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

Adolescence, Spring, 1999 by Robert P. Dobosz, Lee A. Beaty

Interestingly, female athletes outscored male athletes on leadership ability (mean score for males = 14.01 and mean score for females = 13.05; lower LAE scores represent greater leadership ability), although the difference was not statistically significant. Therefore, the present research tends to contradict the assumption that females do not possess as great a capacity for leadership as do males.

These findings have important implications. It would seem prudent for educational policy-makers and administrators to reexamine any budget cuts that threaten extracurricular athletics at either the elementary or secondary school level. If developing leadership skills - and the psychological characteristics associated with leadership (see Hogan, 1978) - is indeed one of the goals of the educational system, and participation in sports fosters the acquisition of such skills, then maintaining athletic programs is strongly recommended. In particular, there is the possibility that athletics offers young women, as well as young men, the chance to improve leadership ability, speeding progress toward the achievement of societal equality.

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