Effects of Physical Education and Participation to Sports on Social Development in Children

The effects of participation to sports on general health have been well known. Through various studies in literature, it has been revealed that participation to sports has positive effects on physical, metabolic, psychological and spiritual health. In addition to benefits in terms of health, participation to sports provides some benefits in terms of social development as well. In this respect, in order to provide societies with socially developed individuals, physical education and participation to sports can be said to have an utmost effect. Especially children at younger ages are thought to be easy going and harmonious individuals in terms of social life provided that they are participated in sports activities at early ages. Having reviewed the literature in the field, it was seen that the number of studies focusing on the relationship between sports and socialization were plentiful, however, as to the number of studies investigating how much physical education and participation to sports activities effected social development in children, it was quite limited. In this framework, this study aimed to find out the effects of physical education and participation to sports on social development in children.