Sports Participation In Children Research Articles

Common Skeletal Injuries in Young Athletes

The increasing frequency of injury in young athletes over the last 2 decades reflects the increases in sports participation of children of a young age. Physical injury is an inherent risk in sports participation at any age. In general, the factors causing sports injuries can be grouped in 2 separate broad categories: extrinsic and intrinsic factors. However, the great majority of injuries which are sustained are minor and self-limiting, suggesting that children and youth sports are safe. However, a increasing number of children undergo treatment because of the effects that injuries may have on their developing bodies. A child's skeletal system shows pronounced adaptive changes to intensive sports training. Sports injuries affect both growing bone and soft tissues, and could result in damage of the growth mechanisms with subsequent life-lasting damage. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to injuries, at least partially due to an imbalance in strength and flexibility. During growth there are significant changes in the biomechanical properties of bone. In young athletes, as bone stiffness increases and resistance to impact diminishes, sudden overload may cause bones to bow or buckle. Epiphyseal injuries occur at the epiphyseal growth plates. They are usually due to shearing and avulsion forces, although compression also plays a significant role. Given the remarkable healing potential of bone in youngsters, fractures that initially united with some deformity can completely remodel and appear totally normal in later life. As the risk of injuries sustained by young athletes can be significant, it is essential that training programmes take into account their physical and psychological immaturity, so that the growing athlete can adjust to their own body changes.

Risks of Sports Participation in Children: The Peoria Experience

Risks of Sports Participation in Children: The Peoria Experience

The Relationship between Physical Competence and Peer Acceptance in tie Context of Children's Sports Participation

Youth sport literature contends that the development of self-esteem is influenced by social interactions in the physical domain. However, little research has investigated the role of the peer group in developing perceptions of physical competence and social acceptance. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship, between competence in physical skills and interpersonal competence with peers in a sport setting. Children (N=126) completed measures assessing perceptions of physical competence and peer acceptance» perceptions of success for athletic performance and interpersonal skills, causal attributions for physical performance and interpersonal success» and expectations for future success in these two areas. Teachers' ratings of children's actual physical ability and social skills with peers were also obtained. Canonical correlation analyses indicated a strong relationship (rc = .75) between indices of physical competence and peer acceptance. Children who scored high in actual and perceived physical competence and who made stable and personally controllable attributions for sport performance also scored high in actual and perceived peer acceptance and made stable attributions for successful peer interactions.

Exercise and Sports for Children with Specific Chronic Illnesses

Participation in sports activities as a team member has become an important developmental childhood task. This article provides specific guidelines for sports participation of children with convulsive disorders, asthma and allergies and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

Organizational Analysis of Youth Sports

Children's sport participation, when organizationally structured, take on two general forms: houseleagues and selective leagues. It is generally assumed that value differences account for these organizational forms; the houseleague empha sizes "non serious" enjoyment, whereas the selective leagues emphasize skill display and athletic achievement. The purpose of this paper is to establish the inter organizational environment within which children sport leagues are institutio nalized. Specifically, selective leagues are able to establish organizational ad vantages, and these derive from both ideological and organizational symmetry with the institutional sector, further legitimating these forms with required or ganizational resources. Houseleague forms are unable to establish these inter organizational linkages, decreasing survival potentials. Legitimacy theory and resource dependency theory were compared to con textualize sport organizations within the broader social structure. Youth soccer programs were compared. A theoretical sample of organizational positions was chosen to establish the implications of each theory.

Identification and Assessment of the Child for Sports Participation: A Cardiovascular Approach

Preparticipation assessment of children and adolescents for safe participation in sports is discussed, with emphasis on the practical details of large scale screening, the indications for special cardiac testing, and the methods used for that special testing. Also addressed is the topic of sports participation for children known to have cardiovascular disease.

Children in Sport: Participation Motives and Psychological Stress

Recent research on children's sport participation motives is examined to provide insight about potential sources of stress in organized youth sports. It is concluded that affiliation, skill development, success and status, excitement, and fitness represent the most important general motive factors for young athletes. A four-stage model of stress is outlined, extant empirical literature on stress in youth sports is briefly reviewed within this framework, and implications of these findings with regard to the stressfulness of athletic competition for children are discussed. It is proposed that future stress research in youth sports examine coach-player and parent-player interactions, the antecedents of competitive trait anxiety, other sources of stress in addition to performance-and success-related demands, and the role of participation motivation as a moderator variable in players' responses to various stressors. The need for research with younger children and participants in individual sports also is addre...

Role of Family Members in Sport Socialization of Children

Abstract Concepts from a social learning paradigm previously applied to adults and athletes were used in an exploratory examination of the role significant others play in influencing children's active sport involvement. Results indicated that the traditional comparison of family, peers, and teachers was not applicable to girls and only slightly applicable to boys. A more in-depth examination of the family unit demonstrated that parents, rather than siblings, have significant influence on both sexes. Examination of each family member's influence revealed that only the father served as a significant influence on children's sport participation. A reformulated conceptualization of the influence of significant others proved to be a more effective predictor of children's sport involvement. These findings should be treated primarily as indicators for areas of future investigation.