The Relationship between Children’s Legitimacy Judgments and Their Moral Reasoning, Aggression Tendencies, and Sport Involvement

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate (a) the relationship between children’s judgments regarding the legitimacy of potentially injurious sport acts for adults and for children, (b) the relationships between children’s legitimacy judgments and their moral reasoning, aggression tendencies, and sport involvement, and (c) the relative ability of the latter three variables to predict legitimacy judgments. Analyses were based on 78 girls and boys in grades 4 through 7 who participated in a moral interview, completed aggression ten dency and sport involvement questionnaires, and evaluated the legitimacy of potentially injurious sport acts depicted in a series of slides. Analyses revealed that children accepted more acts as legitimate for adults than for children. Boys’ legitimacy judgments were significantly related to their moral reasoning, aggression tendencies, and involvement in high-contact sports, but girls’ legitimacy judgments were correlated only with their life aggression tendencies. Children’s aggression tendencies were found to be the best predictors of their legitimacy judgments.

Participation in Sport and Moral Functioning: Does Ego Orientation Mediate Their Relationship?

“…Bredemeier et al (1986) found that the extent of boys' involvement in high contact sports such as football, wrestling, and judo, and girls' involvement in medium contact sports such as soccer and basketball, was associated with less mature moral reasoning and greater selfreported tendencies to be aggressive in both sport and daily life. These findings were corroborated by two other studies, which revealed that extensive participation in medium contact sport among young people (Conroy, Silva, Newcomer, Walker, & Johnson, 2001), and in high contact sports among boys at a summer camp (Bredemeier et al, 1987), corresponded to judgments that aggressive behaviors in sport are legitimate. Interestingly, participation in noncontact sports such as gymnastics, golf, swimming, and track and field did not emerge as a predictor of any dimension of morality in these studies.…”

“…A number of studies (Bredemeier & Shields, 1986a;Bredemeier et al, 1986Bredemeier et al, , 1987Conroy et al, 2001;Silva, 1983) have revealed that athletes who have participated extensively in medium or high contact sports display aggressive tendencies, judgments that injurious acts are legitimate, or low levels of moral reasoning. Such relationships, however, have not been identified in athletes of noncontact sports such as swimming, gymnastics, or golf (Bredemeier & Shields, 1986b;Bredemeier et al, 1986;Conroy et al, 2001).…”

“…Extent of sport participation was measured with a single item asking athletes to indicate the total number of seasons they had participated in their respective sport. This item has been used extensively in past research to assess sport participation (e.g., Bredemeier et al, 1986Bredemeier et al, , 1987Conroy et al, 2001).…”

“…Those sports were selected because they can be classified as medium or high contact sports, and past work (Bredemeier & Shields, 1986a;Bredemeier et al, 1986Bredemeier et al, , 1987Conroy et al, 2001) has shown that extensive participation in these sports is associated with low levels of moral functioning, as broadly defined. A total of 18 teams participated in the study.…”

“…A number of studies conducted primarily by Bredemeier and her colleagues (e.g., Bredemeier & Shields, 1984, 1986a, 1986bBredemeier, Weiss, Shields, & Cooper, 1986, 1987 have examined the relationship between sport participation and various aspects of morality, namely moral reasoning, aggressive tendencies, and judgments about the legitimacy of intentionally injurious sport acts. The bulk of this work has focused on medium and high contact sports, as these sports have the inherent potential for injury and therefore directly raise moral issues (Bredemeier & Shields, 1986a).…”