The Role of Sports in Peace-Building: Insights from NCAA Community

Abstract

Sports are not just for fun and recreation but entail responsibilities to promote human development, and peace-building. Through a mixed method causal research that utilized personal interviews, this research summarized the perceptions of combined 113 San Beda University players and coaches - actively involved in Philippines National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA),the associations of variables based on Spearman rho of the levels of characteristics of sports, human development, peace and peace-building efforts. Characteristics of sports relevant to peace and peace-building affect the level of human development of coaches and athletes. The characteristics of sports also affect the level of peace-building efforts. However, characteristics of sports are not associated with the achievement of peace in a broader scope because variety of factors and different actors are involved. The individual coach and athlete’s preference and accessibility on sports are determinants of human development, and peace-building. If the coaches and athletes liked their sports, strongly believed that their sports contributed to physical fitness, mental well-being and social interaction,and strongly believed that sports gave them experiences and enabled them to access individuals or groups of different cultures and levels of ability, then, they also strongly perceived that their sports promoted holistic well-being, and normal life span as healthy people, allowed themselves to express themselves, and be recognized as they enjoyed sports for leisure and affiliation. Coaches and athletes are encouraged to conduct annual orientation and training about infusing the objectives for human development and peace-building, and continuously improve the process. The researcher recommends further study towards higher level of statistical generalization for the NCAA community through quantitative research methods, regression analysis, mediation, and moderation analysis.