The Costs and Benefits of Early Sport Specialization: A Critical Review of Literature

ABSTRACT

There is a growing trend toward specialization in American youth sport, evident in the number of elite youth competitions and position statements from major medical organizations. Despite growing interest on this topic for kinesiology professionals within higher education, there is a dearth in research regarding the relationship between specialization and athlete health outcomes, especially psychosocial outcomes. This critical review describes specialization theory and the limited extant research on the costs and benefits of single-sport specialization. Topics include: (a) the proposed benefits of specialization from the performance perspective; (b) early specialization and alternative sport participation pathways; (c) the posited psychosocial and physical health risks of sport specialization; (d) ethical concerns; and (e) methodological issues and recommendations for future research. Deeper understanding of the costs and benefits of sport specialization has significant practical implications for youth athletes’ performance and well-being and for other relevant stakeholders in the youth sport system.     

Chinese students at an English-Language university: Prediction of academic performance

There is a paucity of systematic research on prediction of success at the tertiary education level for Asian students, despite the important role that universities play in Asian communities, and despite the increasing numbers of such students who are coming to the West to study. This study reviews evidence collected over the past ten to fifteen years, which relates to the issue of prediction of academic performance of Chinese students at an English-Language and Western-oriented university - the University of Hong Kong. This review is complemented by an analysis of data collected longitudinally over a five year period, using multiple regression, multiple correlation, path analysis and canonical correlation analyses. The results provide evidence of factors which are important in determining the ability of a student to adapt to the foreign cultural and language barriers that exist at this university. In particular, ability in English language and mathematics provides good and reasonably independent predictors of success. The data show the importance of considering the cultural background of students when assessing their aptitude for study, and offer information for Western universities regarding their admissions procedures for Chinese students.     

The Practicum in Study of Student Development: Its Relation to Counselor Preparation

This paper identifies several kinds of counselor activity for which practicum experiences have been or are being designed. These include individual and group counseling, outreach consultation, supervision of practicum students, and the study of student development. The SSD practicum is seen as sensitizing and predisposing the personnel worker to view action research as a relevant and crucial part of counselor education.     

Vulnerability to Bullying: Teacher-reported conduct and emotional problems,hyperactivity, peer relationship difficulties,and prosocial behaviour in primary school children

Twenty five class teachers completed a "Strengths and Difficulties" assessment for 523 children aged from 7 to 11 years of age. Children self-completed a 39-item "My Life in School" questionnaire. One third of the sample were self-reported victims of bullying behaviour. Boys with poor prosocial skills, emotional problems and general difficulties with social interaction, expression of emotion and hyperactivity were at greatest risk of being bullied. There was no significant effect of age. The data support previous research findings that gender influences the prevalence of bullying but not that younger children are more vulnerable. This study provides new evidence that teachers recognise social behaviour and interactions that can significantly affect whether primary school children are bullied.     

Touch your toes! Developing a direct measure of behavioral regulation in early childhood

Behavioral aspects of self-regulation, including controlling and directing actions, paying attention, and remembering instructions, are critical for successful functioning in preschool and elementary school. In recent years, several direct assessments of these skills have appeared, but few studies provide complete psychometric data and many are not easy to administer. We developed a direct measure of children's behavioral regulation, the Head-to-Toes Task, and report performance of participants aged 36–78 months, including a group of Spanish-speaking children, from two different sites (N = 353; N = 92). We examined construct validity, examiner reliability, sources of variation, and associations between task scores and background characteristics. Results showed that the task was valid, reliable, and demonstrated variability in children's scores. A cross-classified hierarchical growth curve analysis indicated that girls, participants assessed in English, and higher-socioeconomic status (SES) children achieved slightly higher average scores than did boys, Spanish-speaking and lower-SES children, but effect sizes were small. Older participants achieved higher scores than did younger children, and there were no effects for site. Results suggest that the Head-to-Toes Task is an informative and easy-to-administer direct assessment of children's behavioral regulation. We discuss implications for its use in early childhood settings.     

A Theoretical Model for Preparing Incarcerated Youth for Careers in an Increasingly Technological World: Computational Logic as a Vehicle for Improving Human Decision-making Skills

Most youth in juvenile delinquent systems end up incarcerated due in part to poor decision-making skills. This study describes a theoretical framework undergirding the relationships across delinquency, learning climate, decision-making, and computational logic. This framework will inform a team of educators, criminologists, and psychologists, and their peers in computer science and mathematics, instructional software design, and content experts as they build and test an innovative instructional model for youth in secure care settings. The goal of the system is to improve human decision-making skills, while preparing youth for further education potentially leading to careers in STEM fields.     

Adolescent-parent conflict in middle-class African American families

Everyday conflicts between adolescents and parents were examined in 95 middle-class African American families, 44 with preadolescents and 51 with early adolescents, who were further divided into two groups based on family income. The incidence, frequency, and intensity of conflicts were assessed using the Issues Checklist, and content, justifications, and resolutions were coded from individual interviews. Conflicts were relatively frequent, low in intensity, and occurred over issues such as the adolescent's room, chores, choice of activities, and homework. Early adolescents rated conflicts as more intense than did preadolescents, but mothers' ratings of conflict intensity and families' ratings of conflict frequency differed by family income. African American adolescents primarily reasoned about conflicts as issues of personal jurisdiction, whereas their mothers primarily appealed to social conventions. Nearly all conflicts were resolved by adolescents giving in to parents, but adolescent concession declined with age, whereas unresolved conflicts and use of punishment increased. Number and intensity of conflicts and adolescent concession were predicted by both parenting practices and sociodemographic background; conflict frequency and joint resolution were predicted only by parents' educational attainment. Although conflict may reflect normative developmental processes of individuation, the cultural and ecological context of middle-class African American families influences its expression and resolution.     

A deficit in rime awareness in children with Down syndrome

This paper reports 3 studies comparing thereading and phonological skills of childrenwith Down syndrome (DS) and younger normallydeveloping children of similar reading level.In Study 1, the two groups did not differ insight word or nonword reading, but the childrenwith DS did marginally less well on syllablesegmentation, rhyme and phoneme detectiontasks. Group differences in syllable andphoneme awareness appeared attributable todifferences in verbal ability (BPVS, vocabularyknowledge); however, a significant impairmentin rhyme detection remained in an analysis ofsub-groups equated in vocabulary knowledge. Thedeficit in rhyme observed in DS was replicatedin Studies 2 and 3 using simplified tests ofrhyme judgement, with the majority of childrenwith DS performing at chance on the rhymemeasures. In contrast, the two groups did notdiffer in their ability to detect phonemes inany of the 3 studies and performed above chancein initial phoneme detection and alliterationjudgement tasks, although the identification offinal phonemes was at a much lower level. Correlational analyses indicated a relationshipbetween phonological skills and reading inboth groups. However, for children with DS,letter-sound knowledge did not predict readingwhereas it did for normal controls. It issuggested that children with DS do not possessfull phoneme awareness; although they canidentify initial phonemes in words, they do notunderstand phoneme invariance and may rely lesson phonological skills for reading thancontrols.