Sports in Society:

Issues and
Controversies
Sports and Socialization:
Who Plays and What Happens to Them?
Changing and Ending Participation
Review
Socialization into Sports:

• How do we define is socialization? What is it?

• What two approaches sociologists use to study socialization?

• Why do people become involved in sports? What factors

influence this decision?
Overview: when and why people change/end
sport participation?
1. Normal life changes that impact participation

2. Burnout and the factors that cause it

3. Stopping/restarting participation

4. Factors influencing the quality of transitions out of

competitive sport careers
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1. Normal life changes
Research in The Netherlands (2017)
• Why do many young adults (18-35) stop practicing sport? Previous
studies ignored sport participation after childhood and adolescence.
• Focus: impact of 4 major life events
• Beginning to work, living independently, cohabiting or getting married,
becoming a parent
• Results:
• Participation patterns change with “shifting needs, resources and restrictions”
• Life events can reduce or initiate participation
• They influence more women than men
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2. Burnout: athlete or organizational problem?
Research in Northern Ireland, Gaelic football
• Goal: identify reasons for high burnout rates among top players in the younger age
category (16-24)
• Causes of burnout – stress-related conditions
• exhaustion due to intense training
• devaluing of sport participation and performance
• sense that achieving performance goals and improving was not possible

BUT ALSO

Conditions of social organization of Gaelic football itself:

• Players lack control over their sport participation
• No opportunities to be anything other than a football player
• Lack of power Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education
3. Stopping and restarting participation
Common pattern of sport participation

Early-to-mid-teen Adulthood: playing on

Childhood: playing
years: stopping and off

Difference: lifestyles VS competitive sports

• Enjoyed for its own sake with an emphasis on individual skill development, creativity, self-
expression; no formal competition or power dynamics
• Even at high skill levels don’t see themselves as athletes/elite performers

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4. Transitions out of competitive sport careers
Ending or reducing elite sports participation often
associated with:
• Events and life course issued apart from sports
• The need to obtain a job and become independent
• Realistic judgments about sport skills and chances for future
success in elite sports

After ending elite training, most people sought other ways to

stay physically active and connected with sports

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The quality of the transition experience depends on:

1. The centrality and importance of athletic identity

2. Anticipating and preparing for the transition
3. Exploring opportunities and possibilities for future growth and development
4. Being satisfied with athletic performance
5. Creating strategies for maintaining desired connections with teammates
6. Having social and emotional support systems

Transitions are less likely to involve problems if sports participation has expanded a
person’s identities, experiences, relationships, and resources outside of sports.
Difficulties are most likely when athletes have never had the desire or the chance to live
outside the culture of elite sports and learn to successfully navigate their way in non-
sport social worlds.
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Summary: what we know about changing and ending
participation

Research indicates that:

• Decisions are often made multiple times during a person’s life
• Under certain conditions, burnout occurs among adolescents and young adults
• People don’t always end participation due to negative experiences
• People who drop out often choose to resume participation later in their lives
• Successful transition out of sports is influenced by the conditions under which
participation ends

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Participation in Sports: What Happens?
Do sports build character?
In some cultures people mistakenly believe that playing sports automatically
builds positive traits (character) by comparing athletes and non-athletes.

HOWEVER
Research findings are very inconsistent

Why? False assumptions:

• All athletes have the same experience in all sports
• Organized sports provide unique experience
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 Factors overlooked in research on character building in sports

1. Sports experiences are diverse

2. Selection processes exist in many sports (build or select?)
3. Meanings given to sport experiences vary widely for participants
4. People change over time
5. Social relationships and context matter
6. Sports experiences are not unique

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Conditions of positive socialization through sports:

1. Opportunities to explore and develop identities apart from sport

2. Knowledge-building experiences that go beyond the locker room and field
3. New relationships, especially with people who can be mentors outside of
sports
4. Training that shows how lessons learnt in sports can be applied in life
5. Opportunities to develop competence in non-sport activities

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Sports participation and Health
• The healthiest physical activities are rhythmic, noncompetitive exercises in which
people control and regulate body movements

• Health benefits decline in many competitive sports

• And even more in contact VS non-contact sports

• Health costs of competitive sport are due to:

• Injuries (cuts, broken teeth and bones, brain and spinal cord injuries)
• Violence (when the body is used as a weapon)
• Risk taking (when athletes exceed limits)
• Unhealthy lifestyles (disordered eating, drinking, substance use)
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 Sport participation and Obesity
In the US obesity rates among young
people and adults have more than
doubled between 1985 and 2012––when
participation in organized competitive sports
increased.
• In many youth sports and high school teams, only
1/3 of practice time involves rigorous physical
activity
• the rest of the time––listening to coaches and
standing in drill lines

Source: Jay Coakley

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Sport participation and Obesity
Year Number of Players
1970 1
• Participation in certain power and
performance sports involves weight 1980 3
control strategies that create both acute 1990 94
and chronic health problems for athletes 2000 301
• Norms in certain sports cultures 2010 394
encourage unhealthy weight gains or 2012 361
unhealthy weight loss
2016 354
2018 357*

Number of 300-pound players in the NFL, 1970-2012

*The number of players over 300 pounds stabilized when speed has become more central in
offensive and defensive game plans.

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 All sports are not the same when it comes to socialization
Power & Performance Sports
• Use power to push limits in pursuit of
victories
• Excellence proved through winning
• Body = tool and weapon
• Competence-based inclusion/exclusion
• Hierarchical structures
• Opponents = enemies
Pleasure & Participation Sports
• Emphasis on connections between people
• Ethic of expression, enjoyment, concern, and
health
• Body = source of pleasure
• Inclusion and accommodation of differences
• Democratic structures
• Compete with others
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Power & performance sports are dominant today. Why?

• reaffirm the belief that competition is the only fair and natural
way to distribute rewards
• reaffirm the merits of meritocracy that celebrates people with
power and resources as winners who deserve their status

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Summary
• Negative socialization effects are most likely when playing
sports constricts or limits a person’s identities, relationships,
and experiences.

• Positive socialization effects are most likely when playing

sports expands or diversifies a person’s identities,
relationships, and experiences.

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Kahoot Time!