Black high school students' participation in school-sponsored sports activities: Effects on school engagement and achievement

Journal of Negro Education, The, Winter 1999 by Jordan, Will J

Several authors have addressed how sports participation and, more generally, participation in extracurricular activities can provide extrinsic rewards to students and help them form social bonds and relationships within school (Cram, 1981; Slavin & Madden, 1979; Trent & Braddock, 1992). However, in addition to this research, there is evidence that sports participation also has intrinsic value for students (Bandura, 1986; Kavussanu & McAuley, 1995). That is, physical exercise has advantages in its own right because athletes enjoy sports for the sake of sport. In this regard, participation in sports can be seen as an end in itself. In addition to the feelings of satisfaction that accompany athletic participation, building proficiency in athletics fosters a certain level of self-confidence in one's ability that can carry over into other aspects of students' lives, both at school and outside of school (Chickering,1969). Developing competence in an area is an essential part of becoming an adult. Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that a person's disposition and mental well-being are linked to the amount of physical activity in which he or she engages (Scheier & Carver, 1987). These aspects comprise the intrinsic value of sports because they can occur with or without accolades or rewards for the student athlete.

Sports participation has other intrinsic outcomes as well. According to Kavussanu and McAuley (1995), highly active individuals are significantly more optimistic overall and experience greater self-efficacy than do their non-active or low-active counterparts. This conclusion was based on their study of 188 men and women between the ages of 19 and 71 years old, drawn from a university and a local health club in a midwestern U.S. town. The study findings suggest that the positive feelings highly active individuals experience may be attributed to feelings of mastery that result from the accomplishment of an exercise workout-feelings that give individuals a sense of greater control over their environments and enhance their positive attitudes for the future. Again, these results are supported by previous research investigating the relationship between physical activity and psychological well-being that has yielded similar findings (Hamid, 1990; Scheier & Carver, 1989; Thayer, 1987).

Figure I presents a schematic model of the conceptual framework guiding this investigation. As depicted in the figure, students' participation in high school sports is presumed to affect three intermediary dependent variables: GPA, self-concept, and academic selfconfidence. These three variables in turn are presumed to affect student achievement. They also serve as proxy measures for students' self-evaluative engagement in school and for students' self-perception of their own ability and worth.

Recently, I examined the impact of sports participation on several additional student outcome variables, including the degree to which students work hard in school, come to class prepared to work, and perceive their life chances (]ordan, 1999). Like the present study, this preliminary research analyzed nationally representative data to address these questions. Although the results were mixed, they provided some evidence that participation in sports has a positive relationship with these outcomes. The dotted line in Figure I connecting students' participation in high school sports and academic achievement suggests that although a direct link may exist between these two factors, it is not as strong or consistent as the indirect impact of sports on GPA, self-concept, and academic selfconfidence. Additionally, various student background characteristics such as SES, gender, and prior achievement have been shown to mediate each of the above relationships.