Deck 4: Sports for Children: Are Organized Programs Worth the Effort

Question 1

Informal games are generally organized to emphasize

A)action and personal involvement in the action
B)adherence to rules and strict enforcement of rules.
C)winning and personal performance records.
D)the elimination of physical challenges.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

In organized youth sport programs that emphasize the performance ethic there often is a corresponding emphasis on

A)making sure that children have fun in the programs.
B)putting children in many different programs rather than just one or two.
C)sport specialization among children.
D)pressuring children to quit sports once they have become skilled.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

An emphasis on the performance ethic is most likely in programs sponsored by

A)public, tax-supported recreation organizations.
B)public, non-profit community organizations.
C)private, non-profit sport organizations.
D)private commercial clubs.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

An overall comparison of informal sports and organized sports shows that

A)informal sports are action-centered while organized sports are rule-centered.
B)both informal sports and organized sports are rule-centered.
C)informal sports are player-centered and organized sports are action-centered.
D)neither informal sports nor organized sports are action-centered.

Question 5

A sign that some children reject structured, adult-controlled sport programs is the

A)increased interest in alternative sports.
B)the growth and popularity of after school programs.
C)the recent increase in violent crime among young people.
D)the high turnover among coaches in those programs.

Question 6

Which of the following is NOT among the five changes that have encouraged participation in organized youth sports?

A)Many parents today see the world as a dangerous place for their children.
B)The expectations for parents today are more demanding than ever before.
C)Families with both parents working outside the home is common today.
D)Parents know that playing informal games will harm child development.

Question 7

The author points out that in comparison with today's children, people who grew up during the 1950s and 1960s were more likely to

A)specialize in a single sport.
B)play the same sports that their fathers played.
C)play informal sports more often than they played than organized sports.
D)reject sport participation when the sports were not organized.

Question 8

Research that compares children's experiences in organized and informal sports is scare because of three factors.Which of the following is NOT one of those factors?

A)The standards used by many research ethics committees at universities.
B)Parents who object to anyone studying their children.
C)The decline of informal games played by children.
D)A lack of research skills among scholars who want to study children.

Question 9

The potential for child abuse is highest in elite, specialized sport training programs when

A)the income of adults depends on the performances of children.
B)coaches use training methods used by college coaches.
C)children are encouraged to train with peers they don't know.
D)child athletes rebel against coaches and take over their own training.

Question 10

The trend toward privatization in organized youth sports has

A)made youth programs more selective and exclusive.
B)had a negative affect on people from upper-income areas.
C)helped parents who need inexpensive sport programs for their children.
D)increased the number of racially integrated youth sport programs.

Question 11

Organized, adult-controlled youth sports have become prevalent in neoliberal societies.A neoliberal society is one in which

A)left-wing values have become widely accepted.
B)people voluntarily pay taxes to support public sport programs.
C)individualism is valued and public programs are cut back or eliminated.
D)spiritual values become more important than material values.

Question 12

A negative consequences of the expectation that parents are responsible for the supervision of their children 24-hours a day, 7-days a week is that

A)too many new public parks have been built by communities.
B)adult supervision causes children to become rebellious.
C)parents without resources may be defined as irresponsible.
D)parents spend too much time in cars with their children.

Question 13

Organized youth sports in the United States were originally developed to teach lower-class boys how to work together peacefully and to help middle-class boys

A)counteract the "feminized" values they learned at home from their mothers.
B)become less competitive in their relationships with each other.
C)accept the fact that they would not be as successful as their fathers.
D)learn homemaking skills that they could use after they were married.

Question 14

Child labor laws in most post-industrial societies prevent adults from using children as sources of financial gain in

A)jobs where adult supervisors lack degrees in child development.
B)the film and advertising industries but not in sports.
C)sports but not in other occupations.
D)sports that involve intense training.

Question 15

Different sponsors of youth sport programs have different goals.The programs that are most likely to be inclusive and emphasize overall participation are those

A)sponsored by private, non-profit organizations.
B)sponsored by public, non-profit community organizations.
C)sponsored by public, tax-supported community recreation organizations.
D)sponsored by private commercial clubs.

Question 16

Parental involvement in and concern about youth sports have increased because

A)parents today are imitating their own parents' and grandparents' actions.
B)most parents are reliving their childhoods through their children.
C)sport programs demand that parents come to practices and games.
D)parental moral worth is now associated with the success of children.

Question 17

When Tom Farrey of ESPN interviewed developmental soccer coaches in France, they explained that

A)children who excel in sports are those who have coaches at a very young age.
B)informal games help children develop a personal "feel" for the game.
C)organized games provide the best setting for learning how to improvise.
D)children must learn the rules of a sport before they reach 9-years old.

Question 18

The author notes that sport development experts worldwide agree that

A)coaching education is not essential in youth sports.
B)children are ready at 5-years old to learn how to play team positions.
C)successful coaches always treat child athletes as potential stars.
D)children under 8-years old should not play highly organized sports.

Question 19

The majority of parents today in the U.S.

A)discourage their children from playing organized competitive sports.
B)encourage both their daughters and sons to play organized sports.
C)encourage their sons but not their daughters to play organized sports.
D)demand that their tax money be used to fund organized youth sports.

Question 20

When cultural ideology emphasizes that parents are solely responsible for their children, many parents conclude that they

A)must allow their children the freedom to make mistakes.
B)must assist other parents with children in sports.
C)are morally obliged to stop anyone interfering with their child's success.
D)depend on others to help them raise their children.

Question 21

Research indicates that the talent development process for people who excel in a particular activity begins with

A)an understanding that sacrifice and constant practice are required.
B)structured activities and adult guidance.
C)exploration, unstructured play, and expressive fun in an activity.
D)highly repetitive experiences organized around a particular activity.

Question 22

According to the author, youth sports in the United States today are

A)a fragmented, disjointed, and uncoordinated mix bag of programs.
B)centrally governed by a new national youth sports government agency.
C)all organized around the same goals and purposes.
D)based on research evidence related to childhood development.

Question 23

Project Play, organized by ESPN journalist Tom Farrey, is focused on using youth sports to develop

A)Olympic athletes.
B)physical literacy.
C)young people who succeed in school.
D)political and economic leaders.

Question 24

The author predicts that changes in organized youth sports will be slow because

A)many adults have vested interests in keeping youth sports as they are.
B)there is a growing number of facilities and fields for youth sports.
C)people who run programs always see change as a threat.
D)burnout rates are so high that people are afraid to make any changes.

Question 25

The author notes that it will be difficult to change youth sports because

A)they enable parents to have more free tie for themselves.
B)youth sport coaches have formed a union to resist change.
C)they are often organized by adults as businesses.
D)government regulations prevent changes from occurring.

Question 26

Research suggests that one way to increase fun in youth sports is to

A)ban all adults from watching games.
B)increase action during games and matches.
C)create more rules that clarify expectations for children.
D)eliminate challenges that can overexcite children.

Question 27

The expert panel that developed the Youth Sports National Report Card also explained that youth sports in the United States

A)suffered from a lack of interest on the part of parents.
B)needed more improvement in officiating than in any major topic area.
C)had problems because children today have little interest in sports.
D)had lost its child-centered focus.

Question 28

According to the conclusion at the close of the chapter, organized sport programs for children are worth the effort when the adults who control the programs

A)help children learn that games require cooperation between opponents..
B)create clearcut rules so that children know how they should act at all times.
C)are dedicated to preparing children to play at higher levels of competition.
D)treat children as little adults to teach them lessons they can use as adults.

Question 29

A specific recommendation for change made in the chapter is to

A)use external rewards to motivate children to practice sport skills.
B)teach children to play one aspect of one sport very well.
C)increase opportunities for players to reaffirm their friendships.
D)add more referees and umpires to control action in games.

Question 30

Research shows that the existence of informal children's games requires

A)that players have interpresonal skills and problem-solving abilities.
B)the existence of well-maintained play areas.
C)the availability of the proper equipment for every player.
D)that adults be available if they are needed to solve problems.

Question 31

The Youth Sports National Report Card created by a panel of youth sports and child development experts issued grades for existing organized sport programs in 2005.The GPA across the five major topic areas was approximately

A)A-
B)C
C)F
D)B

Question 32

The Youth Sports National Report Card described in the chapter has

A)had a major impact on privately organized youth sports programs.
B)forced parents and coaches to make significant changes in their behavior.
C)given parents a way to control the leagues in which their children participate.
D)had no significant impact on youth sports in the United States.

Question 33

As youth sports have become increasingly organized around the achievement of performance goals,

A)coaches have been required to take coaching education courses.
B)parents have been less willing to spend money on their children's participation.
C)the play element of sports hae been overlooked.
D)there has been increased participation among the poor and ethnic minorities.