Competition brings well-being and self-worth

The mental health of young people depends to a great extent on how they interact with their peers. At COVID’s height, isolation bred anxiety and its accompanying downsides, like cyberbullying, depression, and self-image uncertainties.

Even in normal times it’s difficult in Iowa for youngsters with behavior challenges. When an epidemic closes off avenues for socialization, a spike in detrimental attitudes is to be expected. Professional research found that to be the case during the two years or so of widespread COVID.

Opportunities for organized competition, both team and individual, can help rebalance a youngster’s sense of well-being and self-worth. That can happen regardless of a kid’s skill levels. Competition in games and contests can stimulate healthy attitudes toward both oneself and others.

You don’t have to be super-skilled, or to play on a team that always wins, to benefit from competitive activities. Everyone, including kids, achieves some level of satisfaction from participating. That’s why schools encourage every student to get involved in some extracurricular activity or other.

Traditional sports of course can help keep youngsters on an even keel, through teamwork, mutual encouragement, and the approval of their peers, coaches, and fans. Good coaching encourages and praises effort and achievement, rather than belittling an athlete’s performance when he or she fails to “win.” It’s uplifting to watch a youngster respond to a coach who truly cares for the team’s individuals.

Other activities, such as music, drama, and speech, to name just a few, encourage self-achievement, whether in a competitive venue or through working together successfully toward a worthy performance.

Opportunities today abound in non-traditional activities as well. The Greene County School District has added interscholastic E-sports (electronic games) to its competitive offerings. Kids whose tastes run toward computers find E-sports to provide the satisfaction of competition that they often don’t get in traditional school sports venues. As a result, the school’s E-sports teams include some youngsters who up to that point had engaged in few or none of the usual school activity offerings.

Another example: computer chess exploded across the nation during COVID, providing an outlet for socialization through the internet among students as well as adults who were isolated by the epidemic. Today millions of youngsters enjoy interscholastic chess competition through chess clubs, coached by teachers experienced in both good classroom practices and chess gamesmanship.

Regardless of the activity, everyone needs to feel respect and approval from others. That’s what competitive activities can provide, as can the sense of achievement from proficiency in a skill, whether competitive or not. Anyone---teacher and coach alike---who helps youngsters find satisfaction in doing a thing well, deserves our gratitude and our support.