Harm in Participation Trophies

While it’s natural for parents to want to protect their child’s self esteem, participation trophies are not a good way to accomplish this. Participation trophies are problematic and cause more harm for kids than benefits. These awards stunt kids' development by inhibiting them from learning essential skills such as independence, resilience, and accountability. Awarding everyone regardless of their success is creating an entitled generation that disregards competition and doesn't understand what it means to fail. With participation awards being handed out to everyone, what is the difference between first place or last? If everyone is succeeding then there is no motivation to put in effort at all. In the “Journal of Contemporary Athletics,” Dickhaus concludes that this generation has been primed to expect rewards for minimal effort which can be detrimental. If kids keep receiving praise and commemoration without earning it, they will start believing that working hard is not an important factor in getting what they want. It is in the best interest of our society to stop rewarding our children just for showing up. 

Works Cited

“Debate: Is Competition Good for Kids?” Edited by Richard Longden, INEOS, INEOS AG, https://www.ineos.com/inch-magazine/articles/issue-5/debate/. Accessed 16 Apr. 2023.

Dickhaus, Joshua, et al. "AND THE AWARD GOES TO: EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF 

THE "TROPHY CULTURE" ON MILLENNIALS." Journal of Contemporary Athletics, vol. 13, no. 1, 2019, pp. 39-51. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/award-goes-examining-effects-trophy-culture-on/docview/2214857281/se-2.

In Volume 13 of the “Journal of Contemporary Athletics,”Joshua Dickhaus examines the long term negative consequences that participation trophies are having on Millennials. He conducts an experiment to investigate his hypothesis that trophy culture is increasing narcissism and dependency, while also decreasing competition. One result he found was that 58% of college students believed they deserved to receive a B or higher from simply attending class. These levels of entitlement have increased significantly from past years. Dickhaus concluded that Millennials have been primed to expect rewards for minimal effort which can be detrimental.

“It's All About Me.” Films On Demand, Films Media Group, 2013, 

https://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=96579&xtid=65001. Accessed 16 Apr. 2023.

Segment 25 from the video “It's All About Me” includes the voices of many different people on participation trophies. While they all mentioned different things, the purpose was to explain the hidden harm in these awards. One of the main claims was that the “Trophy Kid” generation was being created by people trying to coach young children by only coddling them in order to keep their self esteem high. While this technique doesn't have any  intended harm, it leads to a loss of competition and makes kids feel entitled. Growing up entitled kids are destined to struggle. Ultimately the conclusion was that these trophies were causing significantly more harm than good. 

Roos, Jordon. Brad, Strand. “The Conundrum of Participation Trophies in Youth Sports.” Phe America, https://www.pheamerica.org/2021/the-conundrum-of-participation-trophies-in-youth-sports/. Accessed 16 Apr. 2023.

Santora, Taylor. "Should participation trophies even exist?" Popular Science, May 2022, p. 18. Gale In Context: link.gale.com/apps/doc/A736686866/BIC?u=viva_jmu&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=62a3390d. Accessed 16 Apr. 2023.

Williams, Matthew J. “Participation Trophies Along with Grade Inflation Are Hurting More Than 

Helping.” The Sport Journal, 2022, p. 1–. https://thesportjournal.org/article/participation-trophies-along-with-grade-inflation-are-hurting-more-than-helping/ Accessed 16 Apr. 2023.

“Participation Trophies Along with Grade Inflation Are Hurting More Than Helping” by Matthew J Williams talks about how today's culture is promoting entitlement. This journal explains the historic change for the worse. This philosophy is being used in and out of classrooms and creating many issues for children who don't learn the valuable lesson of failure and how to cope with it. The author uses the change demonstrated over time to show the very negative effects of participation trophies which our generation has normalized.