Amount of newspaper coverage of high school athletics for boys and girls on sports page and newspaper circulation

This study analyzed the amount of coverage for high school athletics in 43 newspapers with small circulation by devoting 40% of their interscholastic athletics coverage to girls in athletics, printed significantly more articles about girls' athletics than did the newspapers with medium (33%) or large (32%) circulation. Therefore, the smaller the newspaper circulation, the more equitable the coverage of athletics for girls and boys. This finding was consistent with some prior work but not all.     

Body image, figure rating, and body mass index of girls enrolled in health, physical education, or athletics classes

The aim was to examine associations among body-image, figure rating, and Body Mass Index of seventh grade girls who chose health, physical education, or athletics classes. Measurements were taken prior to and following the course. Class choice was significantly related to body-image satisfaction but not to figure rating or Body Mass Index. Research is needed to examine inaccurate self-perception of fatness in underweight girls, whether there is a higher risk for eating disorders for students in athletics and physical education classes, whether the curriculum is effective with students in physical education and athletics, and why girls who chose the health class began with higher body-image satisfaction than those in physical education or athletics, even though their Body Mass Index and figure-rating size did not differ.     

Athletic Action as Creativity

ABSTRACT Describing an action theory of creativity, this paper introduces a time variable conception of incubation, and discusses the role of competition in creativity, the importance of awareness as preconscious functioning, the relationship of ego-strength to this functioning, a calisthenic-non-calisthenic continuum and its relevance to athletic creativity, and group creativity in athletics. Suggestions are made for encouraging preconscious functioning in athletics and physical education programs. The significance of a focus on the development of non-intellectual awareness as an essential component for creativity is indicated.     

Sport,nature and worldmaking

Many philosophers of sport maintain that athletics can contribute to our understanding of ourselves and the environments in which we live. It may be relatively easy to offer accounts of how athletes might acquire self-knowledge through sport; however, it is far more difficult to see how sport could add to the general understanding of human individuals, cultural frameworks or the material world. The study of sport as a way of worldmaking is helpful in understanding how sport can contribute to the pursuit of knowledge in such areas.

The position I present is based on arguments made by Gunter Gebauer in his 1993 presidential address to the Philosophic Society for the Study of Sport, ‘Sport, theater, and ritual: Three ways of worldmaking’, and in my explanation and interpretation of Gebauer's position, I rely heavily on Nelson Goodman's Ways of worldmaking. Gebauer's work is focused on traditional sports, and he argues that such sports create worlds that represent fundamental attitudes and values of the cultures that produce them. I argue that alternative sports are well suited to create new and original worlds that instantiate value systems in opposition to mainstream culture. I argue further that nature sports such as climbing and surfing represent relationships between humans and natural features, and that such sports, as a subcategory of alternative sports, are in a position to create new and original frameworks that can help us to better comprehend our relationships with natural environments.     

Correlates of female athletic participation: Masculinity,femininity, self-esteem,and attitudes toward women

Self-esteem, psychological masculinity and femininity, and attitudes toward women in female athletes were investigated in an attempt to examine the validity of various stereotypes. Subgroup distinctions based on sport played, level of commitment to athletics, and experience level were also examined. Seventy-one women participating in intercollegiate varsity teams (crew, basketball, squash, and swimming) at a major university in the Northeast were compared with an unselected group of 185 women from the same university. In contrast to previous findings, female athletes were found to be significantly less feminine than their college peers, but not more masculine. In sport-by-sport comparisons, differences were not found. Highly committed athletes were found to be more masculine and more feminine, as well as more profeminist, than low commitment athletes; and experienced athletes also appeared to be the more highly committed ones. Self-esteem and commitment were found to be unrelated, suggesting that the individual can make a strong commitment to athletics without it having an evaluative component. Speculations were made about the athlete of the future and the influence of athletics on self-esteem.     

The uses of mental imagery in athletics: An overview

This article surveys the extant literature on mental imagery as used in athletics for performance enhancement, arousal regulation, affective and cognitive modification, and rehabilitation. For each category of use, applications are discussed, an overview of the empirical and case-study research findings is presented, and the research is critiqued. A concluding section recommends directions for future research on uses of mental imagery in athletics.     

Rule Violations in Intercollegiate Athletics: A Qualitative Investigation Utilizing an Organizational Justice Framework

Cheating and rule violations in intercollegiate athletics continue to be relevant issues in many institutions of higher education because they reflect upon the integrity of the institutions in which they are housed, causing concern among many faculty members, administrators, and trustees. Although a great deal of research has documented the numerous rule violations in NCAA intercollegiate athletics, much of it has failed to combine sound theory with practical solutions. The purpose of this study was to examine the possible extensions of the organizational justice framework to the problem of rule violations in intercollegiate athletics. In doing so, the current study examined (a) perceived areas of injustice among coaches at NCAA Division I institutions, (b) avenues by which coaches resolve these injustices, and (c) potential solutions for resolving injustices in an attempt to reduce NCAA violations. Six NCAA Division I basketball coaches from various parts of the country (four from men's teams and two from women's teams) were interviewed using a semi-structured format. Despite the NCAA's efforts to create parity, results showed that coaches perceived several areas of inequities in recruiting, including financial resources and academic standards. The interviewed coaches described several means that are currently used to resolve these inequities and offered recommendations for changes to reduce injustice in the future.     

Public Attitudes about Transgender Participation in Sports: The Roles of Gender,Gender Identity Conformity,and Sports Fandom

Sex Roles - We examine the roles of gender, gender attitudes, and interest in sports on public attitudes about transgender people’s participation in athletics. Using a representative survey...     

Woman and athlete: Toward role consistency

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of a general population toward female participation in sports and to replicate a previous study. The two areas investigated were (1) the perception of enhancement or detraction of femininity by girls' participation in athletics, and (2) whether different sports elicited different attitudes towards female participation in athletics. A town in Iowa was sampled. The results indicated that, in general, participation in sports neither detracted from nor enhanced femininity. Furthermore, most of the people wanted their daughters to play basketball, even though it neither detracted from nor enhanced femininity. The data suggest that traditional, rigid sex-role stereotypes were transcended and the opportunity set was dominant.This study was partially funded by a grant from the University of Iowa Graduate School. Appreciation is expressed to Dr. Eldon Snyder for graciously sharing his instrument and recent work.     

Sustaining Male Dominance in Interscholastic Athletics: A Case of Homologous Reproduction…or Not?

To establish if male hegemony continued to exist in high school athletics within the USA and to determine the extent that homologous reproduction (hiring people of the same gender) might be a contributing factor, the administrative structures of 480 high school athletic departments were analyzed. The gender of each school’s principal, athletic director, and coaches were collected from The National Directory of High School Coaches. Male hegemony was found to exist since men dominated both principal (76%) and athletic director (85%) positions, however evidence of homologous reproduction was only evident at the coaching level. The culture of hegemonic masculinity within athletics might be sustained more as a result of sex-role theory or gender-based schematic processing, rather than homologous reproduction.     

Clarifying Amateurism: A Logical Approach to Resolving the Exploitation of College Athletes Dilemma

In this paper we investigate the logical consequences of the common understanding of amateurism in the context of big-time US college athletics, and in so doing, illustrate a method based on linguistic analysis and logic. The initial thrust of the paper centres on the term ‘amateur’ as presupposed by the late Professor Brand in his attempt to justify the ‘business’ of NCAA-sponsored Division I sports by decoupling the ‘participants from the enterprise’. Next, we examine a more rigorous definition of the term ‘amateur’ in order to show more clearly the difficulties posed by the current situation in college athletics. Additionally, our use of linguistic analysis exposes a flaw in the NCAA's recent move to amend by-law 12.02 in an attempt to avoid the charge of exploitation. Lastly, we put forth a new proposal for better dealing with the central issues swirling around the NCAA as it strives to formulate sound policy at this ‘tectonic’ juncture of players, fans, college programmes and academic integrity.     

Naturalistic Fallacy Errors and Behavioral Science News: The Effects of Editorial Content and Cautions on Readers' Moral Inferences and Perceptions of Contributors

People commonly overestimate the intensity of their emotions toward future events. In other words, they display an impact bias. This research addresses the question whether people learn from their experiences and correct for the impact bias. We hypothesize that athletes display an impact bias and, counterintuitively, that increased experience with an event increases this impact bias. A field study in the context of competitive track athletics supported our hypotheses by showing that athletes clearly overestimated their emotions toward the outcome of a track event and that this impact bias was more pronounced for negative events than for positive events. Moreover, with increased athletic experience this impact bias became larger. This effect could not be explained by athletes' forecasted emotions, but it could be explained by the emotions they actually felt following the race. The more experience athletes had with athletics, the less they felt negative emotions after unsuccessful goal attainment. These findings are discussed in relation to possible underlying emotion regulation processes.     

Unpacking educational athletics: An exploratory study of high school athletic directors' critical praxis

ObjectivesGiven the salience and popularity of interscholastic athletics, whether high school sport serves as a site for inclusive, empowering experiences for youth participants has significant implications. This study examined how U.S. high school athletic directors think about and navigate (i.e., praxis) broader social issues in their work with student-athletes and coaches to promote youth development.DesignA cultural praxis framework informed qualitative study design consisting of semi-structured interviews with 16 athletic directors from various high school community contexts within one Midwestern state.MethodReflexive thematic analysis of interviews with high school athletic directors employed a semantic (explicit, surface level) and latent (implicit, interpretative) focus (Braun & Clarke, 2019; Braun, Clarke, & Weate, 2016).ResultsSemantic analyses indicated that athletic directors used various strategies to navigate matters that arose in their work with student-athletes and coaches. Relevant issues were contextually situated and emerged as (in)congruent with their context. Latent analyses shed light on assumptions that ADs made about student-athlete development and demonstrated that sport leaders' critical praxis varied along a continuum.ConclusionFuture research is needed to more systematically examine how athletic directors engage in a (critical) praxis; student-athletes’ perspectives on the relevance of certain social issues and efficacy of administrators' praxis; and, developmental initiatives to empower youth and adult leaders in athletics.     

Field dependence and physical ability.

Field-dependence scores of professional dancers, highly skilled performers in tennis, soccer, cricket and track and field athletics, medium-ability level players in the same four sports and a group of non-game players were measured using a rod and frame test. Results showed that highly skilled tennis players were significantly more field-dependent than top-class track and field athletes and medium-ability level tennis players.     

The Conceptualization of Team Flow

Despite the noted potential for team flow to enhance a team's effectiveness, productivity, performance, and capabilities, studies on the construct in the workplace context are scarce. Most research on flow at the group level has been focused on performance in athletics or the arts, and looks at the collective experience. But, the context of work has different parameters, which necessitate a look at individual and team level experiences. In this review, we extend current theories and essay a testable, multilevel model of team flow in the workplace that includes its likely prerequisites, characteristics, and benefits.     

The relationship between athletic participation and high school students' leadership ability

This study examined the relationship between adolescents' participation in athletics and their leadership skills. In a sample of 60 suburban high school students, athletes demonstrated significantly greater leadership ability than did nonathletes (according to their mean scores on the Leadership Ability Evaluation). Female athletes showed greater leadership ability than did male athletes, although the difference between their scores was not statistically significant. The implications of these findings for school athletic programs are discussed.     

Fostering Self-Determination and Resilience Through Sports Counselling: Psychosocial Development of Youth in Botswana

Sports can promote pro-social behaviors and confidence in physical abilities among participants. We conducted an extensive review of the literature on the ways in which youth in Southern African countries, severely affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other hardships may benefit from acquiring the pro-social skills often associated with athletics. This article reviews the current situation of sports in Botswana and offers recommendations for a culturally appropriate developmental sports counselling program in that country. The authors present arguments that support the development of psychosocial skills, self-determination, and resilience among Batswana Youth through sports counselling interventions.     

Sports Counseling: Enhancing the Development of the High School Student-Athlete

In recent years, considerable attention has been given to the dilemmas faced by student-athletes. The purpose of this article is to identify the major developmental issues faced by students participating in interscholastic athletics and to suggest ways in which counselors can assist them in mastering age-appropriate developmental tasks.