Abstract
The objective of this project was to discuss fan behaviors towards sports officials at middle school level. In order to achieve this objective, qualitative research method was used to collect and to analyze data from different secondary sources. The results of the data analysis and literature review indicate that incidences of misbehavior among middle school students during sports events are on the rise.
In particular, most students tend to show disrespect to sports officials by harassing them verbally and physically. The main factors that influence students’ behavior during sports events include frustration, high expectation, crowd demographics, performance of sports officials, and socialization. In order to improve middle school students’ behavior towards sports officials, parents, and teachers should collaborate and help students to internalize the principles of good sportsmanship.
Introduction
A sports event refers to “any interscholastic or intramural athletic activity organized and sponsored by any learning institution, the community, or a business”. Sports events are important because they promote the development of students’ leadership skills and physical wellbeing. Furthermore, they help students to identify their talents in various games such as football and basketball. Consequently, most schools promote sportsmanship among their students.
Sportsmanship refers to “the values of fair play, adherence to the rules of the game, respect for opponents, and acceptance of official and referee judgements”. All stakeholders in sports events are expected to internalize all the values associated with sportsmanship. However, most students at middle school level have failed to uphold the spirit of sportsmanship.
This can be illustrated by the rising number of incidences in which middle school students harass sports officials during or after sports events. A sports official refers to a person who is responsible for enforcing the rules of a game or supervising participants during a sports event.
Statement of the Problem
In the last two decades, middle school students have increasingly exhibited high levels of cynicism and negativity towards their opponents and sports officials. Deviant behaviors such as verbal abuse and physical harassment have become the norm in most middle school sports events across the country. This trend is explained in part by the fact that students want their teams to win at all costs.
However, considering winning as the most important element of interscholastic sports denies students the chance to develop desirable values such as respect for others, self-discipline and responsibility. Poor character development among middle school students has led to an increase in the number of complaints by sports officials, especial, referees concerning various forms of harassment. Additionally, the number of referees and other sports officials who are resigning from their duties for fear of being harmed by students is on the rise.
Undoubtedly, sports officials are very important since they determine the success of any sports event. The officials are tasked with the responsibility of making judgements within a very short time in order to regulate players’ actions. In this regard, sports officials are bound to make mistakes, especially, in games such as football that are rule-oriented.
Nonetheless, sports officials do not deserve harassment from middle school fans due to the mistakes they make on the playfield. If more sports officials resign from their duties, the quality of sports in most schools will significantly decline. It is against this backdrop that this paper seeks to shed light on the behavior of middle school students towards sports officials.
Significance of the Project
Previous studies have shown that the behavior of middle school students towards sports officials is deteriorating despite the efforts made by parents and teachers to promote good sportsmanship among students.
Although the patterns of students’ behavior towards sports officials have been extensively documented, few studies have explained the causes of the observed students’ behaviors. Thus, this project contributes to the existing literature by identifying the behaviors of middle school students towards sports officials and the causes of such behaviors. Understanding students’ behavior towards sports officials has the following benefits.
First, understanding the causes of poor sportsmanship among middle school students will help teachers and parents to develop appropriate strategies to improve students’ behavior. Consequently, sports events will become a source of enjoyable entertainment and an opportunity to nurture the talents of students who intend to pursue careers in sports.
Second, the participation of sports officials in sports events will improve if teachers are able to understand students’ behaviors and to take appropriate actions to improve sportsmanship among middle school students. This will boost the development of sports at middle school level.
Review of Literature
Organized sports events cannot take place without sports officials. However, sports officials’ dropout rate in various sports in the country is alarming. One of the major factors that contribute to the high dropout rate is player and fan abuse. According to Balch and Scott (2007, pp. 3-20), the personality of sports officials is similar to that of the normal population. However, middle school students tend to perceive sports officials as people with very different personalities.
Most middle school students believe that sports officials lack charisma and are excessively neurotic. This can be illustrated by the fact that any decision made by a referee in a game such as football upsets nearly half the players and viewers. The fans and players who are not able to handle their disappointments often attack referees physically or verbally. However, not every referee is able to handle wild fans and uncooperative players. This partly explains the increase in the rate of sports officials’ dropout in various games.
A successful sports official must possess a unique kind of personality. The official has to be levelheaded, confident, and able to handle the pressure from fans. The decisions made in any game or sports event involves some form of communication between the sports official and other participants such as coaches and fans. The decision of the official must be based on the interpretation of the rules that govern the sports event that is taking place.
However, most contest decisions are followed with ridicule from middle school fans and coaches whose expectations about the outcome of the contest is often very high. According to Wolfson and Neave (2007, pp. 232-247), a good official should be able to ignore the negative feedback from the unsatisfied fans and stay focused on the game. Contrary to this perspective, most officials find it difficult to concentrate on officiating games such as football without worrying about being attacked by fans.
Godsdon (2001, p. 89) opine that sports officials can reduce the possibility of being attacked by unruly students if they exercise values such as honesty and objectivity when officiating games. In this regard, sports officials should avoid communicating with fans throughout a sports event in order to prevent any provocation from degenerating into a physical attack. Moreover, every school is expected to provide an administrator to control students during sports events.
Crowds of fans that show enduring team involvement consist of both good and bad students. The students who lack good behavior tend to exhibit their character in terms of excessive complaints and confrontations, which are often channeled to sports officials or the opponent teams.
Enduring team involvement is not the problem since the degree of association with a particular team does not vary significantly between dysfunctional and well-behaved fans (Kreager, 2007, pp. 705-724). Dysfunctional fans usually take advantage of forums such as radio talk shows and websites to attack sports officials through negative and abusive comments.
Although fans are expected to question the decisions made by officials during a game, their actions often contravene the principles of good sportsmanship. Thus, most officials expect deviant behaviors such as excessive yelling from fans in nearly every game. Given that verbal attacks are expected in every game, what matters is how sports officials deal with them. According to Kellett and Shilbury (2007, pp. 209-229), the level of unruly behavior among fans vary with the type of game or sports event that is taking place.
Middle school students are likely to misbehave in sports events such as basketball, baseball, and football because most of them hold these games in high esteem. In addition, the stakes are usually very high when a game such as football is being played since students often bet with their colleagues on the expected outcome of the game. This leads to the development of the win-at-all-costs attitude among students, which in turn causes misbehavior towards sports officials.
The misbehavior of fans in middle schools and other levels of learning have led to adoption of laws that protect sports officials in some states in the United States. The laws often protect registered sports officials from being attacked physically or verbally in the course of performing their duties such as officiating sports events or immediately after officiating the events. The penalties associated with attacking a sports official varies from “a first-degree misdemeanor to a first-degree felony”.
Generally, the need to enact laws that protect sports officials arose from a culture that promotes indecent behavior among students and coaches during interscholastic sports events. Most trained officials often turn down the offer to participate in various games if they expect to be assaulted due to trivial reasons such as fans’ dissatisfaction with a contest decision.
The stress experienced by sports officials as they officiate various games is mainly explained by the “fear of failure, fear of physical harm, and time pressure”. These fears arise as students put pressure on sports officials to take actions that satisfy their needs even though such actions might not be appropriate.
Players in various sports events often receive emotional support from their team managers and coaches. They are often trained to cope with failure and to ignore the negative feedback that they may receive from fans. By contrast, sports officials hardly receive any emotional support during sports events.
The officials are often “left alone during times of harassment, with no support from fans, coaches, or school administrators”. This leads to isolation during times of stress. As a result, most officials experience high levels of mental and physical tiredness as they perform their duties. Ultimately, most officials terminate their commitment to serve middle school students as referees or umpires.
Previous studies indicate that middle school students’ propensity to misbehave during sports events is influenced by personal and environmental factors. Deindividuation is one of the factors that lead to misbehavior towards sports officials. Deindividuation refers to “immersion to a group to the point that one loses a sense of self-awareness and feels lessened responsibility for one’s actions”.
Deindividuation weakens self-control, thereby increasing the ease with which fans are influenced by their surroundings. As a result, spectators may mob, insult, or threaten sports officials. Most fans take advantage of the anonymity provided by a group setting to misbehave.
Personal accountability declines and responsibility diffuses as fans increase their involvement in group activities. Consequently, even the well-behaved fans may be encouraged to imitate bad behaviors such as yelling at officials in order to conform to the groups that they identify with.
Disinhibition is a common characteristic of passionate fans of various sports events. Disinhibition is a state in which an individual’s ability to control his or her behavior, emotions, and impulses are greatly reduced. It leads to a situation in which fans are less concerned about the consequences of their behaviors or what others think about them. Disinhibition eliminates the normal constraints on behavior “such as long-term norms, self-monitoring, and self-awareness”.
In this context, fans’ behaviors are mainly influenced by their immediate emotions rather than rationality and self-control. Consequently, fans may express themselves in a manner that contravenes the principles of good sportsmanship. For example, a very passionate fan may cheer his team by shouting too much or insulting a sports official whose decision he disagrees with.
Frustration is a major determinant of students’ participation in violent acts during sports events. Frustration leads to aggression under circumstances in which fans believe that their chance to win in a particular contest was thwarted by a decision made by a sports official.
Students can respond to their frustrations by attacking sports officials as a means of compensating for their loss. This perspective is supported by the fact that dysfunctional fans consider their violent behaviors as a product of hard work rather than an intention to hurt sports officials. In particular, violent fans tend to believe that engaging in violent behaviors is an effective means of fighting for a win that they deserve.
Frustration increases arousal when students are disappointed with the outcome of a sports event. Moreover, socialization greatly influences students’ behavior towards sports officials. Students who often watch violent movies are likely to engage in violent behaviors during sports events. Moreover, they are likely to use weapons to attack sports officials and their opponents or teammates.
Crowd demographic is also a determinant of middle school students’ behavior towards sports officials during and after a sports event. Several studies indicate that male students are more likely to engage in violent behaviors than females students are.
Similarly, sports events that involve teams from different schools are usually characterized with violence because stakes are often vary high. Students from each school usually focus on winning at all costs in order to show their superiority. In this case, sports officials can be on the receiving end if they make any mistake that causes one team to lose.
Methods and Procedures
Qualitative research method was used to collect and to analyze the data used to discuss the behavior of middle school students towards sports officials. Qualitative research method was suitable for this project since it focuses on meanings, perspectives, and understandings.
In particular, it focuses on determining the meanings that people attach to their behavior, as well as, how they interpret various situations. Additionally, qualitative research focuses on determining people’s perspectives on various issues in their surroundings. Thus, the qualitative research method facilitated the analysis of the perspectives of various researchers concerning the behavior of middle school students towards sports officials.
The data used in this project was collected through a thorough review of the literature on the behavior of middle school students towards sports officials. This involved reading and analyzing the findings of previous studies and the theories that have been developed to explain fans’ behavior during sports events.
Generally, the data was collected from secondary sources such as academic textbooks, peer reviewed journals, and reports of previous studies. The advantages of using secondary sources of data include the following. First, secondary sources of data on students’ behavior during sports events are readily available through various platforms such as online libraries and e-books. This reduced the time required to collect and to analyze the data needed to complete the project.
Second, secondary sources of data present the views of different researchers and scholars. Thus, it was easy to understand students’ behavior and to analyze the factors that influence it in an objective manner. Despite these benefits, some secondary sources of data are likely to have unreliable information. Consequently, only academic textbooks and peer reviewed journals were used to ensure that the conclusions of the project are based on reliable information.
Hermeneutic analysis was used to analyze the data collected for the project. Hermeneutic analysis involves gaining an “in-depth understanding of the meanings of human practices, culture, works of art and text”. In this project, data analysis involved reviewing and interpreting existing literature on middle school students’ behavior towards sports officials. The interpretations were used to make conclusions about the project’s topic.
Conclusion
Results and Analysis
The literature reviewed indicates that cases of misbehavior towards sports officials are on the rise in middle schools. This has led to adoption of laws that protect sports officials from harassment as they perform their duties. Students usually respond to the decisions made by sports officials through deviant behaviors such as verbal and physical harassment. The main factors that determine students’ behavior during sports events include frustration, crowd demographics, the performance of sports officials, and students’ socialization.
The misbehavior of middle school students during sports events can be explained by three theories namely, the social learning theory, instinct theory, and frustration-aggression hypothesis. According to the social learning theory, an individual acquires a new behavior by watching and imitating others. In this context, well-behaved students can gradually learn bad behaviors from their colleagues and begin to practice them. Thus, students’ behavior towards sports officials illustrates what they learn from their colleagues and the society in general.
According to the instinct theory, aggression is an inborn drive. In particular, aggression is an intrinsic drive that can be discharged or fulfilled. This suggests that students can use sports events to discharge pent-up aggression. For example, the celebrations that follow a win in a particular game can help in reducing stress and aggression among students. By contrast, a sports event can increase aggression if students fail to achieve their objectives or goals.
This leads to deviant behaviors such as harassing sports officials. The frustration-aggression hypothesis posits that frustration only prepares an individual for an aggressive reaction. Thus, an individual may or may not express aggression when frustrated. This perspective is illustrated by the fact that responsible students often avoid engaging in deviant behaviors during sports events even if they are frustrated. However, an increase in frustration is likely to result into expression of aggression.
Discussion and Reflection
Sports events play a key role in the development process of students at the middle school level. Teachers and parents value good sportsmanship and expect students to engage actively in sports events. Unfortunately, the level of sportsmanship among students in middle schools is deteriorating.
This failure can be attributed to the permissiveness of the society and school administrators towards aggression in sports events. Parents and teachers alike engage in deviant behaviors during sports events within and outside schools, thereby setting bad precedence for students. Students, on the other hand, have over time developed the culture of winning at all costs, which leads to misbehavior during sports events.
Therefore, parents and teachers must collaborate to help students to internalize the principles of sportsmanship. Parents must help their children to understand that losing in a sports event is not the end of everything. They should encourage their children to learn to cope with failure and appreciate the contributions of sports officials in every game.
Teachers and school administrators should focus on promoting discipline among students. Moreover, they should establish a conflict resolution mechanism to address any disagreements that may arise between sports officials and students in order to avoid violence. Students are also expected to act responsibly and to respect sports officials in order to benefit from sports events.
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