Socialisation through sport

Primary and secondary socialisation, family, club, peers and school: how one becomes a sportsperson and what sport passes on.

The outline, topic by topic

Each topic is weighted the way the exam weighs it.

Socialisation: what is it?
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The process by which individuals internalise their group's norms, values and ways of doing.
Sport is one of the settings that take part in it.
A teenager quits basketball because his friends take up skateboarding. Which agent weighed in?
- The peer group
- The family
- The school
- The federation
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The peer group
In adolescence, peers often count more than family.
Primary socialisation: what is it?
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Childhood socialisation, mainly in the family.
The family first, then school and peers: sporty parents more often have sporty children.
Why is it said that sport does not only socialise to positive values?
- It only reaches elite athletes
- Its values are set once and for all by law
- It can also pass on cheating, violence or stereotypes
- It only socialises in adulthood
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It can also pass on cheating, violence or stereotypes
Sport's "natural" values are a myth: it all depends on context.
Secondary socialisation: what is it?
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Socialisation that extends the primary one, mostly in adulthood, into new worlds: work, couple, club.
It reshapes what primary socialisation laid down without erasing it: an adult joining a club learns its rules, roles and relationship to the body.