The Conversation – Matthew Bowers
“Youth sports are viewed as a rite of passage in a child’s development. If the clichés that permeate sports broadcasts and locker room speeches are to be believed, sports participation teaches children the value of hard work, builds character, and develops future leaders. While the validity of these claims are questionable, the fact remains that parents allow millions of children to participate in youth sports each year. At the very least, parents have partial faith in the idea that youth sports are good for their kids…In a study published earlier this fall in the Creativity Research Journal, some colleagues and I wrote an article that investigated the relationship between childhood leisure activities and creativity in young adults…Particularly interesting is that, in spite of an overtly conservative analysis, the results were stark: time spent playing informal sports was significantly and positively related to overall creativity, while time spent playing organized sports was significantly and negatively related to overall creativity.”(more)