Boys in contact sports more prone to fights

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teenage boys involved in football and other contact sports are often aggressive off the field too, new research suggests.

Among U.S. high school students in a national health survey, boys who were on the football or wrestling teams were more likely than other male students to say they'd gotten into a serious physical fight in the past year.

Overall, 45 percent of football players and 48 percent of wrestlers admitted to fighting, versus 38 percent of non-athletes. Boys in other sports, like basketball and baseball, did not have a heightened rate of physical fights, study author Dr. Derek A Kreager told Reuters Health.

Based on the survey responses, the connection between wrestling and aggression seemed to be largely explained by a pre-existing tendency among the wrestlers who were more likely than normal to get into fights even before they joined the sport.

With football, however, the situation was different, explained Kreager, an assistant professor of sociology and crime, law and justice at Pennsylvania State University in University Park.

An important factor, he told Reuters Health, appeared to be whether a player's circle of friends was mainly composed of other football players. When this was the case, the likelihood of fights off the field increased, Kreager found.

The findings, published in the American Sociological Review, are based on a national health survey of thousands of U.S. high school students. Kreager focused on 6,397 male students who were surveyed twice over two years.

The survey data alone cannot point to the reason why football -- and, specifically, having football-playing friends -- was related to fights off the field.

However, Kreager said, "I suspect that it is because males in football groups have to demonstrate their masculinity to their friends by fighting."

It's also possible, he added, that boys with many football-playing friends more often find themselves in situations that raise the odds of fights, like parties with alcohol.

According to Kreager, the findings highlight the importance of separating contact sports from violence. Parents and coaches, he said, should not dismiss fights as a matter of "boys will be boys."

"Self-control and respect for others should be emphasized more than 'winning is everything' and 'kill the opponents' attitudes," Kreager said.

"Otherwise, it is too easy for contact-sport athletes to take the lessons learned on the field ... to off-the-field contexts."

SOURCE: American Sociological Review, October 2007.