Jack McGolrick

4/7/16
Block 3
Literature Review: The Advantages of Being an Athlete- Different Types of Sports Varied
Impacts
According to the 2014 High School Athletics Participation Survey, 7.8 million of the 16
million high school students surveyed participate on a sports team at their school (Gorry, 2016).
This accounts for nearly half of all high school students. The research question posed at the
beginning of my discovery was How do different types of sports impact the lives of athletes
after their athletic careers, and do athletes benefit from sports as a whole?. The purpose of
answering this question was to discover if sports are worth it- if the countless hours athletes
dedicate to their passion pay off in the end.
Before research, my prediction was that athletes benefit greatly from sports, as through
my own personal experience (and my peers), it was fairly clear to me that sports help develop
key traits in athletes that otherwise would not be attained. I was curious to dive into the matter
of whether playing sports at a young age can a) increase salary later on in life b) develop specific
traits c) have a different effect on an athlete depending on type of sport (ex. team vs. individual
sports). Research has driven me to make discoveries on all of my initially posed questions (and
others) and generally followed the initial predictions.
Trait development is a field in which a lot of sports research has been conducted. Sylvia
Rimm (PhD) asserted that sports lead to an overall generalized achievement, and enhance their
accomplishments (2008). This was some good research to get a basis of what most researchers

conclude about sports, but more in depth research was certainly needed. Rather than studying
trait development, Kendall researched Which Personality Characteristics Contribute to Sporting
Success. This may be studying the inverse of my intentions, but as athletes constantly strive
toward reaching success, they in turn develop these traits as an effect of their sport. General
traits that lead to athletes success were narrowly directed to individual sports as an example,
including resilience (hockey), determination (horseback riding), and controlled emotions (golf)
(2014). These traits will continue to exist in the athlete even after they are done playing, and
therefore instill humans with traits beneficial for all aspects of life.
One road research was intended to diverge into once getting a general basis was the
impact of team sports vs. the impact of individual sports. Nia and Beshrat published a
Comparison of Athletes Personality Characteristics in Individual and Team Sports.
Personality surveys revealed that team sport athletes developed greater skills in agreeability,
outgoingness, and psycho-neurotic stability. Individual sport athletes were found to be more
independent and conscientious (2010).
Though team and individual sports may have different effects on athletes traits, Asgari
and Naseri compared all athletes personality traits to those who do not participate in sports. It
was revealed that athletes had a higher level of all personality components other than neuroticism
when compared to non-athletes (2008). This means that overall psychological development is
clearly catalyzed when one decides to play a sport, and that the generally predicted benefits of
sports are real.
One unique area I may dive deeper into is how sports keep athletes out of trouble. In a
survey of about 100 adolescents, it was determined that chances of delinquency were higher in
boys who don't participate in organized activities, when being compared to the adolescent

athletes. Researchers concluded that these sports provided unique "peer affiliations" and
"unstructured socializing" which mediated this relationship between sports and good behavior for
adolescents (Gardner, Roth, & Brooks-Gunn, 2011). This provides more evidence of sports'
positive impact on athletes, especially recreational sports as one develops and becomes a fully
grown and mature adult.
Moving on from trait development in athletes as adolescents, research was directed to
sports impact on athletes later on in life. Tammelin, Hills, and Nayha of the American Journal of
Preventive Medicine sampled nearly 800 people from Northern Finland at the age of 14. Follow
up surveys were take once the participants had reached age 31 (17 years later), which was
considered to a good age for people to be settled into adulthood. Results revealed that "frequent
participation" in sports as an adolescent led to a high level of physical activity in adulthood.
Adults especially tended to work out if they used to take part in require intensive endurance and
diversified skills at a younger age (2003). Sports clearly have a positive impact, and those who
play as a kid tend to be healthier and more active as an adult.
From a more economical standpoint, Barron, Ewing, and Waddell researched high school
athletes economical state as adults compared to non-athletes. This study, conducted at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, researched high school sports participation's effect on
students later on in life when it comes to educational attainment and wages later on in life. Data
from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 and the National
Longitudinal Study of the youth was used to test for this relationship. Researchers concluded
that there was evidence that athletic participation directly affects both wages and educational
attainment. They concluded that what mediates this relationship is athletes' altered frame of
mind in regard to leisure that has been created through the commitment of playing a high school

sport (2006). If sports increase the athletes education and wages later on in life, their
significance is clearly even more than I expected at the beginning of my research.
A more recent approach at this kind of research, Gorry studied the
Heterogeneous Effects of Sports Participation on Education and Labor Market Outcomes. His
study it offered two very distinct differences to the 2006 MIT one- comparison between
team/individual sports and gender, and recently published (2016) research. Gorry uses recent
data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to conclude that in both
middle and high school, athletes earn higher grades and are more likely to graduate.
Another conclusion is also made that athletes are more likely to be employed after their
education. Gorry particularly makes the distinction that team sports show greater gains
for athletes than individual sports (2016). This helped me make sure the effects of sports
on athletes have carried over to modern day.
Finally, with the use of a twin cohort study (to isolate outside variables)Hyytinen
and Lahtonen use empirical evidence to determine the "direct" effects of physical
activities on long-term labor market outcomes. It was concluded that physical activity
causes people to be more "persistent in the face of work-related difficulties" and have a
stronger desire to be competitive in sports, therefore pushing for greater pecuniary
rewards.
All of this research led me to my working thesis so far- sports develop traits
otherwise unattainable that athletes can use to succeed at any point of life, and put adults
at better educational financial, and health standpoint later on, once adults.

References
Rimm, S. (2008). "The Importance of Sports. Retrieved from
http://www.sylviarimm.com/article_sports.html
Kendall, B. (2013, August 14). Which Personality Characteristics Contribute to Sporting
Success? Retrieved from https://www.opp.com/en/Knowledgecentre/Blog/2013/August/The-Sporting-Elite-which-personality-characteristicscontribute-to-sporting-success
Vallerand, R. J. Review- Psychological Foundations of Sport. Journal of Sports Psychology, 7,
306-10.
Nia, M. E., & Beshrat, M. A. (2010). Comparison of Athletes Personality Characteristics in
Individual and Team Sports. Procedia, 5, 808-12.
Asgari, A., & Naseri, T. (2008). The role of sport and personality traits in psycho-social
development of students. Journal of Iranian Psychologists, 5(17), 53-62.
Gardner, M., Roth, J. & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2011 Aug). Sports participation and juvenile
delinquency: The role of the peer context among adolescent boys and girls with varied
histories of problem behavior. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 1(S), 1937. Retrieved from http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/spy/1/S/19/\
Tammelin, T., Hills, A., & Nayha, S. (2003 January). Adolescent Participation in Sports and
Adult Physical Activity. America Journal of Preventive Medicine, 24.1, 22-28.
Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749379702005755

Barron, J. M., Ewing, B. T., & Waddell, G. R. (2006). The Effects of High School Athletic
Participation on Education and Labor Market Outcomes. The Review of Econmics
and Statistics, 82.3, 409-421. Retrieved from
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/003465300558902#.VwZYZfkrLI
Gorry, D. (8 Jan 2016). Heterogeneous Effects of Sports Participation on Education and
Labor Market Outcomes. Education & Economics Journal. 24.1. Retrieved from
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09645292.2016.1143452
Hyytinen, A. & Lahtonen, J. (2013). The Effect of Physical Activity on Long-Term
Income. Social Science and Medicine. 96(C), 129-137. Retrieved from
http://econpapers.repec.org/article/eeesocmed/v_3a96_3ay_3a2013_3ai_3ac_3ap_3
a129-137.htm