the specific traits examined here. Moreover, this contributes to theoretical debates about the traits of students involved in competitive athletics, and it highlights the need for closer attention to the relevance of sports in the workplace and beyond—including late-in-life charitable giving and voluntarism.

A case-control study of risk and protective factors for incarceration among urban youth

PURPOSE

Each day in the United States, approximately 100,000 youth are under correctional supervision. The purpose of this study is to examine the early risk and protective factors for incarceration using a high-risk sample of urban youth.

METHODS

Data were obtained from 2,165 (54 who were incarcerated) youth who participated in Project Northland Chicago. Participants were matched exactly on gender, race/ethnicity, and aggressive behavior in sixth grade. Bivariate and multivariate conditional logistic regression analyses were used to examine the risk and protective factors present at sixth grade that increased the odds of incarceration at 12th grade.

RESULTS

The early risk factors for incarceration were age (odds ratio [OR] = 2.51; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.71-3.69), having been sent to detention (1-3 times: OR = 2.24; 95% CI 1.15-4.37; 4+ times: OR = 3.49; 95% CI 1.40-8.72), and the number of hours spent participating in a sport (OR = 1.11; 95% CI 1.03-1.20). Substance use was not significantly related to incarceration after adjusting for other behavioral and contextual risk factors.

CONCLUSIONS

General problem behaviors (nonaggressive) strongly predict incarceration among at-risk youth. Implications for prevention programs are discussed.