Physical and Psychological Issues Associated with Youth Sports Activity Engagement - Essay Example

? Youth Sports Introduction For many years, scientists have conducted research on the benefits of sporting activities in youths. The results of such researches have led to the obvious conclusion that, sports are good for people’s well-being. More exclusively, physical activitiesprove to have positive impacts not only on general health status but also on our social relationships and psychological well-being. This essay presents an analysis of both physical and psychological issues associated with youth sports activity engagement. The contents of this essay also examines why physical activities are necessary components for youths’ psychological, physiological, and social enhancement. In order to make youth organized sports safe, beneficial, and healthy for youths, there must be realistic goals for involving in physical activities and appropriate strategies to achieve these goals. Realistic and specific goals for youths participating in sports include increasing sports levels and acquiring basic sports’ skills (Dowson & Morris, 2005). Organized youth sports need to be tailored to cope with developmental level of the children. The American Heart Association (AHA) has outlined various physical activities to children and youths regarding the physical activity. When it comes to the time of choosing the type of sport for a child, a parent, or coaches must choose a community based program that promotes and encourages participation of all involved and stress age-appropriate skills’ development rather than involves in a complete and winning (Dunlap, 2004). Youths should ensure that before joining any sports activity, safety matters are highly addressed, and that the structure and coaching are suitable for the youths’ age. The level of fun and enjoyment experienced by the youths participating in the sports activities indicates a good program (Kelly &Melograno, 2004). The content of American Heart Association research outlines essential recommendations for both adolescents and children regarding the activities covered during sports that are required to enable the participants remain healthy and eliminate particular cardiovascular illness such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity (Physical Activity and Children, 2010). Sports help children and the youths to minimize issues of obesity (Dowson & Morris, 2005). This is because by involving in sports activities one’s body is able to burn more calories than the consumed results to weight loss since consuming more fats than the amount burned results to weight gain. Researches show that a third of the high school students are meeting the required levels of sports activities. Without suitable support of coaches, teachers, and parents, children cannot understand the side effects of physical activities (Dunlap, 2004). It is therefore significant for these support teams to encourage the youths to engage in regular physical activities if they are not enrolled in organized sports. The risk of cardiovascular and obesity illness are reasons enough for public organizations and schools to encourage physical activities in youths across the world. The US pediatrics academy has supported this notion, claiming that, modification is highly needed for physical activities’ opportunities ‘in schools and other community programs. Just as there are advantages of youth sports activities for overall health, there are also benefits of such activities to psychological health (Kelly &Melograno, 2004). For many decades, researchers have documented that, sports supports psychological health. Sports can be beneficial to youths since they help lessen depression and anxiety symptoms, and results to positive self-perception. Physical activities help to relieve depression and anxiety symptoms, and such activities are also associated health benefits such as improved confidence and self-concept. Although this information may seem outdated, most recent literature reviewssupport this notion (Dunlap, 2004). Some researches indicate that there is a correlation between mental health well-being and physical activities, specifically, “when it comes to matters of reducing depression and anxiety”. Furthermore, parents should understand that, access to sports and participation opportunities in sports and games are the factors affecting youths to involve in sports activities (Dowson & Morris, 2005).In other words, while sports activities are beneficial to youths’ psychological health, first, there must be access to whether a certain child is able to do a particular sporting activity. Parents and peers who fail to encourage their children to engage in sporting activities are driving their children to various risks, which are not their faults, and such children can get devastating effects (Kelly &Melograno, 2004). Therefore, it is necessary for parentsand coaches need to advocate youths’ participation in organized sports and other physical activities. Anxiety and depression are the only issues associated with psychological health. Self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-efficacy generally are indicatorspsychologically fitness (Dunlap, 2004). One should note that, self-confidence and self-efficacy correlates physical activity levels. However, people should note that low-to-moderate physical activity levels do not essentially correlate to one’s psychological well-being, although there a number of levels of physical activities primarily associated with self-efficacy (Dowson & Morris, 2005). Simply, this means that more sports activities lead to a better self - perception. The way one perceives his or herself determines whether one engages in physical activities including participation in organized sports activities, which may have positive effects on self-esteem development in adolescents. Moreover, while self-efficacy and self-esteem relates to psychological self-sense, they also have social components related equally to them. Youth’s participation in organized games programs can also bring some side effects to the participants.While participating in sports activities, a child can receive severe injuries. Such injuries include legs and hands breakage because of involving in games such as high jump, long jump, football, and even athletics (Dunlap, 2004). Most of the injuries can remain a permanent side effect to one's life.Children participating in youth sports have high risks of injuries since many of the groups following coaching guides from inexperienced coaches (Dowson & Morris, 2005). Parents should ensure that their children engage themselves in youth teams, which have trained coaches. Secondly, a teenager participating in sporting activities can fortunately win monetary prizes hence resulting in involvement in bad characters such as consuming alcohol at tender ages. This can affect both health status and education of the child (Kelly &Melograno, 2004). Conclusion In summary, the information in this essay offers an outlook of the benefits of youth sports to both psychological and physiological health. The cardiovascular health risk reduction, obesity curbing, and physical health enhancement in children and youths should be enough reason to put into consideration the recommendations made by the sources used in writing this essay such as American Heart Association (AHA) (Dowson & Morris, 2005). This is also essential for both physical and psychological benefits in youth, since sports help them to be more physically active hence, lessening symptoms of anxiety and depression.Additionally, sports and physical activities in youths can elicit emotions of connectedness; improve self-efficacy, lead to positive encouragement from teachers, parents, coaches, and peers. This is necessary for children and youths during their lives formative years (Dunlap, 2004). Physical activity is an effective toll that battles many negative impacts of a sedentary life, and therefore, people should consider it as a front-line in health promoting activities for children. References Dowson, A., & Morris, K. E. J. (2005).Fun and games: 100 sport-related activities for ages 5-16. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Dunlap, L. L. (2004). What all children need: Theory and application. Lanham, Md: University Press of America. Kelly, L., &Melograno, V. (2004).Developing the physical education curriculum: an achievement-based approach.Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Volkwein-Caplan, K. A. E. (2004). Culture, sport, and physical activity. Aachen [u.a.: Meyer & Meyer Sport. Read More