Is sport good for kids? Child’s Play presents a nuanced examination of this question, considering not only the physical impacts of youth athletics, but its psychological and social ramifications as well. The eleven original scholarly essays in this collection provide a probing look into how sports—in community athletic leagues, in schools, and even on television—play a major role in how young people view themselves, shape their identities, and imagine their place in society.

Introduction: Kids and Sport

Michael A. Messner and Michela Musto

Part I. Playing Fields: The Social Landscape of Youth Sports

Chapter 1. Surveying Youth Sports in America: What We Know and What It Means for Public Policy

Chapter 2. Kids of Color in the American Sporting Landscape: Limited, Concentrated, and Controlled

Chapter 3. Girls and the Racialization of Female Bodies in Sport Contexts

Chapter 4. Sport and the Childhood Obesity Epidemic

Chapter 5. The Children Are Our Future: The NFL, Corporate Social Responsibility, and the Production of “Avid Fans”

Part II. Fields of Play: Kids Navigating Sport Worlds

Chapter 6. Athletes in the Pool, Girls and Boys on Deck: The Contextual Construction of Gender in Coed Youth Swimming

Chapter 7. The Voices of Boys on Sport, Health, and Physical Activity: The Beginning of Life Through a Gendered Lens

Chapter 8. “We Have a Right to the Gym”: Physical Activity Experiences of East African Immigrant Girls

Chapter 9. Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Kids and the Binary Obstacles of Sport Participation in North America

Chapter 10. Examining Boys, Bodies, and PE Locker Room Spaces: “I Don’t Ever Set Foot in That Locker Room”

Chapter 11. Park “Rats” to Park “Daddies”: Community Heads Creating Future Mentors

Afterword: Kids, Sport Research, and Sport Policy

Notes on Contributors

Index