Research Questions Community Sports Programs

Community Sports Programs

Are Community Sports Programs a Viable Investment for Cities and Economies?

Recent years have seen states substantially increase their budgetary allocations to community sports programs, particularly youth programs. This trend is informed by the belief that such programs help to reduce negative vices among the youth and to consequently boost the welfare of adolescents and youth in the state. The following research questions seek to assess the feasibility of community sports programs as platforms for improving the welfare of the youth. They assess the said programs based on their effect on the various indicators of welfare among the youth.

RQ1: How does state budgeting for community youth sporting programs compare with the rates of adolescent drug use and abuse?

This question seeks to measure the effect of state budgeting for sporting activities on drug and substance abuse among adolescents and young people. The amount of state budgeting is the independent variable -- it can be measured in terms of the proportion of the state budget allocated to youth sporting activities, that is one-third of the budget, a quarter of the budget, two-thirds of the budget, and so on. This would make it a quantitative, continuous, ratio variable because the figures for budgetary allocation are numerical and presented in fraction form. Moreover, a measure of zero would signify nil budgetary allocation to community youth sports activities (Norman & Streiner, 2008). Adolescent drug use, the dependent variable, on the other hand, could be measured in terms of the reported rates of drug and substance abuse among young people between the ages of 12 and 20 in the state, in which case it would be defined as a quantitative, continuous, ratio variable -- we would collect actual values for the rates of substance abuse in each state and compare them to the state's budgetary allocation. This is a ratio variable because a rate of zero would rightly signify that no adolescents in the given age bracket in the state engage in drug and substance abuse.

RQ2: How does state budgeting for community youth sports programs compare to the rates of adolescent crime?

Just as was the case in the first research question, state budgeting or community sports activities will be the independent variable and adolescent crime the dependent variable. Both variables would still be measured continuous, ratio variables as outlined in RQ1.

RQ3: What is the relationship between the time spent in youth sporting programs, and adolescent academic performance?

This question is geared at determining whether the level of an adolescent's engagement in productive sports activities has any significant impact on their academic performance. The alternative hypothesis will be that higher levels of engagement in sporting activities translates to better academic performance. The level of engagement would be the independent variable measured by the total amount of time one spends taking part in such events every week - a quantitative ratio variable. This is a ratio variable because the intervals between scales are equal -- an individual who spends four hours in sports spends twice the time spent by one who spends 2 hours, and zero hours means that one does not spend any time in sports (Holliman, 2012). Adolescents' academic performance, the dependent variable, can be measured as a continuous, interval variable with scores from 1 to 4 -- we could take actual values for individual students' GPA scores and directly compare them with the time they spend in sporting activities to determine whether there are any significant trends. .