DOCUMENT RESUME ED 407 376 SP 037 291 AUTHOR Poinsett, Alex TITLE The Role of Sports in Youth Development. Report of a meeting convened by Carnegie Corporation of New York (March 18, 1996) . INSTITUTION Carnegie Corp. of New York, N.Y. PUB DATE Mar 96 NOTE 210p. PUB TYPE Collected Works Proceedings (021) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC09 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Academic Achievement; *Adolescents; *Athletics; Elementary Secondary Education; *Health Promotion; High Risk Students; *Physical Education; Physical Fitness; *Sport Psychology IDENTIFIERS Strength Training ABSTRACT This document summarizes a conference on the potential impact of sports on at-risk youngsters. More than 40 scholars and practitioners met to explore the role that sports programs play in promoting academic success, health and fitness, responsible social behaviors, and self-confidence, and ways that such programs could be expanded to reach those most in need. David A. Hamburg reported on the Carnegie Corporation's work in the area of youth development. James P. Comer discussed risk and opportunity in adolescence, the important role athletics can play in teaching personal discipline and perseverance, and the lack of training for persons working with young people. Robert L. John reviewed the developmental stages of early adolescence and the challenges health providers face in promoting young people's health. Reginald Clark explored the educational, social, and emotional needs of adolescents and how sports programs' improve or hinder educational outcomes. Further discussion covered the Skillman Foundation Michigan report (1995), barriers to young people's participation in sport, and creating the structures among foundations, municipal governments, and federal agencies to continue to identify and address youth needs on an ongoing basis. Appendixes include the meeting agenda, a list of participants, and the background report "Role of Organized Sport in the Education and Health of American Children and Youth" from the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University (Martha E. Ewing, Vern D. Seefeldt, and Tempie P. Brown), which comprises the bulk of the document. (ND) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Carnegie Meeting Papers By Alex Poinsett Report of a Meeting Convened by Carnegie Corporation of New York March 18, 1996 ros PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND U. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL Office of Educational Research and improvement HAS BEEN GRANTED BY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 0 This document Nis been reproduced as received from the person or organisation originating rt. O Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction Quality. TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Points of view or opinions stated in the doci meat do not necessarily represent official INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) OE RI pompon or policy. 2 THE ROLE OF SPORTS IN YOUTH DEVELOPMENT By Alex Poinsett Report of a Meeting Convened by Carnegie Corporation of New York March 18, 1996 From time to time Carnegie Corporation supports meetings on issues of importance that may or may not be closely related to its grant programs. Occasionally, reports of these meetings merit public dissemination. CONTENTS OVERVIEW CARNEGIE CORPORATION'S INTEREST IN YOUTH DEVELOPMENT 2 David A. Hamburg 2 RISK AND OPPORTUNITY IN ADOLESCENCE 5 James P. Corner 5 DEVELOPMENTAL NEEDS OF YOUNG ADOLESCENTS 6 Robert L. Johnson. 6 Reginald Clark 7 Martha E. Ewing and Vern D. Seefeldt 8 DISCUSSION OF THE MICHIGAN STUDY 11 BARRIERS TO PARTICIPATION 14 LIGHTING FIRES: OPTIONS FOR ACTION 16 TOWARD A RESEARCH AGENDA 19 CREATING THE STRUCTURES 23 APPENDIX A: Meeting Agenda APPENDIX B:List of Meeting Participants APPENDIX C: Background Report Role of Organized Sport in the Education and Health of American Children and Youth, by Martha E. Ewing, Vern D. Seefeldt, and Tempie P. Brown (Institute for the Study of Youth Sports, Michigan State University, 1996) 4 THE ROLE OF SPORTS IN YOUTH DEVELOPMENT By Alex Poinsett Report of a Meeting Convened by Carnegie Corporation of New York March 18, 1996 OVERVIEW Throughout much of his adult life, tennis superstar Arthur Ashe helped raise public awareness of the multiple ways that young people's participation in sports promotes their healthy development. Convinced that lessons learned on playing fields, on courts, and in swimming pools are transferable to educational settings and the everyday world, Ashe saw that sports could turn around many at-risk youngsters and point them in positive directions. He cofounded the National Junior Tennis League to involve such youths in tennis. Before his untimely death in February 1993, he persuaded Carnegie Corporation of New York to convene a daylong conference in New York, highlighting sports in the broader context of youth development. The conference was held on March 18, 1996. Carnegie Corporation's president David A. Hamburg noted that this was really "Ashe's meeting." Though he was physically absent, his ideas and personality provided "authentic and lasting inspiration" to the foundation and the participants. Were he alive, Hamburg said, Ashe would be presiding today. The conference drew more than forty scholars and practitioners fromacross the nation to explore the role that sports programs play in promoting academic success, health and fitness, responsible social behaviors, and self-confidence amongyoung people and ways that such 5 programs could be expanded to reach those most in need. Chaired by James P. Corner, Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at Yale University, it featured five presenters: Hamburg; Robert L. Johnson, M.D., director of adolescent medicine, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark; Reginald Clark, consultant; Martha E. Ewing, associate professor, of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports, Michigan State University; and Vern D. Seefeldt, professor and director emeritus, also of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports. Ewing and Seefeldt were coauthors with Tempie P. Brown of a literature review and analysis, commissioned by the Corporation as background for the meeting, of the beneficial (or detrimental) effects of organized youth sports (see Appendix C). CARNEGIE CORPORATION'S INTEREST IN YOUTH DEVELOPMENT David A. Hamburg During the past twenty-five years, Carnegie Corporation has devoted considerable time and resources to a better understanding of child and adolescent development. The foundation has sought to identify ways in which the major institutions of society canensure positive outcomes for youth despite drastic changes in the state of American families. By awarding grants and sponsoring special study groups on the issues, the Corporation has not only expanded basic knowledge about the developmental needs of children and youth but also proposed practical strategies for improving their life chances. Two crucially formative and relatively neglected phases in the lifespan have been at the center of the Corporation's interests: the first three years of life, beginning with the prenatal period; and early adolescence, covering ages ten through fourteen. "These periods powerfully shape the rest of the life course," Hamburg noted. "Thereare a lot of moving parts in both phases that have to come together in more or less the rightway for individuals to have decent chances of growing up intact." Research and practice on the effects of supportive programs for children and youthare 2 synthesized in several widely distributed Corporation-sponsored reports: Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21st Century (1989); At the Threshold: The Developing Adolescent (1990); A Matter of Time: Risk and Opportunity in the Nonschool Hours (1992); Fateful Choices: Healthy Youth for the 21st Century (1992); Starting Points: Meeting the Needs of Our Youngest Children (1994); Great Transitions: Preparing Adolescents for a New Century (1995); and the forthcoming Years of Promise: A Comprehensive Learning Strategy for America's Children (1996). Five of these are products of the Carnegie Council of Adolescent Development, established in 1986 to direct public attention to the sometimes grim challenges of adolescence. Turning Points reported that substantial numbers of American adolescents facing adulthood are inadequately prepared to meet the requirements of the workplace, the commitments of relationships in families and with friends, and the responsibilities of full participation in a democratic society. These young peopleare among an estimated seven million one in four adolescents who are extremely vulnerable to multiple high-risk behaviors and school failure. Another seven million may be at moderate risk andare cause for serious concern. Altogether, as many as one-half of American adolescentsare at moderate to high risk of impairing their life chances through engagement in behaviors and activities that are destructive to themselves and others. Great Transitions, the Carnegie Council's concluding report, triedto answer such questions as: What does it take to become a healthy, problem-solving, constructive adult? What kind of experiences during adolescence are "enormously helpful" to theprocess of getting from childhood to adulthood? The report outlined some of the essential requirements for setting young adolescents on the pathway to effective adulthood. Ideally,