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June 28, 2006 --
Maureen R. Weiss, professor and director of the Sport and
Exercise Psychology Program in the Curry
School of Education at the University of Virginia, testified before a U.S.
Congressional committee on Wednesday that youth sports
programs that include a life-skills curriculum and coach
training have the potential to build character in young
people.
Weiss was part of a panel, which included golf legend Jack Nicklaus, that
appeared before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. The
hearing was titled, “The First Tee and Schools: Working to Build
Character Education.”
In her testimony, Weiss reported on research she is conducting on The First
Tee, a youth-development program sponsored by the World Golf Foundation.
Youth sport and physical activity agencies are, Weiss noted, a major form
of children’s out-of-school activity time, with estimates of between
30 and 40 million youths between the ages of 5 and 18 participating in
community-based or agency-sponsored sports.
Character development as an outcome of sports involvement has become a
hotly debated topic, Weiss said.
“On the one hand, educators and parents have long attested that participation
in sport can teach children values such as honesty, respect, empathy, responsibility
and fair play,” said Weiss. “But there are critics who will
argue that instead of building character, sports develops characters who
learn, among other things, how to skirt the rules in order to win at all
costs or who believe rules do not apply to them.”
Weiss’s research with The First Tee indicates that character development
is not an automatic outcome of participation in a youth sports program
but depends upon the components of the program.
According to Weiss, The First Tee uses golf as a context and coaches as
external resources to teach life skills so that positive psychological
and behavioral outcomes are maximized.
In the first year of a four-year research project, Weiss conducted interviews
with participants, coaches and parents to determine the impact that The
First Tee had on children. Weiss found that the program was effective in
many areas of character development, including interpersonal, self-management,
goal setting and resistance skills.
“Based on our first-year findings, The First Tee demonstrates [that]
a youth program that has a deliberate curriculum and coach-training in
place to ensure or try to maximize the possibility that youth development
occurs can be effective,” said Weiss. “I think our research
suggests that more youth-serving agencies should try to demonstrate the
efficacy of their programs in reaching the goals that they identify in
their mission statements, which usually have to do with character development
and becoming good citizens.”
Weiss believes such programs can be especially important given the mixed
messages that youth often receive about sports today.
“What the research shows is that kids do look at and receive vicarious
reinforcement when they see pro and college athletes engage in unfair play
and aggressive tactics,” she said. “Youth athletes learn tactics
from these professionals and college players, and they emulate them.
“But the mixed messages come when bad behavior seems to be rewarded
or at least not penalized to the degree we might expect. There are cases
of this almost daily. For instance, there was a minor league manager who
simply went crazy and well beyond crazy in a recent game. His punishment
was a $1,000 fine and a seven-day suspension. But his behavior was shown
on national television all night and most of the next day. So the message
is that you could behave badly and get on television.”
Weiss, who joined the faculty of U.Va.’s Curry School of Education
in 1997, previously taught at the University of Oregon for 16 years. Her
research has focused on the psychological and social development of children
and adolescents through participation in sport and physical activity.
In addition to Weiss and Nicklaus, Wednesday’s hearing included testimony
from Olympic gold-medalist Nancy Hogshead-Makar and Sharon Aldredge, principal
of
Woodley Hills Elementary School in Alexandria, Va.
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