Search Results

Longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of 10th graders (National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 First Follow-Up) were used to assess the net effect of athletic participation on student outcomes after controlling for student background and 8th-grade measures of the dependent variables. The analyses show positive effects of sport participation on grades, self-concept, locus of control, and educational aspirations, and a negative effect on discipline problems. Analysis also shows that athletic participation is unequally distributed across gender and socioeconomic groups: Males, students from higher socioeconomic levels, students attending private and smaller schools, and those with previous experience in school and private sport teams are more engaged in high school competitive sport.

This article considers the role of sports in relations among immigrant and established-resident minority and Anglo students in Garden City, Kansas, High School. Sports activities form the most direct link between the school and community, and many Garden City residents consider sport to be one of the school’s most important functions. Many perceive sports, particularly football, as a catalyst for successful academic school years. However, emphasis on student participation in sport works to alienate those who do not take part. Student participation in established sports and other school activities is encouraged under the pretext that students will more readily establish an identity with the school. Because most immigrant and many other minority students are not involved in established American sports, and do not even attend games, they risk being perceived as unwilling to assimilate on “American” terms, and they are generally given lower status in the school’s social hierarchy.

This paper examines why African Americans and Whites participate in different high school sports at different rates. Considered are explanations based on family, neighborhood, and school inequality as well as explanations stemming from two race-relations theories (competition theory and the cultural division of labor perspective) that see racial differences in culture as a product of racialized norms that vary in strength across settings. Data from the NELS and the 1990 Census are analyzed by mixing multinomial logistic regression with multilevel models. Results indicate that racial differences in sports that Whites play more are largely the result of SES and neighborhood inequality. Differences in sports Blacks play more have strong race effects. Moreover, racial differences are larger in schools with proportionately more Blacks and in schools with more racial hierarchy, providing partial support for both race-relations theories.

This paper presents findings on the relationship between high school sport participation and involvement in sport as adults. The data are provided by a survey of a large representative national sample of adult Canadians. For different age subgroups among women and men, we tested the school sport experiences hypothesis that sport involvement during the high school years contributes to later adult involvement in sport. The measurement of sport involvement in the high school years is concerned with intramural and inter-school activities. Adult sport activity has three measures: sport involvement per se, involvement in an organized setting, and competitive involvement. The results are consistent with the school experiences hypothesis. High school sport involvement, for inter-school sport activities, is a comparatively strong predictor of adult sport involvement. The effects of high school involvement persist after controlling for correlated social background factors. Moreover, the effects of school sport experiences hold across age and gender subgroups. Although diminished with temporal distance from the high school years, the effects of high school involvement nonetheless extend even to respondents aged 40-59 (i.e., those approximately 22 to 42 years beyond their school years) among both genders. Interpretations of the results are discussed.

The effects of participation in sport during the last 2 years of high school were examined by use of the nationally (United States) representative High School and Beyond data collected between 1980 and 1984. After background variables and outcomes collected during the sophomore year of high school were controlled for, sport participation positively affected 14 of 22 senior and postsecondary outcomes (e.g., social and academic self-concept, educational aspirations, course work selection, homework, reduced absenteeism, and subsequent college attendance) and had no negative effects on the remaining 8 variables. These positive effects were robust, generalizing across individual characteristics (race, socioeconomic status, sex, and ability level), school size, and school climates (academic, social, and sport). The positive effects of sport participation were mediated by academic self-concept and educational aspirations, supporting the proposal that sport participation enhances identification with the school.

There is a significant investment by schools and local communities in the athletic programs offered by secondary schools. A growing issue is, to what extent does the functioning of these sports programs coincide with the formal academic goals of the school? Using a structural equations model, we examine one theme within this major issue by estimating the effect of high school sports participation on sport and leisure activity later in adulthood. Further investigated is the process by which these effects are played out over the transition from adolescence to adulthood, as well as gender differences in the pattern of effects. Using the EEO panel of 1955 high school sophomores reinterviewed in 1970, we find that varsity and nonvarsity sports participation in high school increases adult sports involvement. However, whereas high school sports participation does not retard reading or “high-status” leisure pursuits in adulthood, curriculum track placement during high school does enhance these activities later in life. Track effects were also largely independent of completed school level. Finally, gender variations in the model were present but not uniformly so and largely appear to make sport participation and tracking effects significant only among men.

This study examines the impact of race and gender differences on the social mobility of high school athletes using the longitudinal, panel data of the High School and Beyond study. Regressions of educational and occupational attainment measures on sports participation were estimated for subgroups differentiated by race/ethnic status, gender, and school location (urban, suburban, and rural). It was found that participation in high school sports was most likely to affect the postsecondary status attainment of white males and, to a lesser extent, suburban white females and rural Hispanic females. High school athletic participation had almost no effect on the college-going behavior or educational expectations of black males and females. Interscholastic athletic participation was generally unrelated to postsecondary occupational status and aspirations.