Academic Master

Sport

EFFECTS FOR PAYMENT FOR TAKING PART IN SPORTS RELEASES STRESS

Introduction

Stress is one of the many mental illnesses that if not checked and treated earlier enough, may render one unproductive. There is the need for being productive in life, and any disease that may cause the contrary to happen should be prevented. Introducing the use of sports especially among the youths is one area that has been used to reduce the impact of stress. Using sport to earn a living, or get paid may impact positively in handling stress among the youth. The reason why sports play an integral part in the lives of a human being is to ensure the proper functioning of the body through burning of calories as well as ensuring that one remains physically fit. Payment for taking part in the same is just a fringe benefit to the body. The number of college players that get money for sports is an indicator of the importance of sports. According to Manfred (2013), The average market value for a football player in FBS is $137,357 per annum and $ 289,031 on average for men’s basketball players per annum. This statistics by Manfred (2013) also indicated that an average player earns $ 23, 204 in scholarship money. This means if a student makes cash through for his or her studies in the form of a scholarship, then it would reduce the stress of lack of fee and the agony of scouting for a sponsorship. This paper would want to look into the engaging students in sports for payment to reduce stress.

Reviewing past research

According to Manfred (2013), college student players are denied some of the most important things that they need to have to help regulate their stress level. For instance, failing to provide adequate protection like health benefits cover would make such a student be vulnerable and may not take an active role in sports. Also placing an extreme demand on their energies, psyches, and time would not be appealing to many youths who still need quality time to socialize in other spheres would make them shun sports.

Graf, Melton, and Gonzales, (2010) did “a qualitative study of stressors, stress, symptoms, and coping mechanisms among college students using nominal group process.” This is because they singled out stress as part of the college experience and how students deal with it can greatly impact on their health status and behavior as well. The purpose of this study was to assess the sources of the various types of stress that the students grappled with, stressors types, and how the students were coping with it. The study found out that the stress symptoms were psychological, and were caused by parental expectations, grades, GPA, and multitasking. The coping mechanisms included prayers, surfing the net, talking to mom, and social networking. The importance of this study to the current one is the fact that the study emphasized the mechanisms of coping with stress. This is important in that it gives insight to the present research on the importance of coping mechanisms as the coping mechanism for the current study is the engagement on sport for payment. It also tells the importance of environmental contributions to the behavior of an individual.

Merkel (2013) did a study on the”youth sport – positive and negative impact on the young athletes.” He underscored that “seventy-five percent of American families with school-aged children have at least one child participating in organized sports.” Going by the literature, he said that statistics demonstrate an epidemic of childhood obesity, that showed that one out of three children now being overweight in America, and having an increasingly sedentary lifestyle among most of the children and teenagers. He reported that, for those aged 5 to 24 years, there were increasing sports-related injuries, with a statistic of 2.6 million emergency room visits in one year alone. She also reported that there was 70%–80% attrition rate by the time a child hits age 15. He said with this kind of statistics there was the need for the children to be engaged in professional sporting activities that would ensure fewer injuries but tackle the problem of lifestyle disease; so that they remain healthy. The study found out that “it appears that an emphasis on fun while establishing a balance between physical fitness, psychologic well-being, and lifelong lessons for a healthy and active lifestyle are paramount for success.” (Merkel, 2013).

Chyi et al. (2018), did a study on “Prediction of life stress on athletes’ burnout: the dual role of perceived stress.” their research had a sample size of 195 college students athletes. They then assessed their perceived stress, life stress, and burnout. The study found out that there was a correlation between the burnout and the perceived stress, and the same result also applied to the correlation between burnout and life stress. The study is relevant to the current one as it helps in the understanding of burnout/ sport to the stress and how they are related to each other.

The importance of students engaging in sports that brings income to them cannot be overemphasized. This is based on the findings that the number of college players that get money for sports is large. For instance, according to Manfred (2013), the average market value for a football player in FBS is $137,357 per annum and $ 289,031 on average for men’s basketball players per annum. This statistics by Manfred (2013) also indicated that an average player earns $ 23, 204 in scholarship money. This means if a student makes cash through for his or her studies in the form of a scholarship, then it would reduce the stress of lack of fee and the agony of scouting for a sponsorship.

Behavior Theory

In behavioral psychology, any change in human is looked regarding his or her behavior. The important aspect of behavior is that one tends to respond to environmental stimuli that in turn help in shaping his or her behavior. One of these environmental stimuli may be ‘sports’ that is the subject of this paper. The theory of behavior was established in 1913 by John Watson in his paper titled “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It.” He is thus considered the father of behaviorism (Watso, 1930). His paper summed up the understanding of the importance of behavioral psychology in one single quote that suggested that if given healthy infants and within his specified world to bring them up, he would randomly select them and train each according to any profession that he chooses. He said he might decide to teach one a doctor, artist, lawyer, merchant-chief, or even a thief regardless of the child’s talent, vocations, abilities, penchants, tendencies, and race of the child’s ancestors – he or she would turn out to be what he trains him or her to be. The school of thought to John’s behaviorism theory gained dominancy between 1920 and 1950 in psychology (Lange, Kruglanski, and Higgins, 2011). Behavior theory becomes relevant in this study because the mind governs the behavior, and if the mind is stressed, then it means it cannot function well, and even the behavior therein would not be perfect. It is also important to note that sports contribute to behavior as an environmental aspect as postulated by John, making it one of the things that would change the way mind operates.

Quasi-Experimental Design

The study will adopt a quasi-experimental design whereby twenty college students that have been recruited in sporting activities for payment will be selected based on their stress levels to tell how they have been coping with it since the recruitment into the sport. If selected based on their stress levels, it means they would be subjected to the person-by-treatment approach of quasi-experimental design (Dinardo, 2008). The study will be conducted in Texas State, and two colleges will be purposively sampled so that the students from the two colleges would participate in the study. The researcher will carry out both pretty and post-test whereby in the pre-test will be important in ascertaining the level of stress before the start of financial benefits to the student players and the post-test will determine the level of stress after the financial benefits have been administered to the students.

The Research Question

Are there differences in stress among college players that receive external rewards?

Hypothesis and Prediction

There is a significant difference in stress among the college players who receive external financial rewards.

Conclusion

Sports create a good environment for not only students but other people as well due to the relieving nature it accords the participants. Even though stress can be reduced through engagement on sports, financial benefits to college students would be of great benefit and would encourage many to venture into it so that they release their stresses.

References

Chyi et al. (2018). Prediction of life stress on athletes’ burnout: the dual role of perceived stress. Peer J 6:e4213; DOI 10.7717/peerj.4213

Dinardo, J. (2008). “Natural experiments and quasi-natural experiments”. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. pp. 856–859.

Graf, H., Melton, B., and Gonzales, s. (2010). A qualitative study of stressors, stress, symptoms, and coping mechanisms among college students using nominal group process. Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association, 5(1), 24-37

Lange, P., Kruglanski, A.. and Higgins, E. (2011). Handbook of theories of social psychology: Collection 1 and 2. SAGE. ISBN 9781473971370.

Manfred, T. (2013). Here’s How Much Big-Time College Athletes Should Be Getting Paid. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-much-college-athletes-are- worth-2013-3?IR=T

Merkel, D. (2013).Youth sport – positive and negative impact on the young athletes. Open Access J Sport Med.. 2013; 4: 151–160.

Watso, J. (1930). Behaviorism. New Brunswick, New Jersey. Transaction Publishers.

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