Role of Cheerleading on Self-Esteem

1. Role of Cheerleading on Self-Esteem Kelly Luna TAMUCC EDFN 5301

2. Introduction of topic The purpose of this research is to explore the ways in which ten high school cheerleaders in a southern Texas town describe the role of cheering on their self-esteem. Cheerleading is a sport that uses organized routines made from elements of tumbling, dance, jumps and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games and matches and/or compete at cheerleading competitions. The athlete involved is called a cheerleader. The role of cheering includes: increasing school spirit, team building, drawing and meeting a schedule, and time management. Self-esteem reflects a person’s overall evaluation or appraisal of her or his own worth. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs and emotions. Behavior may reflect self-esteem. Questions: • How do participants in cheerleading perceive the value of cheering? • In what ways do participants describe the role of cheerleading on their self-esteem?

3. History of Cheerleading • Cheerleading first appeared in the United States in the late 1880s with the crowd chanting as a way to encourage school spirit at athletic events. The first organized, recorded cheer was yelled "Ray, Ray, Ray! TIGER, TIGER, SIS, SIS, SIS! BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! Aaaaah! PRINCETON, PRINCETON, PRINCETON!" at Princeton University in 1884.[2] A few years later, Princeton graduate Thomas Peebles introduced the idea of organized crowds cheering at football games to the University of Minnesota. However, it was not until 1898 that University of Minnesota student Johnny Campbell directed a crowd in cheering "Rah, Rah, Rah! Sku-u-mar, Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! Varsity, Minn-e-So-Tah!”, making Campbell the very first cheerleader and November 2, 1898 the official birth date of organized cheerleading. Soon after, the University of Minnesota organized a "yell leader" squad of 6 male students, who still use Campbell's original cheer today[2] In 1903 the first cheerleading fraternity, Gamma Sigma was founded.[3] Cheerleading started out as an all-male activity, but females began participating in 1923, due to limited availability of female collegiate sports. At this time, gymnastics, tumbling, and megaphones were incorporated into popular cheers, and are still used today.[3] Today it is estimated that 97% of cheerleading participants overall are female, but males still make up 50% of cheering squads at the collegiate level. [4]

4. Types of teams School Sponsored: • Most American high schools and colleges have organized cheerleading squads made up solely of students. Several colleges that compete at cheerleading competitions offer cheerleading scholarships. Some military academies use their drill team or color guard team instead of a cheer squad at athletic events, but some military academies have traditional cheerleading squads just like other everyday universities. Normally, the main reason for school-sponsored cheerleading is to promote school spirit and motivate the players and fans. They may compete outside of sporting events (local, regional, and national competitions), but their main task is to cheer for sporting events and get the crowd involved. Cheerleading is quickly becoming a year round sport starting with tryouts during the preceding school year, practices, attendance at various sporting events and ending with Competition season from winter through spring.

5. Types of teams All-Star Cheerleading: • In the early 1980s, cheerleading squads not associated with a schools or sports leagues, whose main objective was competition, began to emerge. All-star teams competing prior to 1987 were place into the same divisions as teams that represented schools and sports leagues. In 1986 National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) decided to address this situation by creating a separate division for these teams lacking a sponsoring school or athletic association, calling it the 'All-Star Division' and debuting it at their 1987 competitions.

6. All-Star Cheerleading: • Currently all-star cheerleading as sanctioned by the USASF involves a squad of 6-36 females and/or males. The squad prepares year-round for many different competition appearances, but they only actually perform for up to 2½ minutes during their routines. The numbers of competitions a team participates in varies from team to team, but generally, most teams tend to participate in eight-twelve competitions a year. These competitions include locals, which are normally taken place in school gymnasiums, nationals, hosted in big venues all around the U.S. with national champions, and the Cheerleading Worlds, taken place at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. During a competition routine, a squad performs carefully choreographed stunting, tumbling, jumping and dancing to their own custom music. Teams create their routines to an eight-count system and apply that to the music so the team members execute the elements with precise timing and synchronization.

7. Findings from literature I was very disappointed in my findings! I couldn’t find a single article that focused on the role of cheering and self-esteem. Maybe this is a topic that has yet to be researched! The articles that I read touched on the topics of cheerleading and scholastic performance, and the effects of being allowed or denied entry into competitive extracurricular activities such as cheerleading. There is a wealth of evidence to support the contention that participation in these extra curricular activities, such as cheerleading, has a beneficial effect on academic performance and achievement, and on other areas of psychosocial functioning as well. The majority of these studies have found differences when comparing students who participate to those who do not, and these results have held even after ethnicity, income, grade level, and other background factors were statistically controlled

8. Findings from literature • Activity performance was found to have a significant positive effect on academic achievement even more than twice as great as study habits, which are generally regarded as an influential variable in academic achievement. • Research has shown that students who participate in extracurricular activities have more positive attitudes toward school. • Students who participate in certain extracurricular activities are more popular with peers, have higher social status, tend to be school leaders, and may be influential in directing the norm’s of the school’s social system. • For girls, high status has been associated with involvement in cheerleading.

9. Gaps in the literature .There has not been much research done in the area of cheerleading and self-esteem. If cheerleading has no effect on self-esteem, than why participate in the activity?

10. Rationale for topic selection • I’ve always been a cheerleader at heart, though I was never a cheerleader in school! I enjoy showing my spirit and support for those I love. Cheerleading has indeed come a long way from the late 1880s. Its hard to imagine watching a sporting event without some type of cheerleader being present. • I don’t have any personal experiences of being a cheerleader. I tried out twice while in high school, but I never made it! I was really upset and frustrated at the time because most of my friends were cheerleaders, but then as most teens do, I got over it! I became more focused on my school work and not so much on extra curricular activities. Looking back now, I’m glad I choose the path I did! I’d rather be remembered for being an honor student then a cheerleader because look how far I’ve come on my education!

11. The reason I choose this study is really unknown to me. My step-daughter does All-Star Cheerleading and loves it! She attends different competitions all over the state of Texas. Although it is costly, I feel it is a great experience for her. Before cheerleading, she was very quiet and shy. Now she has completely emerged from her shell. None of which would have been possible if it wasn’t for her involvement in cheerleading!

12. Many people think that cheerleading is just a dumb sport for pretty, preppy girls, but it doesn’t have to be. I hope to show them that cheerleading effects everyone and can have a significant impact on your child’s self-esteem. • With an estimated 1.5 million participants in all-star cheerleading (not including the millions more in high school, college or little league participants) in the United States alone, cheerleading is, according to Newsweek's Arian Campo-Flores, "the most quintessential of American sports."[1] Due in part to this recent exposure, there are now an estimated 100,000 participants scattered around the rest of the world in countries including Australia, China, Columbia, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

13. References • Campo-Flores, Arian (2007-05-14). "A World of Cheer!". Newsweek. 2. Neil, Randy L. & Hart, Elaine (1986), The Official Cheerleader's Handbook (Revised Fireside Edition 1986 ed.), 3. Walker, Marisa (February 2005), "Cheer Milestones", American Cheerleader11(1): 41–43, ISSN 1079-9885 4. Balthaser, Joel D. (2005-01-06). "Cheerleading – Oh How far it has come!". Pop Warner.