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In keeping with our efforts to cover the lifespan in thisspecial section of the newsletter, we have invited contri-butions that focus on sport and physical activity inchildren, adolescents, and adults. The goal of this issue isto highlight the range of approaches to studying sport andexercise used across disciplines and cultural settings,including reports from Egypt, Europe, Canada, and the US.As noted in both commentaries by experts in sports andphysical activity, the diversity of research in this areapresents challenges when trying to advance theory aboutengagement in these contexts, but this set of papers offerssome promising leads. What unites the papers is the carefulattention to the importance of the sport or exercise context,but they each highlight distinct aspects, including sport asan empowerment opportunity and a peer socializingcontext for youth, and physical activity as a motivationalgoal domain in adulthood, with particular implications forlifelong health.

Contributing to our understanding of the challenges ofresearch in this area are two Reports from the Lab.Articles in this section report on scholars everydayworking conditions or collaborations within a researchsetting that may be unusual or challenging. In this case, wego Down Under to New Zealand and Australia to lookat two distinct ends of the sporting spectrum eliteprofessional athletes at the pinnacle of their careers, andyoung aboriginal children playing sport. Both of thesegroups presented their own unique challenges to theinvestigators, and their lab stories each relate the joys andperils inherent in studying this topic.

The contributors to the Special Section features,commentary, and lab stories include scholars who have

been international leaders in the emerging research focuson sports and development. We feel privileged that thesedistinguished investigators were willing to share theirinsights with us, and anticipate that their stories mightinspire further focus on the role of sport and physicalactivity in development at all ages, and across diversepopulations.

The Ishraq Program: ReshapingGender Norms in Rural Upper Egypt

Abeer Salem and Nadia ZibaniPopulation CouncilWest Asia and North Africa Regional OfficeCairo, EgyptE-mail: asalem@popcouncil.org

nzibani@popcouncil.org

Engagement in sports activities has recently been identifiedas a tool for development. Considerable research has docu-mented the links between girls participation in sportsactivities and positive health and social outcomes inWestern settings. Regular physical activity helps to reducegirls risk of developing many of the chronic diseases ofadulthood, enhance girls mental health, and reduce thesymptoms of stress and depression. Female athletes tend todo better academically and have lower school drop-outrates than their non-athletic counterparts (PresidentsCouncil on Physical Fitness and Sports, 1997).

The hypothesized links between sports participationand reduced risk of pregnancy were tested in a 1998 study

Introduction to Sport andPhysical Activity asDevelopmental Contexts

Bonnie L. BarberSchool of Psychology, Murdoch UniversityPerth, Western Australia, AustraliaE-mail: b.barber@murdoch.edu.au

and

Karina WeicholdDepartment of Developmental Psychology, University of JenaJena, GermanyE-mail: karina.weichold@uni-jena.de

We have noted increasing consideration of the developmental consequences of sport andphysical activity for development, fuelled by growing recognition of the possible role of suchactivities in both promoting positive development and preventing unhealthy outcomes. Inaddition to the established health benefits of physical activity, sport can provide a forum forengagement in challenging tasks, identity exploration, skill building, and social integration.Such benefits are likely to be relevant across developmental stages, gender, and culture.

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in the United States using a nationally representativesample. Findings indicated that adolescent females whoparticipate in sports tend to become sexuallyactive later in life, have fewer sexual partners,and, when sexually active, make greater useof contraception than their non-athleticcounterparts (Brady and Khan, 2002).

These and other findings suggest thatsports are generally good for girls and thatparticipation in sports functions as adevelopmental resource for adolescent girlsin ways that positively influence their lives.Research in this area in non-Western settings is generallylacking. However, a few tested programs have used sportsin a development context. One of these programs, Ishraq, anon-formal education program, was created to empower ageneration of adolescent girls in traditional and conserva-tive settings and to provide a second-chance for marginal-ized and unprivileged girls to catch up with their in-schoolpeers. Ishraq supports a healthful and active transition toadulthood for disadvantaged out-of-school rural girls, andprepares them to make informed, positive decisions aboutlife issues such as schooling, marriage, and careers.

The program is founded upon the concept of safespace to improve the life opportunities of rural out-of-school girls in a range of ways. It is strategically held inyouth centers as a way of improving girls access to publicspaces. Its curriculum, while aiming to foster entry or re-entry into formal education, emphasizes literacy, and lifeskills such as rights and responsibilities of women, nutri-tion, health and hygiene, violence against women, STIsand marriage, with special attention to reproductivehealth issues, civic engagement, and an unprecedentedsports component.

The rationale for including the sports component inIshraq is to offer underprivileged out-of-school adolescentgirls aged 12 to 15 an opportunity to exercise their right toplay (CRC conventions) and to increase their socialbenefits and inclusion in their communities throughbuilding their confidence, self-esteem, and leadership abili-ties. Creating a safe space for these girls to meet, learn andinteract was the pre-requisite for the program implementa-tion. Youth centers are widely spread within rural com-munities in Egypt (4,600 Youth Centers throughout Egypt)

were identified as a main venue for the program despite thewell-known fact that they are predominantly used bymales/boys, hence excluding rural girls and deprivingthem of the right to use these venues and benefit from theactivities offered. By incorporating the sports component,Ishraq tested the extent to which such a non-traditionalactivity could help to break down the restricting genderstereotypes and gender moulds that prevail in such conser-vative settings.

ContextEgypts population currently contains the largest cohort ofadolescents in the countrys history, with more than 13million boys and girls in their second decade of life. Mostwill complete at least nine years of schooling as a result ofambitious programs initiated by the Egyptian governmentto spread basic education. Despite that progress, however,a sizable proportion of adolescents have missed thoseopportunities entirely. According to the Egypt Labor ForceMarket Panel Survey conducted in 2006 (Brady et al., 2007),

26 percent of girls aged 1319 in rural UpperEgypt either received no schooling ordropped out after just one to two years. Inrural communities selected for the imple-mentation of Ishraqas in all traditionalagricultural communitiesfamilies are oftenhighly patriarchal and tend to hold a strongpreference for sons. A male child is greatlyvalued and often receives more investmentfrom the family. For rural out-of-school girls,

discrimination is therefore an everyday experience that is

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Sports provide girls with access to public spaces

The Ishraq Program includes traditional games

Who could believe theday would come when wewould be able to enter theyouth center.We neverdared come close becauseit was only for men/boysonly. Now we are equal,we have the right to gothere. (Ishraq promoter)

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demonstrated in the low priority given to their education,health care, and individual rights.

Introducing the concept of sports in such a context isthus an unprecedented challenge, given restrictive gendernorms and the resulting belief that participation in sportsis a superfluous and unfeminine activity (Zibani, 2004), andthat girls are not strong enough and are likely to gethurt. Sport is accepted as a male domain and is thereforeconsidered socially unacceptable (Eib) for girls.

At the individual level, girls dont play sports becausethey feel too old to play (even though their age range is 13to 15); they are also afraid that they will not be good at it,and that they will be teased by boys/males in thecommunity.

The Ishraq ProgramIn 2001, an innovative and integrated program called SafeSpaces for Girls to Learn, Play and Grow was launched.Through the 3-year project, the Population Council (PC)and Save the Children (SC) worked in collaboration withthe Center for Development and Population Activities(CEDPA) and CARITAS, to improve the life opportunitiesof rural out-of-school girls 1215 years of age in fourvillages in the Minya governorate. The project adopted abest-practices approach to respond to local needs foreducation and health services, drawing on the collectiveexperience of four NGO partners to provide protectedspaces where girls would be allowed to meet for learningand recreation.

The program aims to create safe public spaces for girlsand improve girls functional literacy, recreational oppor-tunities, livelihood skills, health practices, and mobility.This cooperative program aims to positively influencesocial norms concerning girls life opportunities andenhance local and national decision-maker support for girl-friendly measures and policies.

Sports and Physical ActivityWhile literacy training and life skills education are normaland valued services in the community, it is unusual foradolescent girls to play sports. Yet sports participationoffers new opportunities for girls and helps to break down

restrictive gender norms. Participation in sports providesan opportunity to form friendships, intensify peer net-works, and have more frequent and meaningful contactswith peers. Team membership offers girls a chance to learnhow to communicate, cooperate, and negotiate on and offthe playing fields. It offers a departure from traditionalfemininity, and challenges exclusive male privilege andcultural myths about female frailty. Thus, sports partici-pation may function as a developmental resource for manyadolescent females, enhancing traits that contribute to girlssense of agency.

Unlike literacy programs or other life skills programs,Ishraqs recreational sports component was an unprece-dented intervention in Egypt, with no comparable initiativeto use as a blueprint. Hence, introducing sports foradolescent girls in conservative settings has been a majorchallenge and Ishraq would not have been able to do sowithout securing the understanding and support ofparents, male siblings, and community representatives.

Ishraqs aim was to increase girls participation insports and help them to develop healthy values and atti-tudes. Besides providing recreational opportunities forrural girls, the Population Council developed a sportscurriculum designed to nurture feelings of self-worth andself-confidence and ensure that participants have fun in asafe and activity-based environment, acquire skills in arange of recreational activities, learn information and atti-tudes to help them live safer lives, and make lasting friend-Fun and friendship found in a range of activities

Ishraq participant

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ships (Zibani 2004). The sports activities ran for 13 months,twice a week, with each session lasting 90 minutes. Theinitial sports program included mainly three team sportsonly namely: volleyball, basketball and handball that wereoffered to girls in the program.

Because the sports component was new, the Ishraqpartners hypothesized that the best candidates for teachingsports would be university graduates in physicaleducation; however, this arrangement proved to becounter-productive in many respects. The curriculumdeveloped for team sports was too ambitious to succeedamong novices. The university graduates proved to be ill-prepared to work in villages, both in terms of their attitudestowards promoters and participants and interms of their standards and levels ofexpectation. Thus, Ishraq reached out toresidents and promoters to conduct thesports program. Drawing on lessons learnedfrom the pilot phase, the Population Councildesigned and tested a revised sports curricu-lum that uses traditional games that the girlsare familiar and comfortable with as an entry point to thesports curriculum. These traditional games are somewhatsimilar to hide and seek and musical chairs. Following the 12-week introductory phase, one individual sport (tabletennis) and one team-based sport (handball, basketball, orvolleyball) is offered in each village over the course of tenmonths.

While not part of the initial sports activities, table tennisemerged as an especially popular and practical sport forthis setting. In collaboration with the International TableTennis Federation (ITTF) and its local Egyptian affiliate,Ishraq introduced table tennis using ITTFs internationalprogram, Breaking down barriers with table tennis balls.Table tennis is relatively easy and inexpensive to play andhas been favorably received by girls and parents

Ishraq provided a golden opportunity to enact a verbaldirective issued by the Egyptian Ministry ofYouth in 2001 (currently the National Councilfor Youth) to dedicate specific times andspaces for girls at youth centers located on thevillage level. The pilot phase of Ishraqdemonstrated that youth centers can becomethe safe spaces where girls can congregate,perform group activities and learn skills in asupportive environment.

Girls Readiness to Participate inSports: Basic FindingsAn impact assessment component was builtinto the program design from the outset. The PopulationCouncil conducted baseline and endline surveys anddesigned qualitative data gathering activities to assess theimpact of the program on all eligible girls in the participat-ing and control villages where Ishraq was implemented.Findings related to sports showed that even though thesegirls lead a busy life loaded with heavy domestic responsi-bilities and agricultural work, they expressed a strongdesire to participate in sports activities if an appropriateprogram is offered in their village. Girls had an overallimpression that their community disapproves of grownup adolescent girls participating in sports, but based on

qualitative research conducted before the sports programstarted, 55 percent of the interviewed girls expressed apositive opinion towards girls playing sports. I alwayswanted to play like them and I enjoy their freedom, and theyare strong girls are some of the participants thoughts aboutother girls who play sports in other settings. Among thoseexpressing negative opinions about sports, 25% declaredthat it is unacceptable for girls to play sports and people willsay that we are acting like boys.

Ensuring girls marriageability and preserving girlshonor shape parents attitudes and behavior towards theirdaughters. Mothers were more supportive (75 percent) ofletting their daughters play sports than were fathers (64

percent). Mothers concerns revolved aroundhow the community members would view orperceive their daughters when participatingin sports activities, giving responses such asit is all right (to play sports) if other girls willplay with you; the most important thing is notto allow boys to see you with training suits.Some girls declared that my mother agreed

after she came to the youth center and learned about the project.Findings revealed that a girls male siblings played a

critical role in the decision whether or not their sisterswould play sports. Of those who had brothers, 36 percentstated that their brothers approved of their playing sportsunder certain conditions: I can play but not in front of boys;he didnt mind as long as there are no other boys in the play-ground; or my brother is too young [to have formed patri-archal attitudes] so he agreed.

Prior to the launch of the sports component, other girlswho had brothers (16%), faced resistance to the idea ofhaving their sisters participate in sports, noting My brotherobjected to the sports uniform; my brother said I was actinglike a boy; people will talk about me; or my brother refused,saying that sport is for boys not for girls.

Halfway through the program, community membershad mixed feelings about girls playingsports. Ishraq girls reported that those whostill resisted the idea (40%), labeled them asloose girls, and were convinced that sportstaught them immorality. Others commentedthat it is wrong for a girl to play sportsand wear a training suit. Meanwhile, girlscommented that other community members(36%) regarded their participation positively,noting that sports are good, or that sportsmake girls more active and more aware ofwhat is happening around them, whileothers concluded that sports are generallygood for girls.

Sports for Girls:A Worthwhile ChallengeThe incorporation of sports into Ishraq proved to be chal-lenging. Of all the program components, sports and specificsections of the reproductive health curriculum often provedto be quite difficult for parents and community members torelate to or accept. However, the Ishraq experience showsus that sports help girls to form peer networks, learnteamwork, and exercise leadership. The endline surveyresults demonstrated that the vast majority of Ishraq girlshad a high regard for sports: 94 percent enjoyed playing

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Now I have a say in myfamily. My brothers arehappy with my work and Ihave no problems. Myneighbors and the villagepeople know me now.(Ishraq participant)

Ishraq affected uspersonally . . . we gained selfconfidence, learned how tospeak with familiesregarding difficult andcontroversial issues, learnedimportant informationthrough the new horizonsand health programs, gainedskills in how to manage andshare this new informationand how to work withdifferent types of people.(Ishraq participant)

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sports and 99 percent would encourage their daughters todo so. Ishraq girls reported that they benefited fromplaying sports: 90 percent cited improved physical healthand 59 percent claimed improved mental health (Brady etal. 2007).

The image of an adolescent girl playing sports gradu-ally gained acceptability from parents and communityleaders. Organizing tournaments was used as one way toencourage girls and also to gain visibility and acceptabilityby the community.

The endline survey found that almost half of the Ishraqgraduates continued to play sports, while only 10 percentof non-participants and 3 percent of girls in the controlvillages did so. This emphasizes the success of the sportscomponent and the importance of garnering family andcommunity support if the initiative is to last beyond theprogram.

ReferencesBrady, M., & Khan, A. B. (2002). Letting Girls Play: The

Mathare Youth Sports Associations Football Program forGirls. New York: Population Council.

Brady, M., et al. (2007). Providing New Opportunities toAdolescent Girls in Socially Conservative Settings: TheIshraq Program in Rural Upper Egypt. Population Council(www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/ishraqfullreport.pdf).

Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). The Rightof the Child to Rest and Leisure, to Engage in Play andRecreational Activities Appropriate to the Age of the Child(Art. 31, www.unicef.org).

Presidents Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (1997).Physical Activity and Sport in the Lives of Girls. Washing-ton, DC: US Department of Health and HumanServices.

Zibani, N. (2004). Ishraq: Safe Spaces for Girls to Learn, Playand Grow: Expansion of Recreational Sports Program forAdolescent Rural Girls in Egypt. Cairo: PopulationCouncil (www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/ishraq/Ishraq_Booklet.pdf)

Sports as peer socialization contextsAnne-Sophie Denault and Franois PoulinDpartement de Psychologie, Universit du Qubec MontralMontral, CanadaE-mail: denault.anne-sophie@courrier.uqam.ca

poulin.francois@uqam.ca

Among all organized activities in adolescence, sports havereceived the most research attention. Sports are believed tobring both positive and negative developmental experi-ences to adolescents. On the positive side, sports arehypothesized to give youths the opportunity to developskills, competence, and initiative; increase identificationand commitment to school; and foster positive relation-ships with the activity peers and leaders (Boone & Lead-beater, 2006; Crosnoe, 2002; Larson, Hansen, & Moneta,2006; Marsh & Kleitman, 2003). On the negative side, sportsare also hypothesized to entail high levels of stress,unhealthy competition among youths, and derogatory

coaching (Boone & Leadbeater, 2006; Larson et al., 2006).Most importantly, mixed findings have been found in theassociation between sports participation and youthsadjustment. Whereas these activities are usually associatedwith positive educational outcomes (Eccles & Barber, 1999;Fredricks & Eccles, 2005, 2006; Marsh & Kleitman, 2003),they are also linked to higher levels of alcohol use (Crosnoe,2001, 2002; Eccles & Barber, 1999; Fredricks & Eccles, 2005,2006). These results stressed the importance of looking atthe possible socialization mechanisms involved in thisparticular context.

Peers in Youth Activity ParticipationAmong the different explanations for the developmentaloutcomes of organized activities, the importance of theactivity peer group has been underlined. Peers in organizedactivities are considered a positive source of influence foryouth adjustment. Researchers have suggested that organ-ized activities may serve as a gateway to conventional(Mahoney & Cairns, 1997) and academically oriented peers(Barber, Stone, Hunt, & Eccles, 2005; Eccles & Barber, 1999).However, very few studies have examined peer relation-ships inside the activities.

According to developmental researchers (Rubin,Bukowski, & Parker, 2006), group processes and dyadicrelationships must be considered when studying peerrelationships. At the group level, because most of organizedactivities involve group interactions, being part of thatgroup and liked by the other members may be a key dimen-sion of the adolescent interpersonal experiences. At thedyadic level, the activity peer group gives youths theopportunity to interact with friends and relate with peerswho would normally be outside of their network (Dworkin,Larson, & Hansen, 2003; Eccles & Barber, 1999; Patrick,Ryan, Alfeld-Liro, Fredricks, Hruda, & Eccles, 1999). Thesetwo levels of peer relations are likely to characterize thesocial context of sports participation.

Are Individual and Team Sports DistinctPeer Contexts?Whether youths participate in individual or team sportsmight be important to consider when looking at peerexperiences. These two contexts imply the presence of otheryouths, but may involve distinct friendship and groupdynamics that merit further attention. Whereas in individ-ual sports youths are setting personal goals, and mighteven be in competition with the other group members toachieve them, in team sports, youths have to work togetherand collaborate to reach the same group objectives. Thegroup composition in team sports might also be morehomogenous than in individual sports. For skills level andphysical development reasons, youths are usually on ateam with same-age and same-sex peers. Finally, morecohesion and stronger ties between group members arelikely to occur in team sports than in individual sports, asteam spirit is needed for the team to work. As a result, thegroup dynamics, positive or negative, might have astronger impact on youths in this context than in individ-ual sports (see Marsh & Kleitman, 2003). Moreover, giventhe more homogenous and cohesive nature of activitygroups in team sports, group members in this context

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might be more embedded in youths larger friendshipnetworks.

Innovative Data to Examine Peer Processesin Sports ParticipationTaking into account the existing literature on peer socializa-tion in organized activities, we took a closer look at group(i.e., perception of social integration) and dyadic (i.e.,friendships) processes in sports participation. We first lookat the group composition of the activity (size of the group;same- vs. mixed-sex and same- vs. mixed-age) in individ-ual and team sports. We also examined (a) whether youthsperceptions of their social integration in the activity peergroup vary according to sports type (individual vs. team);and (b) whether the associations between the social integra-tion in the activity group and adolescents well being(depressive symptoms and self-esteem) vary according tosports type. Finally, we verified (a) the extent to whichyouths larger friendship networks were embedded inactivity groups, and (b) qualitative aspects of these friend-ships (duration and support).

To address these questions, data from our ongoinglongitudinal project were used. This study started whenyouths were in Grade 6 (April 2001, n = 390, 1112 years-old) and yearly assessments have now been conducted forsix years (n = 303). For the purpose of this study, datacollected in Grade 9 (1415 years-old) were used. Infor-mation about youths participation was collected for onetarget activity. This target activity was identified accord-ing to the following criteria: (a) it was the activity inwhich the youth participated most intensively (i.e.,highest number of hours per week), (b) it was practicedwith other youths, and (c) if more than one activity metthese two criteria, the youths preferred activity waschosen. Only sports were considered as target activities inthe current analyses. As a result, 108 youths wereincluded in the analyses (52% of youths with a targetactivity; 48% girls). Thirty-seven youths participated inindividual sports (34% of sports activities; 62% girls). Forgirls, the most popular individual sport was swimmingand the most popular team sport was soccer. For boys,badminton and ice hockey were the most common indi-vidual and team sports, respectively.

Youths then filled out a detailed questionnaire refer-ring to this specific activity. They had to report on thegroup composition of the activity (number, age, andgender of youths). In addition, five items assessed theirperceptions of their social integration in the activity peergroup (e.g., I am rather alone and dont talk to anyone(reverse coded); I feel appreciated by the other kids).Items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale with responseoptions ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much).Cronbachs alpha was .71.

Youths were also asked to report on their depressivesymptoms (CDI; Kovacs, 1983; 26 items) and self-esteem(Self-perception profile for adolescents; Harter, 1988; 4items). Finally, youths were asked to fill out a friendshipnetwork inventory (up to ten friends). For each nominatedfriend, youths had to indicate whether or not his or herfriend was participating with them in the sport activitypreviously identified, the duration of the friendship, andthe level of support received from that friend (1 item; 1 to

5 scale). Based on this information, the following variableswere computed: (a) the number of participating andnonparticipating friends; (b) the mean duration of friend-ship for participating and nonparticipating friends; and (c)the mean level of support from participating and nonpar-ticipating friends.

What do Peer Experiences Look Like inSports Participation?

The activity group composition. First, we wanted to docu-ment whether individual and team sports differ withrespect to the number of youths in the activity and groupcomposition. No differences were found on the totalnumber of youths in the activity (M = 17.34, SD = 11.42 forindividual sports; M = 20.40, SD = 11.71 for team sports).However, group members in team sports were more likelyto be of the same-sex (2 (1) = 28.63, p < .001) and same-age(2 (1) = 7.73, p < .01) than in individual sports.

Social integration in the activity peer group and youths adjust-ment. Second, we wanted to examine youths perceptionsof their social integration in the activity peer group. Youthsreported higher levels of social integration in the activitypeer group in team sports than in individual sports (t(106)= 2.84, p < .01; M = 4.02, SD = 0.76 for team sports, M =3.55, SD = 0.94 for individual sports). We also found thatyouths perceptions of their social integration in the activitypeer group were significantly linked to low depressivesymptoms and high self-esteem in team sports (r = .27, p