Deck 7: Socialization in Youth Sports and Interscholastic Athletics

Question 1

Why is the opportunity structure in highly organized sports programs for children and especially, for adolescents or youths, often inconsistent with the American Dream?

A) These sports programs typically emphasize equality of opportunity.
B) These sports programs teach young athletes that success is not really important in life.
C) Access to the most competitive and attractive organized sports programs is often limited to the most talented or most affluent.
D) Everyone who wants to participate in organized sports program has a chance to play and "advance to the next level."

Answer 1

Access to the most competitive and attractive organized sports programs is often limited to the most talented or most affluent.

Question 2

Socialization through, rather than into, sport is illustrated by the case of:

A) a successful businesswoman who learned how to win contracts over competing companies by competing in sport.
B) a hockey player who improves his skills on the ice by doing exactly what his coach tells him.
C) an aging tennis player who was inspired to work harder on his performance after watching Andre Agassi compete successfully in the U.S. Open at the end of his career.
D) a sprinter who tries out for the football team as a wide receiver.

Answer 2

a successful businesswoman who learned how to win contracts over competing companies by competing in sport.

Question 3

The idea that sport builds character would be supported by evidence showing that:

A) athletes perform just as well as nonathletes in the classroom.
B) athletes do not get into trouble when they are with their teammates.
C) juvenile delinquents who join school sports teams are more likely than their nonathlete delinquent peers to stay out of trouble and go on to college.
D) athletes stop using performance-enhancing drugs when the threat of getting caught increases.

Answer 3

juvenile delinquents who join school sports teams are more likely than their nonathlete delinquent peers to stay out of trouble and go on to college.

Question 4

George Davis's experiment in high school football that we discussed in class gave his players the responsibility of selecting the starting lineup and making substitutions in games, which:

A) involved his relinquishing all his authority as coach.
B) was accepted without reservation by his players and their parents.
C) was his attempt to teach civics or citizenship on the high school athletic field.
D) implied that he did not care about winning.

Question 5

High school sports that have been increasingly influenced by a big-time orientation and the Golden Triangle have demonstrated:

A) a decline in sports specialization.
B) more acceptance of the "brass ring theory" by parents of star athletes.
C) more emphasis on the value of being a serious student.
D) stronger institutional controls and restrictions exercised by school officials over athletic recruiting and school transfers by athletes.

Question 6

In youth sports in the United States today:

A) there are more participants in high school athletics than there are children and adolescents who participate in organized athletic programs outside of school.
B) extreme sports televised by ESPN are not affected by the Golden Triangle.
C) public recreational sports programs tend to be more commercialized and more highly organized than are privately sponsored club sports programs.
D) competitive tryouts and sport specialization are more likely as youth sports programs become more organized and corporate in nature.

Question 7

Research evidence about academic and school-related effects of high school athletic participation has shown that in comparison with their nonathlete counterparts, high school athletes:

A) have fewer disciplinary problems in school.
B) are more likely to drop out of school.
C) earn lower grades.
D) miss school more often.

Question 8

Discussion in the text and in this course about access and dropout issues in youth sports indicated that:

A) opportunities to participate in "big-time" youth sports are open to all who want to participate.
B) social class and talent affect access to "big-time" youth sports.
C) a major problem for youth sports participants is that their parents do not criticize them enough to help them improve.
D) except in rare cases, children and adolescents stop participating in organized youth sports because they are cut.

Question 9

What is not likely to be a consequence of the influence of the Golden Triangle in youth sports?

A) Talented athletes become media stars.
B) Kids control who plays and how their games are played.
C) Corporate sponsors give free clothing and equipment to athletes.
D) Teams engage in extensive travel to play in increasingly competitive events.

Question 10

Bissinger's account of Texas high school football in Friday Night Lights and Foley's anthropological research about a small Texas town showed us that:

A) Texas high school football no longer has cultural significance or social influence in the schools and towns where it is played.
B) football tends to be organized and played in ways that reinforce traditional racial and gender attitudes and ideologies.
C) students generally base their identities on sports participation rather than gender, class and ethnicity.
D) students tend to reject or rebel against the traditional culture of their town.

Question 11

Research about parental influence on their children in sports has shown that:

A) fathers tend to have more influence than mothers over their children's sports involvement.
B) young people do not care whether their parents expect them to win.
C) lower-class parents allow their children to be involved in commercialized youth sports, while more affluent parents do not allow their children to be involved in these sports.
D) parents are more likely to cause sports adjustment problems for their children when their expectations are more realistic than unrealistically high.

Question 12

Studies of socialization and status have shown that:

A) according to Fine, boys who played Little League baseball learned to reject gender stereotypes and develop respect for girls.
B) according to the Adlers, boys in the upper-middle-class community they studied were more likely than their female counterparts to drop out of mainstream sports by the time they reached adolescence.
C) according to Miracle and Rees, sports tend not to be effective racial and ethnic integrators in communities with entrenched racial and ethnic divisions and distrust.
D) according to Pronger, the most of the gay men he interviewed played aggressive team sports when they were growing up.

Question 13

Research about socialization of people with disabilities and sport has shown that:

A) youths with invisible impairments or physical disabilities are more likely to be excluded from mainstream sports than are youths whose impairments and disabilities are visible.
B) athletes in elite disability sports have almost universally reported that their parents were their major source of inspiration or support for their high-level sports involvement.
C) parents of children with disabilities typically look for sports opportunities that are "big-time" and are controlled by the Golden Triangle.
D) rehabilitation professionals and volunteers who work with young people with disabilities tend to favor mainstream experiences for them but often have difficulty locating appropriate integration opportunities.

Question 14

Socialization in sports:

A) is unsuccessful when sports participants internalize the values, norms, and roles they are taught by adults.
B) that emphasizes the Sport Ethic discourages young people from "playing hurt."
C) involves resocialization when sports participants learn to change the self-concepts, identities, and role behavior they learned when they first got involved in sports.
D) only affects athletes when they are children and adolescents.

Question 15

Research by the Eitles about "cultural capital" and sport in the high school showed that:

A) involvement in athletics is probably the most important way that lower-income students can increase their cultural capital.
B) being more involved in activities that increased cultural capital tended to be associated with higher rates of participation in football and basketball among the male students they studied.
C) high school boys from disadvantaged backgrounds tended to gain more of an educational payoff from their involvement in school-sponsored cultural trips and cultural classes than from the social connections and status derived from playing prominent sports such as football or basketball.
D) athletes from lower class families have more cultural capital than athletes from middle class families.

Question 16

What is the difference between socialization into and socialization through sport?

Question 17

What does "good character" mean, how is it related to the Dominant American Sports Creed, and to what extent does sports participation build character?

Question 18

What are three major patterns in highly organized youth sports that have been identified by critics, and why have they been criticized?

Question 19

According to the special feature on the globalization of youth sports, what do the sports interests of U.S. and German teenagers reveal about the globalization of sport?

Question 20

According to the special feature in the text, what did the Columbine tragedy teach us about the relationship between popular athletes or "jocks" and nonathletes in the status system and culture of the high school, and how have "anti-jocks" expressed their resistance and opposition to "jock culture"?