Youth And High School Sports

The social construct of youth and high school sports leads to unrealistic expectations on the athlete, parents should never push a child to participate more than they are comfortable because it can lead to depression, physical injury, and sports burnout. Many children starting from a young age are pushed by their parents to participate in sports. According to Shugart (2011), obesity is not as large as an epidemic as the media portrays to the public, and is in fact the latest obesity analysis being performed show an inconsistence between how obesity is defined and combated (Suhgart, 2011). While many parents feel that sports also develop their child’s development psychologically, but Felfe, Lechner, and Steinmayr found that “Despite the popularity …show more content…
While youth sports are growing it is not necessarily to the benefit of the children. With the growing popularity of youth sports the competition is also growing. According to Brunet et al (2014), when a child is places in a competitive atmosphere that is more about winning than sport enjoyment, they responded negatively in relation to social cohesion and task. This trend translates into the young athletes and drives them to higher risk of depression when competing in high level sports at an older age. In a study done by the Journal of sports and exercise science on 50 varsity athletes competing in the Olympic trials it found “Regarding the 36 months prior to the swimming trials, 68% of athletes met the criteria for a major depressive disorder… (Brunet et al 2014, p. 322).” In agreement with these findings I have experienced the effect on the pressure of performance by peers and parents. In my high-school swimming experience state swim meets had high expectations, especially for swimmers who could gain scholarships from their performance. I witnessed a top 5 state finisher drop out of college because of the pressure for performance and Olympic success matched with the routine of college proved to be too much to handle. This pressure came from …show more content…
It is moving away from enjoyment and becoming more about achievement and competition. This leads to many negative effects on the children. These include a future of physical injury stemming from the sport, a burnout and loss of enjoyment in sport, and finally an increase in likelihood of depression from the pressure that is put on the athlete. The media has a large influence on this social construct because of the constant attention it gives to