Sports Participation and Self-Regulation Skills in Children
Sports Participation and Self-Regulation Skills in Children
There are plenty of physical and health benefits to sports participation in children but there may be further cognitive benefits as well. Early Childhood Research Quarterly published research on sports participation and self-regulation skills in children. There is little experimental evidence investigating the association between sports participation and self-regulation. This longitudinal study followed 4385 participants starting at 4-5 years of age for two years. Using parent, teacher and observer report data, self-regulation was indexed for the children.
The results indicated the following regarding sports participation and self-regulation skills in children:
- young children who participated in individual sports demonstrated marginally but significantly higher self-regulation than those who did not participate.
- participation in individual sports – but not team sports – weakly but significantly predicted positive change in children’s self-regulation.
- children with poor self-regulation were less likely to participate in sports.
The researchers concluded that sports participation may both influence, and be influenced by, early self-regulation in children.
Reference:
Howard, S. J., Vella, S. A., & Cliff, D. P. (2018). Children’s sports participation and self-regulation: Bi-directional longitudinal associations. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 42, 140-147.
READ MORE ON SELF REGULATION SKILLS HERE.
What? Why? How? Self Regulation Skills hand out – download for free.
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