The history of sports is as old as human civilization itself and served a very important purpose in the survival process of our ancestors in the most unforgiving territories spread around the globe. The purpose of sports was to keep the community fit for gathering food, fit for war, and strong against deadly diseases. It also ensured that our ancestors had a chance to polish their skills and gain mastery over nature and their environment. Our existence is proof enough that mostly the fittest of our ancestors survived and helped nurture the human race as we know it. Fast forward into modern times and you will be amazed to see the number of sports that we have created over the centuries. You would be equally amazed to see as how much research has been conducted on the benefits of sports by scores of scientists and researchers. A recent study suggests that sports can play an important part in keeping kids away from smoking. If you want to help stop smoking among sporty teenagers, here’s what the study says.

Between chance and choice

The study was conducted at the University of Southern California (USC) and was published in the journal Child Development.

Researchers studied 1,260 ethnically diverse urban middle class children from sixth to eighth grades. The researchers asked the students to tell them about their smoking habits, any friends who smoked, and the teammates they met while playing organized sports at school. Later, the team studied the relation between participation in sports with teammates who smoked in order to find out how it affected adolescent smoking habits.

The study revealed that youth were more likely to pick up smoking habits from teammates who smoked, and that this tendency was stronger in girls than boys. To the relief of all the health-conscious people out there, the study concluded that kids who participated in more sports were less likely to smoke.

"This result suggests that peers on athletic teams influence the smoking behavior of others even though there might be a protective effect overall of increased participation in athletics on smoking," according to Kayo Fujimoto, assistant professor of health promotion and behavioral sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, who led the study when she was at USC.

Wise decision

Keeping in view the above study, it is important for parents to encourage their children to take up sports in their free time. By doing so, the kids would benefit both mentally and physically, while also remaining at a safe distance from drugs in case they have no means to get rid of their boredom. Talking to your children in a frank way about the bad influence of smoking can help them understand what’s really at stake when they choose to smoke. Cigarette smoke accumulates in the lungs and breaks the normal breathing cycles of smokers, while also slashing through the reserve of stamina. If you don’t want to see your kids panting on the field in the middle of an important game, then take the appropriate measures and teach them how to stop smoking for good.