The Relationship Between Israeli Youth Participation in Physical Activity Programs and Antisocial Behavior
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The Relationship Between Israeli Youth Participation in Physical Activity Programs and Antisocial Behavior Mona Khoury‑Kassabri1 · Helen Schneider1
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract Many intervention programs, including physical activity programs, have been developed to deal with youth involvement in delinquency. The current study explored whether youth participation in sport and physical activity programs reduces their involvement in delinquent behaviors. It examined the interaction effects of the features of the sports program with participation in the sports program. The sample consisted of 126 Israeli adolescents aged 13–18 (M = 15.68, SD = 1.32) who completed questionnaires about involvement in delinquency at the beginning of their sports program and again 6 months later. We found significant reductions in adolescents’ involvement in all the delinquent acts explored: crimes against a person; crimes against property, and public disorder crimes. However, no interaction effects were found between program features (sport type; program intensity; training and supervision in the program; and interaction with community services) and participation in the sports program. The findings highlight the importance of including sports programs in the interventions provided for at-risk youth and call for further investigation of the factors that may increase the benefits provided by participation in physical activity programs. Keywords Juvenile delinquency · Violence · Sports, physical activity · At-risk youth · Sport type
Introduction Youth involvement in violence and delinquency is a significant problem and a major public concern (Armour, Sandford, & Duncombe, 2013; Slavin et al., 2013). Youth involvement in delinquency can lead to many psychological difficulties (McMahon & Washburn, 2003) and is associated with negative outcomes, such as internalizing symptoms, lower aspiration to pursue a college education (Foshee et al., 2016), interpersonal difficulties, and peer rejection (Coie, Lochman, Terry, & Hyman, 1992). In addition, youth delinquency has many societal and financial costs (Amodei & Scott, 2002; Limbos et al., 2007), both for individual victims and for society at large. As a result, many intervention and prevention programs have been developed to help decrease youth involvement in antisocial behaviors (Andrews & Andrews, 2003; Sandford, Duncombe, & Armour, 2008). * Mona Khoury‑Kassabri [email protected] 1
School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, 91905 Jerusalem, Israel
One of the intervention tools used to help youth at risk for involvement in delinquency is having them participate in sport programs (Sandford, Armour, & Duncombe, 2007; Spruit, van der Put, van Vugt, & Stams, 2017). The development of this intervention was based on the fundamental belief and research findings that demonstrated the potential of sports programs to instill positive attitudes, traits, and values in young people and re-engage t
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