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Effects of Playground Popularity

Social Acceptance and Athletic Ability at Recess

Dec 13, 2007

Athletic Ability Linked to Popularity, ablestock.com

Do students that are "athletic" on the playground hold a higher status in school and socially?

Playground Pecking Order

Growing up we always knew who we needed to have on our team to win over recess. Jim could never get a hit, Andy couldn’t run to get on base, and Matt couldn’t catch if his life depended on it. That was part of growing up—learning our limitations. Back in the classroom, Richard always got the right answers in math, Mary lost her homework, and Becky knew everything about social studies. It was the way things were.

Playground Pressure

Today, there seems to be more pressure on kids on the playground and more emphasis placed on athletic prowess. Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton examined the relationship between:

Perceived athletes
Peer acceptance and
Loneliness

The Study

99 boys and 109 girls, Grades 4 through 6 in a western Canadian city, participated in the recent study published in September 2007 issue of The Journal of Sport Behavior. Findings: "children seen as athletic by their classmates are also better liked and less likely to feel lonely, while unathletic children experience the opposite." [sciencedaily.com, October 22, 2007]

Lead researcher, Janice Causgrove Dunn, states, "For both boys and girls, we found that popular children reported less loneliness and received higher athletic ability ratings from their peers than rejected children. Conversely, the kids who reported higher levels of loneliness tended to receive lower athletic ability ratings and lower social acceptance ratings from their peers."

Loneliness

Many psychosocial and emotional problems have been linked to prolonged loneliness. There is more to loneliness than not having a friend on a regular basis. Lonely children are

Less physically active
Less fit
More likely to feel anxiety and tension
More likely to smoke
More likely to develop alcoholism
More likely to drop out of school
More likely to be depressed

[sciencedaily.com, October 22, 2007]

Possible Lonely Child Side-Effects

Obesity. Being overweight is becoming common and of great concern to those in the medical field. Recess time is being decreased to leave more time for the teaching of math and reading because No Child Left Behind accountability. It also leads to less time for students to be active.

Less Fit. Students’ muscles and bones are becoming soft. Not only are students sitting in front of television screens and computer screens instead of playing outside, rickets is now making a comeback as a disease. This disease is caused by not having enough milk, sunshine and exercise.

Anxiety. More students are being diagnosed earlier with anxieties, phobias and depression. Doctors have learned that children are capable of having these "adult diseases" while children. Depression is one area that is of great concern since suicide rates are up. As more parents are warned about the medication causing suicidal thought, there is more hesitation to place a child of anti-depressants. And, the suicide rate is increasing.

Binge Drinking. In the past students drank a six pack on the weekends. High school and college students are now binge drinking hard liquor, which can quickly cause death. Many college campuses are getting tougher on any campus drinking but not enough of them.

Dropping Out of School. Dropouts don’t find life very easy once they leave school. They will earn less money, less likely to have health insurance, and more likely to be unemployed.

The School’s Role

It is critical that a school identifies lonely children and finds factors that could create a peer group. It could be music, art, tutoring, Boy Scouts, church youth group, marshal arts, or academics but children need to belong to a group where he or she can belong socially. How students feel about themselves often determines future education and if they go to college.

Read previous articles on Educational Issues.

The copyright of the article Effects of Playground Popularity in Educational Issues is owned by Barbara Pytel. Permission to republish Effects of Playground Popularity in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.