Differences in social behavior between athlete students and non-athlete students.

 

Study conducted by Stephanie Muench, Caroline Whittington, Raegan Brown, Madelynn Peres and Jay Smith.

• Abstract:

Are students who are involved in school sports more likely to be more ‘popular’ and be seen as more social than students who are not involved in school sports? Student athletes have, for the most part, always had the stereotype of being the most popular and well-known students in the school. From what we see in movies, they are known and glorified as a result of their athletic abilities and thus, gain popularity. However, because of the fact that they are athletes who stay in the public eye of their peers, whether it is at games or at school events, are they really more likely to have more friends than others who do not engage in school athletics? The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a correlation between students being involved in their school’s athletics program and their “popularity”. Therefore we came up with the following hypothesis,  ‘A student that engages in sports will have a bigger group of friends and as a result will go out with more frequency than students that do not engage in any sports.’