Character Changes Related to Sports Participation and Contextual Factors Among Secondary School Students

Sports participation is hailed as one of the effective ways of nurturing positive character among the youth. However, some studies have also indicated that sports may lead to undesirable behavior when conducted under certain uncontrolled conditions. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of selected contextual factors on character changes related to sports participation among secondary school students. The study focused on level of sports participation, gender, age, type of sport, school category, school status, school type, and class level of students as independent variables with potential to influence character changes related to sports participation. A Quasi-experimental research design was utilized, with the dependent variable of character traits assessed at the pre and post three months competitive games season. Purposive sampling was used to select 336 student-athletes from 24 (9.3%) of secondary schools in Nairobi city county. A close-ended questionnaire on character which was adapted from Individual and Team Character in Sport Questionnaire (ITCSQ) and Arizona Sport Summit Accord (ASSA) was utilized for data collection at the pre-and posttests. Matched Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank test showed significant negative change in honest /integrity character component scores between pre-test and post-test (p=0.006). Multinomial Logistic Regression Analyses showed that boarding status, school category and type of sport can significantly (p<0.05) influence character changes among competitive student-athletes. Therefore it is concluded that boarding status, school category and type of sport can influence outcomes of sports experiences leading to positive or negative character change. It is therefore recommended that curriculum developers and implementers should consider contextual factors to optimize sports experiences and outcomes to promote desirable character changes and development.