This article is from the WebMD News Archive
Lonely Kids on the Sports Sidelines
Oct. 23, 2007 -- In grade school, children's loneliness may reflect their skill -- or lack thereof -- on the playing field.
Researchers from Canada's University of Alberta report that news in the Journal of Sport Behavior.
If you were the king of the kickball field -- or the last to be picked for a playground team -- in elementary school, you may find their findings familiar.
The study included 99 boys and 109 girls in grades 4-6 in seven Western Canadian elementary schools.
In surveys, the students rated their athletic skill and the athletic skills of their classmates.
They also rated their loneliness by noting how much they agreed or disagreed with statements such as "I feel lonely at school," and "I have lots of friends in my class."
In addition, the children rated their classmates' popularity.
For instance, they were asked to imagine going on a school trip with their entire class and choosing three classmates that they would most and least like to be with during the trip.
The most popular kids rated their athletic skills highly, and so did their peers.
The loneliest children didn't consider themselves athletic -- and their classmates agreed.
Which came first: children's loneliness or lack of sports skills? This study, which the researchers say is the first to look at this topic, doesn't settle that.
It's possible that lonely children overestimate how bad they are at sports.
Past research suggests that "loneliness provides a negative lens through which people interpret the world," write Janice Causgrove Dunn, PhD, and colleagues.
Kids can be lonely for many reasons apart from sports, but "athletic ability or athletic competence may be one such factor," the researchers write.
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