The results come from a study conducted by Ohio's Injury Prevention Center, Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital. Researchers presented the results this week at the American Public Health Association's annual meeting and emphasized that team sports participation can have "protective and risk-enhancing" effects on high school students.
Researcher Susan Connor commented: "There is a lot of rhetoric that promotes sports team participation as a complete positive -- something that has no negative effects. Sports participation is kind of almost rhetorically positioned as a panacea for social ills; it will stop crime and alcohol and drug use.
"But all the bits and pieces of evidence suggest that's not really true. Our hypothesis was that sports team participation would not be overwhelmingly positive but it would have positive and negative effects, which is just what we found."
(Source: www.reuters.com)
Labels: binge drinking, violence, sports
Posted By: Aspen Education Group