Establishing social cohesiveness through participatory Community Sports

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to strengthen understanding of the potentiality that participation in community sports has in bringing about peace in communities. Studies have shown that where levels of peace and stability are low, multiple social, cultural, moral, political and religious problems are rampant. A structured closed-ended questionnaire was used in collecting data from a sample of 40 respondents for this study. The data collected was analyzed using Pearson correlation co-efficient statistical analysis. The findings showed that there is a positive relationship between participating in sporting activities and social cohesiveness (r=0.53, N =40, P= 0.02). The findings established insignificant p-values (0.25, 0.18, 0.50, 0.08) at 0.05 level of significant for social mixing, culturally disconnected from sports , organizational beliefs, values and set standards) as barriers to participation in community sports. Based on the findings of strong link between participating in sporting activities and social cohesiveness, participation in community sports should be intensified. Participation in community sports as a potential tool should be used in bringing about peace in those countries facing internal conflicts and fights both in Africa, and worldwide.