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

Table III shows the regression results for the effects of participation in sports on students' self-concept, controlling for student background characteristics. The best predictor of general self concept at grade 10 was prior self-concept measured at grade 8 (a=.45, t=58.34). As in the results discussed above, the effect of sports participation on self-concept was also small, positive, and significant. Among all students, the results were positive and significant (pi = .03, t = 3.84 and (3 = .03, t = 3.04 for team and individual sports, respectively; p

Table IV depicts the effects of sports participation on students' academic self-confidence. Comparing tables III and IV, it is apparent that the pattern of sports participation effects on general self-concept was similar to that of sports participation on academic selfconfidence. However, among student background characteristics, one notable difference was that 8th-grade GPA was found not to predict academic self-confidence as well as it predicted self-concept. Among the background controls, GPA, prior achievement on the grade 8 reading test, and general self concept were important predictors of academic self confidence. For all students, the coefficient for 8th-grade GPA was three times larger than any other variable in the equation ((beta) = .32, t = 35.53). Relative to the magnitude of other effects examined in this analysis, the standardized coefficients for sports participation depicted in Table IV were slightly larger. For all students, the following effects of sports participation were noted: for team sports ((beta) = .05, t = 5.79) and for individual sports ((3 = .03, t = 4.12). The results for European American students closely resembled those for all students; however, for African American students, the results were strikingly dissimilar. That is, as depicted in the first two columns of this table, African American students who participated in team sports rated their academic self-confidence significantly higher than did African American non-athletes ( (beta) = .07, t = 2.51). The regression results for Hispanic American students were also not significant but positive for both individual and team sport participation.

Finally, Table V presents the regression results for the effects of sports participationalong with GPA, self concept, and academic self-confidence-on grade 10 test scores across racial/ethnic groups, while controlling for student background characteristics. This analysis revealed a small but consistently positive effect of sports participation on academic achievement when the other variables in the equation were held constant. As shown in this table, the pattern of the effects of sports participation varied little across the different racial/ethnic groups. For all students, the regression coefficients for team and individual sports participation were (beta)3 = .02, t = 3.93 and (beta) = .03, t = 6.59, respectively (p

Several other interesting findings should be noted. First, as shown in Table V, among the student background controls, base-year risk factors revealing overall negative effects on achievement ((beta)=-.04, t=-7.03) were most negative for Hispanic American students ((beta) -07, t=-3.83). The effects of these risk factors for African American students were also negative but not as strong, and this variable had no significant negative effect on achievement for European American students. Interesting gender differences were also noted. Though, among all students, males ((beta) = .13, t = 26.83) outperformed females on standardized tests, the gender gap was not as great among African American students. The regression coefficients for African American males (p3 = .07, t = 3.98) were nearly half the magnitude of the results for all students ( (beta) = .13, t = 26.83). The largest gender gap in achievement, even larger than that for all students, was found for White students ((3 =.15, t=24.97). Additionally, some differences between racial/ethnic groups were also evident within the intervening block of variables. For example, though 10th-grade GPA was a positive predictor of achievement for all students ((beta) = .09, t =14.02), its effects were weakest for Black students ((beta) = .01, t = 0.44) and strongest for White students ((beta) = .12, t =15.01).