ABSTRACT
Participation in all types of sports is extremely high for American children and youth. Recent estimates are that 47 out of 52 million children participate in or have joined at least one sport program (Ewing and Seefeldt 2002). Data from the Before-and After-School Activities survey showed that children in kindergarten through eighth grade are most likely to participate in sports after school (27 percent), followed by religious activities (19 percent), and then by art activities (17 percent) (US Department of Education 2001). Similarly, 58 percent of children age 6-17 participated in sports activities in the National Survey of Children’s Health (2003) (Blumberg et al. 2005). Not only are the percentages of youth participating in sports high, but the rates of participation are rising. For example, during the 2004-5 school year, approximately seven million high school students participated in athletic programs, up from 5.3 million in 1990 (Lopez and Moore 2006). These data suggest that sport is a major leisure activity for young people in the United States. As such, there is great potential for sport to contribute to the development of children.
