Adolescent Sports and Health Issues

The wellness and health of children

The wellness and health of children between the ages of 6 and 18 who participate in a particular activity is the subject of the topic of adolescents’ health in sports. Due to their physical and mental immaturity, they are especially vulnerable to injuries, heat illnesses, and eating problems. According to Merkel (2013), there are around 45 million children and teenagers that participate in sports in America. However, serious injuries could result in death. Before participating in any organized group activity, such as baseball and soccer, a child should be at least six years old in order to ensure proper psychological, mental, and physical development. Moreover, a precise examination of every kid’s readiness in sports should be conducted to help in establishing whether a child is ready to enlist and the level of competition at which the child can participate effectively. A discrepancy in skills development and sports readiness can culminate in stress, anxiety, and evidently attrition for the youthful participants.

Concerns for adolescents in organized sports

There are many concerns for the adolescents who participate in organized sports. Examples of these comprise eating disorders, which are not the main concern for the participants but they are common in aesthetic sports like gymnastics and wrestling. These sports stress upon body image and weight as success components for competing. In an attempt to compete, 82 % of wrestlers will purposely lose weight (Ricciardelli & McCabe, 2004). This entails losing 3-20 percent of their weight since most of the time the weight is often cut within a short time span. In particular, body aesthetics and visual appeal influence gymnasts’ success. Rhythmic gymnasts are usually necessitated to attain given weight targets to get the desired shape (Klinkowskiet al. 2008). The athletes often face an intense pressure to be in shape and accordingly, 42 percent of female athletes who pursue aesthetics have been established as having eating disorders.

Weight-cutting practices and risks

Youth who participate in athletics use different approaches to cut weight comprising fasting, dehydration, the use of rubber exercising suits, fasting, laxatives, vomiting, and diet pills. Such practices culminate in reduced blood volume and plasma, decreased cardiac performance, weakened thermoregulatory reactions, diminished renal flow of blood, and a rise in the level of lost electrolytes. A unique issue, which concerns youthful athletics, is that the athletes’ bones are still developing predisposing them at greatest injury risks. According to Biber and Gregory (2010), about 8,000 students were rushed to the emergency room on a daily basis due to sports injuries. High school competitors suffered about 720,000 injuries yearly. Concerning American football, high school athletes are five times more likely to face serious injuries than those who participate in college.

Overuse injuries

Another common issue that affects the youth are overuse injuries. Almost half of all paediatric sports injuries result from overuse. These injuries are attributable to unfitting workout amount and stretched athletic events. Other risk elements comprise cognitive immaturity, sleep deprivation, physical immaturity, nutritional imbalance, and insufficient fitness (Luke et al., 2011). In the young athletes, major overuse injuries comprise different stress fractures such as tibia, fibula, calcaneus, metatarsals, and others (Luke et al., 2011).

Solutions for youth sports

Several solutions can be explored to address youth sports. For example, there needs to be more collaborative strategies between teachers, health practitioners, parents, politicians, coaches, and community leaders. There is a need to change the societal change of philosophy of youth athletics from an undesirable setting to a positive environment that would allow most students to thrive, benefit and maintain their contribution in athletics. Moreover, policies and guidelines are needed to establish the structure for youth sports grounded on empirical evidence. Given that the local, federal, and state government in instituting inclusive and safe practice program is limited, creating some formal level of education concerning positive physical training, first aid, coaching skills and injury minimization should be supported. Federal and state legislation could help to improve safety in athletics for young sportspeople by establishing a necessary structure for the participation of youth in sports. Programs, which teach and model better moral behavior while offering necessary physical activity. Moreover, nurturing programs, which could assist create healthy an effective values for adolescent sports comprising an institute for studying youth character and sports could be handy.

Role of parents in addressing challenges

The suggested solutions are supported in literature. For instance, Harwood and Knight (2015) propose that parents have a role to play in addressing the challenges of youth sports. For instance, parents should choose appropriate opportunities of sports like the less competitive sport for children who are younger and provide the relevant support. For instance, they could provide positive sentimental support as well as informational encouragement comprising praise. By comprehending and applying proper styles of parenting, parents could avert placing redundant strain or pressure that leads to negative experiences in sports for adolescents. Given that studies have acknowledges both time and financial commitments, owing to demands of adolescent sport, parents need to be informed that the participation of youth in sports can be equally stressful to them and the entire family unit. In their paper, Harwood and Knight (2015) suggested that the ability of a parent to address different demands through various organizational, intrapersonal, and interpersonal competencies and strategies could be highlighted as an attribute of parenting skills.

Efforts by organizations and initiatives

There are different organizations, which are making positive strides along this dimension. For instance, Michelle Obama started an initiative for youth’s organized sports called “Let’s Move!” which fights early childhood obesity by attaining the suggested requirements of physical activity for kids of an hour a day five days weekly for six to eight weeks. Besides promoting movement, youth sports are an avenue for practicing, learning, practicing, and gross motor skills development. Successful motor skill acquisition at a tender age enhances the prospects of future contribution in that activity during adulthood.

Conclusion

To sum up, the popularity of youth’s participation in sports has continued to increase over the years. Despite the increased participation, the youth who participate in athletics use different approaches to cut weight, which predisposes them to health risks. Moreover, a unique issue, which concerns youth athletics, is the fact that the athletes’ bodies are still developing thus they increasingly face risks of injury. Other risk elements comprise cognitive immaturity, limited sleep, physical and emotional immaturity, among others. Several solutions can be explored to address youth sports. Moreover, various organizations have stepped up to address the issue. In my opinion, children should be subjected to a thorough examination to assess their readiness to participate in sports as an attempt to establishing the readiness of a child to enrol at the level of competition at which the child could participate effectively.

References

Biber, R., & Gregory, A. (2010). Overuse injuries in youth sports: is there such a thing as too much sports?. Pediatric annals, 39(5), 286-292.

Harwood, C. G., & Knight, C. J. (2015). Parenting in youth sport: A position paper on parenting expertise. Psychology of sport and exercise, 16, 24-35.

Klinkowski, N., Korte, A., Pfeiffer, E., Lehmkuhl, U., &Salbach-Andrae, H. (2008). Psychopathology in elite rhythmic gymnasts and anorexia nervosa patients. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 17(2), 108-113.

Luke, A., Lazaro, R. M., Bergeron, M. F., Keyser, L., Benjamin, H., Brenner, J., ...& Smith, A. (2011). Sports-related injuries in youth athletes: is overscheduling a risk factor?. Clinical journal of sport medicine, 21(4), 307-314.

Merkel, D. L. (2013). Youth sport: Positive and negative impact on young athletes. Open Access J Sports Med, 4, 151-160.

Ricciardelli, L. A., & McCabe, M. P. (2004). A biopsychosocial model of disordered eating and the pursuit of muscularity in adolescent boys. Psychological bulletin, 130(2), 179.