“It’s not in their best interest”: Leading psychologist backs push to remove finals from junior sport
Leading psychologist Dr. Justin Coulson has put his support behind a controversial move to ban Grand Finals for junior rugby league competitions.
The heavily debated decision has been met with widespread criticism and will see all but one rugby league association scrap finals from ages 12 and below.
Despite the immense criticism around the decision, Coulson revealed why he is in favour of the movement and how it could support young children to stay in sport for longer.
“From a psychological perspective, we’ve actually got pretty good research that highlights in young years (that) competition is not good for kids,” Coulson told SEN 1170 Breakfast.
“There’s a stage in a child’s development where they go through something called concrete operational thinking, what the means is the world is black and white, kids take on whatever the world is as gospel.
“We tend to grow out of that stage by age 12, 13, 14… we get used to the idea that you can win and still be a bad person, we can lose and be a good person, and that your identity isn’t intertwined perfectly with the outcome that you’re getting.
“Essentially what I’m getting at here is that there’s a whole lot of studies that show that competition for kids under about the age of 12 or 14, is really, really hard for them cognitively.
“It’s not in their best interest, what we should be doing in those earlier years, up to the first or second year of high school, is focusing on building… relationships and building confidence.
“When they build confidence and feel like they’re progressing in their skill development, they like it more, which means they’re more likely to stay in it.
“What competition does, is it turns relationships into collaborative into competitive and we see everyone as a combatant, it punishes those who are incompetent and elevates those who are competent.”
Coulson also suggested that a similar system should be put in place for school systems in order to help the positive progression of young children at the same age.