Youth and Sports

Youth and Sports

Since the 1990’s over 48 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 participate in sports in the United States, and that number is continuously growing (Danish, Forneris, & Wallace, 2005).   Because youth sports are so popular, it is only natural that issues on the effects they have on adolescents be a relevant topic of discussion and study.   There are many reasons that parents place their kids in sports.   The first main one is, because many households have both parents working full time jobs, they need a place where they know their child is being active and supervised, because they do not want their child home alone for 3 hours when they get home from school.   They also fear what would happen if their child did not have an organized and supervised activity to occupy their time instead of other activities ranging from doing absolutely nothing to more deviant behaviors.   Society tells them that knowing where their child is at all times is a characteristic of a good parent (Coakley, 2009).   Second, because the parents already have limited amounts of time to spend with their children, youth sports gives them a reason to spend time with their children.   Going to games with the entire family can be a much needed venue to put in the time with not only the child who plays the sport, but also siblings who do not, but still need that time with their parents (Wiersma & Fifer, 2008).   It also does not hurt that professional sports have become increasingly popular, mounting people’s awareness of organized sports and getting children excited about sports so that they will want to become involved in them (Coakley, 2009).  
Many articles written about youth sports tend to highlight the positive aspects and gloss over the negative.   But, if not watched and controlled closely, youth sports can be detrimental to the development of children (Coakley, 2009).   It is important to understand both the positive and the negative aspects linked to youth sports.   This will allow...