Educating the Student Body

Educating the Student Body
Author: Committee on Physical Activity and Physical Education in the School Environment
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 503
Release: 2013-11-13
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309283140

Physical inactivity is a key determinant of health across the lifespan. A lack of activity increases the risk of heart disease, colon and breast cancer, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, osteoporosis, anxiety and depression and others diseases. Emerging literature has suggested that in terms of mortality, the global population health burden of physical inactivity approaches that of cigarette smoking. The prevalence and substantial disease risk associated with physical inactivity has been described as a pandemic. The prevalence, health impact, and evidence of changeability all have resulted in calls for action to increase physical activity across the lifespan. In response to the need to find ways to make physical activity a health priority for youth, the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Physical Activity and Physical Education in the School Environment was formed. Its purpose was to review the current status of physical activity and physical education in the school environment, including before, during, and after school, and examine the influences of physical activity and physical education on the short and long term physical, cognitive and brain, and psychosocial health and development of children and adolescents. Educating the Student Body makes recommendations about approaches for strengthening and improving programs and policies for physical activity and physical education in the school environment. This report lays out a set of guiding principles to guide its work on these tasks. These included: recognizing the benefits of instilling life-long physical activity habits in children; the value of using systems thinking in improving physical activity and physical education in the school environment; the recognition of current disparities in opportunities and the need to achieve equity in physical activity and physical education; the importance of considering all types of school environments; the need to take into consideration the diversity of students as recommendations are developed. This report will be of interest to local and national policymakers, school officials, teachers, and the education community, researchers, professional organizations, and parents interested in physical activity, physical education, and health for school-aged children and adolescents.

Child's Play

Child's Play
Author: Michael A. Messner
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2016-05
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0813571472

Is sport good for kids? When answering this question, both critics and advocates of youth sports tend to fixate on matters of health, whether condemning contact sports for their concussion risk or prescribing athletics as a cure for the childhood obesity epidemic. Child’s Play presents a more nuanced examination of the issue, considering not only the physical impacts of youth athletics, but its psychological and social ramifications as well. The eleven original scholarly essays in this collection provide a probing look into how sports—in community athletic leagues, in schools, and even on television—play a major role in how young people view themselves, shape their identities, and imagine their place in society. Rather than focusing exclusively on self-proclaimed jocks, the book considers how the culture of sports affects a wide variety of children and young people, including those who opt out of athletics. Not only does Child’s Play examine disparities across lines of race, class, and gender, it also offers detailed examinations of how various minority populations, from transgender youth to Muslim immigrant girls, have participated in youth sports. Taken together, these essays offer a wide range of approaches to understanding the sociology of youth sports, including data-driven analyses that examine national trends, as well as ethnographic research that gives a voice to individual kids. Child’s Play thus presents a comprehensive and compelling analysis of how, for better and for worse, the culture of sports is integral to the development of young people—and with them, the future of our society.

Physical Activity and Behavioral Medicine

Physical Activity and Behavioral Medicine
Author: James F. Sallis
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 242
Release: 1998-08-13
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1452263698

What type, amount, and intensity of physical activity is good for your health? How much exercise is too much? Can avoiding physical activity make you ill or lead to premature death? This crisply written and thought-provoking book examines such issues to give readers the first integrated and consolidated introduction to what is known about the impact of physical activity on health. By selectively highlighting some of the best and most important research in physical activity, the authors synthesize studies and theory from several disciplines. They use a behavioral-epidemiology framework to organize the book and explore such topics as: physical activity and the health of children, adolescents, and the elderly; physical activity and its impact on mental health; the role of physical activity in prevention of particular diseases; health risks of physical activity; and how much physical activity is enough and how to measure it; how to promote physical activity and community-based physical activity interventions. Throughout the book, the authors offer studies of diverse populations, including different ethnic backgrounds and nationalities, and different gender groups, and different socioeconomic levels. Although the health benefits of physical activity are fairly well-known, this book furthers our understanding of how to help people become active enough to enjoy these benefits.

Changing the Game

Changing the Game
Author: John O'Sullivan
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2013-12-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1614486468

The modern day youth sports environment has taken the enjoyment out of athletics for our children. Currently, 70% of kids drop out of organized sports by the age of 13, which has given rise to a generation of overweight, unhealthy young adults. There is a solution. John O’Sullivan shares the secrets of the coaches and parents who have not only raised elite athletes, but have done so by creating an environment that promotes positive core values and teaches life lessons instead of focusing on wins and losses, scholarships, and professional aspirations. Changing the Game gives adults a new paradigm and a game plan for raising happy, high performing children, and provides a national call to action to return youth sports to our kids.

Child Development Through Sports

Child Development Through Sports
Author: James H Humphrey
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 159
Release: 2012-11-12
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1136406514

A guidebook for adults involved in children’s sports! Child Development Through Sports is a commonsense guide for anyone involved in children’s sports, presenting thoughtful analysis with an emphasis on maximizing the development of a child’s social, emotional, physical, and intellectual capabilities through sports. Written by Dr. James H. Humphrey, who has been involved in children’s sports at every level for nearly 60 years, the book stresses the potential contribution sports participation can make to a child’s development and the negative impact it can have if programs are not conducted in an appropriate manner. Child Development Through Sports focuses primarily on the risks and benefits of sports participation for children ages 5-12. This valuable book addresses health and stress as developmental factors, how to identify and develop motor skills, the positive and negative effects of competition, and an overview of the more pressing issues of children’s sports, including supervision, injuries, benefits, and interest. The book is largely based on extensive surveys and interviews with proponents and critics of children’s sports, including parents, professional athletes, coaches, school personnel, and children themselves. Among the topics Child Development Through Sports addresses are: the age at which children should begin playing organized sports which sports are best for children how many sports a child should play—and how often how to judge a good sports program and much more! Child Development Through Sports is an essential resource for parents, teachers, counselors, coaches, and makes a valuable supplemental text for courses in child development and sports management.

Youth Sport, Physical Activity and Play

Youth Sport, Physical Activity and Play
Author: Andrew Parker
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2013-06-26
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1136510397

Sport, physical activity and play are key constituents of social life, impacting such diverse fields as healthcare, education and criminal justice. Over the past decade, governments around the world have begun to place physical activity at the heart of social policy, providing increased opportunities for participation for young people. This groundbreaking text explores the various ways in which young people experience sport, physical activity and play as part of their everyday lives, and the interventions and outcomes that shape and define those experiences. The book covers a range of different sporting and physical activities across an array of social contexts, providing insight into the way in which sport, physical activity and play are interpreted by young people and how these interpretations relate to broader policy objectives set by governments, sporting organisations and other NGOs. In the process, it attempts to answer a series of key questions including: How has sport policy developed over the last decade? How do such policy developments reflect changes at the broader political level? How have young people experienced these changes in and through their sporting lives? By firmly locating sport, physical activity and play within the context of recent policy developments, and exploring the moral and ethical dimensions of sports participation, the book fills a significant gap in the sport studies literature. It is an important reference for students and scholars from a wide-range of sub-disciplines, including sports pedagogy, sports development, sport and leisure management, sports coaching, physical education, play and playwork, and health studies.

Physical Activity and Sport During the First Ten Years of Life

Physical Activity and Sport During the First Ten Years of Life
Author: Richard Bailey
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2021-04-12
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000336700

Evidence suggests that the first 10 or so years of life create the foundation for subsequent participation in recreational and health-related physical activity. This book brings together researchers and practitioners with expertise in issues related to physical activity, physical education, and sport during the primary/elementary phase of schooling, to explore these important issues. Combining inter-disciplinary perspectives, the book addresses the inherent complexity of researching with young children. It looks at the evidence on development during the first 10 years and how that evidence relates to physical activity and to sport, in pre-school, school and out of school. Finally, the book offers a series of national case studies, from Asia, Europe and Africa, demonstrating the importance of age-appropriate sport and physical activity. This is important reading for any student, researcher, educator or policy maker with an interest in physical activity and health, education in the early years or at primary/elementary level, paediatric exercise science, or youth sport.

Understanding Sport

Understanding Sport
Author: John Horne
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2012
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0415591406

In the decade or more since publication of the first edition of Understanding Sport, both sport and wider global society have undergone profound change. In this fully updated, revised and expanded edition of their classic textbook, John Horne, Alan Tomlinson, Garry Whannel and Kath Woodward offer a critical and reflective introduction to the relationship between sport and contemporary society and explain how sport remains an important agent and symptom of socio-cultural change. Fully integrating historical, sociological, political and cultural analysis, the book covers every key topic in the study of sport and society, including: debate, interpretation and theory sport and the media sport and the body sport and politics commercialization globalization. Retaining the accessibility and scholarly rigour for which Understanding Sport has always been renowned, this new edition includes entirely new chapters on global transformations, sports mega-events and sites, sporting bodies and governance, as well as a succinct guide to researching sport. With review and seminar questions included in every chapter, plus concise, helpful guides to further reading, Understanding Sport remains an essential textbook for all courses on sport and society, the sociology of sport, sport and social theory, or social issues in sport.