Parenting Boys

Boys, given the way they hard-wired, need sports and competition. But while sports for boys have enormous benefits, they also cause problems.

Many of the ways boys behave - particularly their love of sports and rough and tumble play - are rooted in the distant past. Boys are hard-wired to form large social groups in which to compete against other boys and sort out winners and losers.

While the benefits of sports participation are well known, less publicized are the downsides of such participation. A study by researchers at Pennsylvania State University published in the October 2007 issue of American Sociological Review suggests that athletes who participate in contact-heavy team sports, such as football, are more likely to commit violence off the field.