Is sport good for kids? When answering this question, both critics and advocates of youth sports tend to fixate on matters of health, whether condemning contact sports for their concussion risk or prescribing athletics as a cure for the childhood obesity epidemic. Child’s Play presents a more nuanced examination of the issue, considering not only the physical impacts of youth athletics, but its psychological and social ramifications as well.

 

The eleven original scholarly essays in this collection provide a probing look into how sports—in community athletic leagues, in schools, and even on television—play a major role in how young people view themselves, shape their identities, and imagine their place in society. Rather than focusing exclusively on self-proclaimed jocks, the book considers how the culture of sports affects a wide variety of children and young people, including those who opt out of athletics. Not only does Child’s Play examine disparities across lines of race, class, and gender, it also offers detailed examinations of how various minority populations, from transgender youth to Muslim immigrant girls, have participated in youth sports. 

 

Taken together, these essays offer a wide range of approaches to understanding the sociology of youth sports, including data-driven analyses that examine national trends, as well as ethnographic research that gives a voice to individual kids. Child’s Play thus presents a comprehensive and compelling analysis of how, for better and for worse, the culture of sports is integral to the development of young people—and with them, the future of our society. 

 

MICHAEL A. MESSNER is a professor of sociology and gender studies at the University of Southern California. He is the author of several books, including It’s All for the Kids: Gender, Families, and Youth Sports and Some Men: Feminist Allies and the Movement to End Violence Against Women.  

MICHELA MUSTO is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Southern California. Her work has appeared in Gender & Society and Sociology of Sport Journal. 

"A much needed contribution to the fields of childhood and sport studies."

"A carefully crafted and meticulously organized anthology, Child's Play provides a much needed research agenda for studying physical activities and sport participation among young people, and serves as a valuable source of information for any parent or adult concerned about youth sports."

"Messner and Musto have pulled together a powerful collection of essays that offer panoramic insight and riveting detail. The voices of kids are truly revelatory and powerfully demonstrate children’s cultural fluency within the constraints of age and other inequities. Child’s Play is a rare achievement that centers kids’ experience in sports while using it as a crucial prism onto other major sociological projects."

"Together, these essays present an understanding of youth sports supported by research data and ethnographic data that share a child’s voice. This convincing collection recognizes the culture of youth sport and its bearing on the growth of youth. It is for anyone interested in youth sports... Highly recommended."