Sports Effects on Child Development

Sports are incredibly popular around the world, and society can see and hear about sports in a variety of ways, such as in the media, radio stations, the Internet and news. Sports provide entertainment and a social networking for people, and most people in the society has some type of connection to sports. Throughout my life, sports have helped me make more friends and received a scholarship to play golf at a university. Receiving a scholarship to play a sport at a university has definitely enhanced my life by reducing a financial stress, and I have gained a lot of confidence in myself.

Playing sports while growing up is beneficial in both mental and physical health in every person’s life. Every child should at least participate in one sport while growing up, because playing sports makes people more social, more positive and can help children gain more opportunities in the future.

Being on a sports team helps children learn to have a good relationship with teammates and also helps children to learn how to collaborate with teammates.

“The Effects of Motivational Climate on Youth Sport Participants” by Alison Prichard and Joe Deutsch is about how to make the youth sports participants stay on the team and continue to play sports. The author has two main goals in this article: to get the community to know why young sports participants quit the sport when they were young and what the community should do to address them. I agree with this article because the children should play sports to develop the skills to cooperate with people.

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Prichard and Deutsch state, “Youth sports can facilitate appropriate psychosocial development as children learn important life skills such as teamwork, discipline, leadership, sportsmanship, and self-control.” Participating in sports helps children become more social. The children will learn to interact with other teammates. In addition, this is beneficial because being more social can help children build new and stronger friendships and also become more successful. For example, some of my strongest friendships are the friends that I made while playing golf, traveling in tournaments and practicing two or three time a week until late in the night. Playing golf forced me to be friends with people that I never I thought that I would be a friend with. Children should have the same opportunities to have teammates who will become some of their best friends and help them to become more communicative.

Having people around me helps me to be more positive throughout my life, because when I am around people I feel less lonely. “Physical Activity, Sport Participation, and Suicidal Behavior: U.S. High School Students” by David R. Brown et al. is about the research on why the people who participate in sports are less likely to commit suicide than the people who don’t participate in any sport. I agree with this article because playing sports around people can give children community where people support them. The authors state, “Regular vigorous-intensity physical activity for girls, frequent vigorous-intensity physical activity for boys, and sports team participation among boys and girls contribute independently to lowered odds of suicide ideation and/or attempts.” While the author found out there are multiple factors to lower the suicide rate, I believe being around people on the team is the main reason for the lower suicide rate. One of the main reasons for children to commit the suicide is because they often feel lonely and lack of support; playing sports makes the children feel less lonely and feel supported. Throughout my sport career, I have gotten so much support from my family, friends, coaches and teammates. I remember seeing them come to my tournaments and cheer for me no matter if I got first or last place. Having all the encouragement helped me become less lonely and more positive about myself.

Playing sports gives children more opportunity while growing up in every aspect. “Sport Participation and U.S. Sport Culture Influences among College-age International students” by Issadee Kutintara and Sungick Min is about the research on why a lot of the international students choose to come to the U.S. to play sports. I agree with this article because I have been given a lot of opportunities after I came and participated in sports in the U.S. I received a scholarship to play golf at USM, and I have gotten outstanding coaching to help me become a professional golfer someday. The authors state in the article, “Most participants noticed the differences between U.S. sport culture and sports in their country regarding college sports. They indicated that college sports in the U.S. were more professional, attractive, more equipment and facility and more money support.” A lot of schools pay students to come play for their team, so if the children perform better in sports they will most likely receive a scholarship to play in college. Playing sports also gives people more job opportunities, because players tend to be more persistent and learn skills that would be beneficial in the workplace.

Some parents think that they should not put their children in sports, because their children can get injuries from playing sports. According to Mary Brophy Marcus, “Some parents won’t let their kids play sports due to concussion risks.” However, the children should still participate in sports because injuries can happen anywhere not just when they are participating in sports. Another reason why children do not participate in sports is because they want to focus on their academics. However, children should balance both sports and academics, because managing two things is an important life skill. They should have experience in playing sports, because sports help the children grow into more well rounded individuals.

In conclusion, children should play sports while growing up because it makes them more social through interaction with teammates, makes children have more positive outlook on life, and helps children to gain more opportunities by learning some skills through playing sports that can be used in the future. Gaining the social skills can help the society because by gaining the social skills, people will socialize more and get more involved with different types of people. Also if people are more qualified for jobs or other opportunities, it can help the society become better. I think that sports make me who I am today. I believe if all the children play sports, it’ll help the societies become better.

Work cited

1. “Physical Activity, Sport Participation, and Suicidal… : Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.” LWW, journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Fulltext/2007/12000/Physical_Activity,_Sport_Participation,_and.20.aspx.
2. Prichard, Alison, and Joe Deutsch. “The Efffects of Motivational Climate on Youth Sport Participants.” EBSCOhost, web.b.ebscohost.com.lynx.lib.usm.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=6&sid=06bf4738-64fa-49e2-97de-4e1cc29e5a4a%40sessionmgr103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=111081523.
3. Kutintara, Issadee, and Sungick Min. “Sport Participation and U.S. Sport Culture Influences among College-Age International Students.” EBSCOhost, 1 June 2016, web.b.ebscohost.com.lynx.lib.usm.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=14&sid=06bf4738-64fa-49e2-97de-4e1cc29e5a4a%40sessionmgr103.
4. Marcus, Mary Brophy. “How many parents hold their kids back from sports due to concussion risk?” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 12 Apr. 2017, www.cbsnews.com/news/sports-concussions-how-many-parents-hold-kids-back-due-to-risk/.