By Bill Raack, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – A new study of youth sports conducted by two University of Missouri-St. Louis professors finds that many kids admit to cheating and other types of poor sportsmanship.
More than 800 athletes between 9 and 15 years old, as well as 250 parents and coaches, were surveyed for the study.
David Shields, an associate professor at UM-St. Louis, says nearly 10% acknowledged that they had cheated, 13% admitted to having tried to hurt an opponent, and 27% said they had acted like bad sports.
"I mean there were encouraging things in the findings, as well", Shields said. "You know, 96% of youth, almost all of the youth, reported that they at least tried to be good sports. I find that encouraging. At least the language is out there."
The study was conducted by researchers at UM-St. Louis, the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis, and Notre Dame.
The results will be published Thursday in the Journal of Research in Character Education.