Introduction
Stress is one of the many mental illnesses that, if not checked and treated earlier enough, may render one unproductive. There is a need to be productive in life, and any disease that may cause the contrary to happen should be prevented. Introducing the use of sports, especially among the youth, is one area that has been used to reduce the impact of stress. Using sports to earn a living or get paid may positively impact the handling of stress among the youth. The reason why sports play an integral part in the lives of human beings is to ensure the proper functioning of the body through the 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 who 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. These 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 fees and the agony of scouting for a sponsorship. This paper would want to look into 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 levels. 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, which 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 their health status and behaviour as well. The purpose of this study was to assess the sources of the various types of stress that the students grappled with, the stressors types, and how the students were coping with them. The study found 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 into the present research on the importance of coping mechanisms, as the coping mechanism for the current study is the engagement in sports for payment. It also shows the importance of environmental contributions to an individual’s behaviour.
Merkel (2013) did a study on “Youth Sport – positive and Negative Impact on young athletes.” He underscored that “seventy-five per cent 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 are overweight in America and have an increasingly sedentary lifestyle among most 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 a 70%–80% attrition rate by the time a child hits age 15. He said that with these kinds of statistics, there was a need for the children to be engaged in professional sporting activities that would ensure fewer injuries and 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 that there was a correlation between burnout and 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/sports stress and how they are related to each other.
The importance of students engaging in sports that bring them income cannot be overemphasized. This is based on the findings that the number of college players who 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. These 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 fees and the agony of scouting for a sponsorship.
Behavior Theory
In behavioural psychology, any change in a human is looked at in relation to his or her behaviour. The important aspect of behaviour is that one tends to respond to environmental stimuli that, in turn, help in shaping his or her behaviour. One of these environmental stimuli may be ‘sports’, which is the subject of this paper. The theory of behaviour was established in 1913 by John Watson in his paper titled “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It.” He is thus considered the father of behaviourism (Watso, 1930). His paper summed up the understanding of the importance of behavioural psychology in one single quote that suggested that if given healthy infants 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 in John’s behaviourism theory gained dominance between 1920 and 1950 in psychology (Lange, Kruglanski, and Higgins, 2011). Behaviour theory becomes relevant in this study because the mind governs the behaviour, and if the mind is stressed, then it means it cannot function well, and even the behaviour therein would not be perfect. It is also important to note that sports contribute to behaviour as an environmental aspect, as postulated by John, making it one of the things that would change the way the mind operates.
Quasi-Experimental Design
The study will adopt a quasi-experimental design whereby twenty college students who 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, 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 will participate in the study. The researcher will carry out both pre and post-tests, whereby 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 who 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 in 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 Sports Med.. 2013; 4: 151–160.
Watso, J. (1930). Behaviorism. New Brunswick, New Jersey. Transaction Publishers.
