Sport in Society: Issues & Controversies

1. Sport in Society:Issues & Controversies Sports and Children: Are Organized Programs Worth the Effort?

2. Origins of Organized Youth Sports • Organized youth sports emerged in the 20th Century • The first programs focused on “masculinizing” boys • Organized youth sports grew rapidly in many industrialized countries after World War II • Programs in the U.S. emphasized competition as preparation for future occupational success • Girls’ interests generally were ignored

3. Social Changes Related to the Growth of Organized Youth Sports • Increase in working families • New definitions of “good parent” • Growing belief that informal activities lead to trouble for kids • Growing belief that the world is dangerous for children • Increased visibility of high-performance and professional sports in society

5. Major Trends in Youth Sports Today • Organized programs have become increasingly privatized • Organized programs increasingly emphasize the “performance ethic” • An increase in “elite training” facilities • Increased participation in “alternative sports”

6. Youth Sports:Types of Sponsors • Public, tax-supported community recreation programs • Public non-profit community organizations • Private nonprofit sport organizations • Private commercial clubs

7. PrivatizedYouth Sport Programs • Growth is associated with the decline in publicly funded programs • Most common in middle- and upper-middle income areas • May reproduce economic and ethnic inequalities in society • May not be committed to gender equity • Private programs are not accountable in the same way as public programs

8. The “Performance Ethic” • Refers to emphasizing measured outcomes as indicators of the quality of sport experiences • Fun = becoming better • Emphasized in private programs • Related to parental notions of investing in their children’s future

9. Elite Sport Training Programs • Most common in private, commercial programs • Emphasize the potential for children to gain material rewards through sports • Children often “work” long hours and become like “laborers,” but programs are not governed by child labor laws • Raise ethical issues about adult-child relationships

11. New Interests in Alternative Sports • A response to highly structured, adult-controlled organized programs • Revolve around desires to be expressive and spontaneous • May have high injury rates and patterns of exclusion related to gender and social class • Are being appropriated by large corporations for advertising purposes

12. Formal Sports Emphasize: Formal rules Set positions Systematic guidance by adults Status and outcomes Informal Sports Emphasize: Action Personal involvement Challenging experiences Reaffirming friendships Different Experiences

13. Formal Sports Emphasize: Relationships with authority figures Learning rules and strategies Rule-governed teamwork & achievement Informal Sports Emphasize: Interpersonal & decision-making skills Cooperation Improvisation Problem solving Different Outcomes

15. When Are Children Ready to Play Organized, Competitive Sports? • Prior to age 12, children don’t have the ability to fully understand competitive team sports • They play “beehive soccer” • Children must lean how to cooperate before they can learn how to compete • Team sports require the use of a “third party perspective” • Role Taking Ability • Game Stage Developmental level

16. What Are the Dynamics of Family Relationships in Youth Sports? • Sports have the potential to bring families together • Being together does not always mean that close communication occurs • Children may feel pressure from parents • Parent labor in youth sports often reproduces gendered logic ideas • work • family

17. How Do Social Factors Influence Youth Sport Experiences? • Participation opportunities vary by social class • Encouragement often varies by gender and ability/disability • Self perceptions and the social consequences of participation vary by: • social class • sex • race/ethnicity • ability/disability • sexuality

18. Recommendations for Changing Informal & Alternative Sports • Make play spaces more safe and accessible to as many children as possible • Be sensitive to class and sex • Provide indirect guidance without being controlling • Treat sport as a worthwhile site for facing challenges • developing competence

19. Recommendations for Changing Organized Sports • Increase action • Increase personal involvement • Facilitate close scores and realistic challenges • Facilitate friendship formation and maintenance

20. Recommendations for Changing High-performance Programs • Establish policies, procedures, and rules to account for: • the rights of children participants • the interests of children participants • Create less controlling environments • to promote growth • to promote development • to promote empowerment

21. Prospects for Change • Often subverted when priority is given to efficiency and organization • over age-based developmental concerns • May be subverted by national organizations concerned with standardizing programs • May be subverted by adult administrators with vested interests in the status quo

22. Coaching Education Programs • Are useful when they provide coaches with information on • Dealing with children safely and responsibly • Organizing practices and teaching skills • Are problematic when they foster a “techno-science” approach to controlling children • Creating “sports efficiency experts” should not be the goal

23. Deviance in Sports:Is It Out of Control?

24. Problems Faced When Studying Deviance in Sports • Forms & causes of deviance are diverse • No single theory can explain all • Sports behavior may be deviant in other settings (All Star Wrestling) • Sports often involves unquestioned acceptance of norms • rarely the rejection of norms • Training & performance have become medicalized

26. Using Functionalist Theory to Define Deviance • Deviance involves a rejecting of accepted goals • Or rejecting the means of achieving goals in society • Conformity is equated with morality • Deviance is caused by faulty socialization • By inconsistencies in the social system • Deviance is controlled by getting tough • By enforcing more rules more strictly

27. Using Conflict Theoryto Define Deviance • Deviance involves behavior that interferes with the interests of those with economic power • The behavior of those who lack power is more likely to be labeled as deviant • Those who deviate often are victims of exploitation in a system characterized by inequalities • The problem of deviance will be minimal when power is equally distributed in society

28. Using Interactionist & Critical Theories to Define Deviance • Most deviance in sports is not due to the moral bankruptcy of athletes • Much deviance in sports involves over conformity to established norms in sports • Sport deviance must be understood in terms of the normative context of sport cultures and the emphasis on “the sport ethic”

29. Deviant Under- Conformity Normally Accepted Range of Behavior Deviant Over- Conformity Deviance based on unquestioned acceptance of norms Deviance based on ignoring or rejecting norms

30. The Sport Ethic A cluster of norms that represent the accepted criteria for defining what it means to be an athlete.

31. Four Norms of the Sport Ethic • An athlete makes sacrifices for “the game” • An athlete strives for distinction • An athlete accepts risks and plays through pain • An athlete accepts no limits in the pursuit of possibilities

32. Why Do Athletes Engage in Deviant Over- Conformity? Two reasons for over-conformity: • Sports are so exhilarating and thrilling that athletes want to play, and they will do almost anything to continue to do so • Being selected by coaches and managers is more likely when athletes over conform to the sport ethic

33. Athletes Most Likely to Over- Conform to the Sport Ethic • Those who have low self-esteem • Eager to be accepted by their peers • Willing to sacrifice what they think others want them to • Those who see achievements in sport as their only way to get ahead • make a name • become important in the world

34. Deviant Over-Conformity and Group Dynamics Following the Norms of the Sport Ethic Special Bonds Among Athletes Hubris (arrogance)

35. Social Processes in Elite Power & Performance Sports • Bond athletes in ways that normalize over conformity to the sport ethic • Separate athletes from the rest to inspire awe and admiration among community members • Lead athletes to develop HUBRIS (a sense of arrogance, separateness, and superiority)

36. Hypotheses About Deviance Among Athletes Deviance becomes more likely when • Social bonds normalize risk taking • Athletes are separated from the rest of the community • Athletes develop extreme degrees of hubris • When people in the community see athletes as being special

37. Controlling Deviant Over-Conformity in Sports Four ways to control deviant over-conformity: • Learn to identify the forms and dynamics of over-conformity among athletes • Raise critical questions about the meaning, organization, and purpose of sports • Create norms in sports that discourage over- conformity to the sport ethic • Help athletes to learn to strike a balance between accepting and questioning rules and norms in their sports

38. Research on Deviance Among Athletes On the Field Deviance • Cheating, dirty play, fighting, & violence are less common today than in the past • This historical finding contradicts popular perceptions. • Many people think deviance is more common today • More rules than ever before • Expectations for conformity are greater.

39. Research on Deviance Among Athletes Off the Field Deviance • Athletes do not have higher delinquency rates • Data on academic cheating is inconclusive • Athletes have higher rates of alcohol use • Felony rates among adult athletes do not seem to be out of control • BUT they do constitute a problem

40. Is Sport Participation a Cure for Deviant Behavior? Research suggests that organized sport might reduce deviance if: • A philosophy of nonviolence • Respect for self and others • The importance of fitness and control over self • Confidence in physical skills • A sense of responsibility

41. DON’T FORGET Athletes are not the only ones in sports who engage in deviant behavior. Think of other examples involving: • Coaches • Parents • Spectators • Administrators • Team owners • Agents

42. Using Performance Enhancing Substances in Sports • The use of performance enhancing substances occurs regularly in high performance sports • Many cases of usage constitute a form of deviant over conformity • Such substances will be used as long as athletes believe they will enhance performance

44. Defining andBanningPerformanceEnhancing Substances • Defining what constitutes a “performance enhancing substance” is difficult • Defining what is natural or artificial is difficult • Defining what is fair when it comes to the use of science, medicine, & technology in sports is difficult • Determining what is dangerous to health is difficult • Studying and testing for substances is constrained by ethical and legal factors

45. Eight Reasons Why Substance Use So Prevalent Today? • The high stakes in sports have fueled research and development of substances • Fascination with the use of technology to push human limits • The rationalization of the body • Heavy emphasis on self-medication • Changing sexual relations

46. Why Is Substance Use So Prevalent Today? • The organization of power and performance sports (must win to continue to play) • Coaches, sponsors, administrators, and fans clearly encourage most forms of deviant over-conformity • The social structure of elite sports (control over body and conformity to demands of coaches)

47. Arguments Against Testing • Testing will never be able to identify all substances athletes use to enhance performance • Athletes and substance manufacturers can stay one step ahead of the testers • Mandatory testing, testing without cause, and using blood and tissue violates ideas about rights to privacy in many cultures

48. Arguments for Testing • To be meaningful, sport performances must involve natural abilities • Drug use destroys the basis for competition by subverting fairness • Drug use threatens the health and well-being of athletes • Drug use is immoral and must be stopped

49. Controlling Substance Use: Where to Start (I) • Critically examine the hypocrisy in elite sports • Establish rules indicating that risks to health are undesirable and unnecessary in sports • Establish rules stating that injured athletes must be independently certified as “well” before they may play • Educate young athletes to define courage and discipline in ways that promote health

50. Controlling Substance Use: Where to Start (II) • Establish a code of ethics for sport scientists • Make drug education part of deviance and health education • Create norms regulating use of technology • Critically examine values and norms in sports • Redefine meaning of achievement • Teach athletes to think critically • Provide accurate and current information to parents, coaches, and athletes