ABSTRACT
Sport involvement is one such option, and despite the fact that it is largely intrinsically motivated in its beginning phases, it often becomes part of the acting out of an individual’s developmental agenda. The contributions of sport to identity formation are then addressed by examining variations in the meaning of sport and by clarifying its relationship to play and work in each of several developmental periods. A given sport activity can have different meanings for different people, and this is especially true with respect to gender. As children approach adolescence, the choice to stay involved in organized sport reflects a sense of one’s abilities and potentials as well as one’s interests and an awareness of the expectations of others. In examining the course of identity formation in human development, psychologists typically focus on work, religion, sex roles, and ideology as the substantive matters around which adolescents, anyway, shape an identity.
