YOUTH-SPORTS STUDY AT CLARK FINDS SOME SURPRISES

WORCESTER-- Youngsters who compete in sports have greater self-esteem and
are less likely to use marijuana, Clark University student researchers have
found in a recent study.

Their study also concludes that involvement in organized sports helps
youngsters become more socially competent, and less shy and withdrawn. "The
story line is really kids getting hooked up with sports," said James P.
McHale, one of two Clark psychology professors who guided the researchers.

"They are deriving benefits," he said of those who compete in athletics.
"The question is, do we have enough sports programs and are we getting kids
to the programs?" The study involved 430 seventh-graders ages 11 to 14 at
middle schools in the Main South area. Eighty-seven percent -- 374 children
- -- were age 12 or 13. Youngsters were questioned on a broad range of
topics, including self-image, family life, alcohol and marijuana use, and
sports activities. Researchers found that 13-year-old boys who reported
they experimented with marijuana were less likely to have played an
organized sport in the past year, Mr. McHale said.

The study found that 27 percent of the 13-year-old boys who had not played
sports last year had experimented with marijuana, he said, while just 5
percent of the boys in the same age group who played sports last year had
tried pot. In alcohol use, Mr. McHale reported, there was no difference
between youngsters who played sports and those who did not.

The study was the brainchild of Clark senior Loren Bush, 21, of Queensbury,
N.Y., who came up with it during his freshman year. "I was hoping to show
that getting kids involved in sports early would be a deterrent to
delinquency as they get older," Mr. Bush said yesterday. "But sports
involvement does not prevent delinquency." The psychology major plans to
continue his research with the same group of youngsters when they are
eighth-graders to determine whether those who play sports fare better
academically.

Mr. Bush and three other Clark students, Brienne Smith of Sturbridge, David
Shaw of York, Maine, and Derek Richer of Amherst, N.H., spent the past two
years working on the research. Clark psychology professor Penelope Vinden
also took part.

The seventh-graders interviewed attend Sullivan Middle, Accelerated
Learning Laboratory and University Park schools. Each was asked the same
set of questions.

Researchers reported their findings in terms of percentages instead of
numbers. Of the 12- and 13-year-olds surveyed, 12 percent of the
12-year-old boys said they drink alcoholic beverages, while 24 percent of
13-year-old boys said they drink.

Seven percent of 12-year-olds girls interviewed said they drink and 17
percent of 13-year-girls said they did so.

One percent of boys age 12 said they smoked pot, but 16 percent of the
13-year-old boys said they smoked it. One percent of 12-year-old girls said
they smoked pot, while 8 percent of 13-year-old girls said they did.
Adolescents were chosen, Ms. Smith said, because of the vast changes they
experience between the ages of 11 and 14. Strong influences can have a
profound effect on youngsters during that period, she said. Ms. Smith, who
graduated Sunday from Clark, said researchers found that boys have much
higher levels of self-esteem than girls, especially boys who play sports.
The level of self-esteem among boys who did not play sports was the same as
that of girls who played sports, she said. Girls who did not play sports
had the lowest level of self-esteem.

Youngsters with the highest self-esteem also had the benefit of a
neighborhood role model, either an older teen-ager or an adult, who played
sports with them.

One surprise for researchers was that athletics had no impact on body
image. In addition to the main researchers, about 50 Clark students were
recruited to help conduct one-on-one interviews.

The Clark team was invited to deliver their findings last month to the
biennial conference of the Society for Research in Child Development in
Minneapolis. It marked the first time an entirely undergraduate research
team ran a symposium at the conference, according to Clark spokeswoman
Angela Bezydlo.Submissions are peer reviewed by leading scientists in the
field who do not know the identity of the researchers. Many at the
conference have been working on the same topic for more than a decade.

"This had to be the biggest compliment we received," Mr. Bush said. "They
were looking to us for help in the field."