Can sportsmanship translate into a person’s everyday life? A college students’ perspective

Abstract

College students are taught a variety of courses including physical activity (PA) classes. One component students can learn and experience in their PA class is sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is associated with positive and negative behaviors that are exhibited during a competitive game. Alongside these behaviors, sportsmanship can be transferred into everyday life. Thus, when these behaviors are learned and exhibited in a person’s everyday life, they benefit the individual and those that interact with the individual. The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions and opinions of college-aged students in a competitive physical activity class regarding sportsmanship and its application in life. For this study, participants were surveyed and asked open-ended survey questions requiring them to write their responses. It was found that the participants for this study felt that sportsmanship does transfer into a person’s everyday life. The results of this study reinforce the idea that PA can help positive behaviors and that college-aged student can benefit from participation in a PA class through sportsmanship.