When I was growing up, I played a lot of sports. I had ample opportunity to participate in other extracurricular activities, and when I was really young, I took part in some of them. But by the time I was in high school, I’d forsaken the clarinet and walked away from French Club to focus my energies on sports. At the time, it was my ticket to acceptance in school, and it offered me some measure of respect amongst my peers.

Now that I’m a lot older and a little wiser (just barely), I never play any of those sports anymore, but not a day goes by when I don’t regret the fact that I don’t play an instrument or speak another language. In fact, I look back on my time in high school and wonder why exactly I devoted so much time and energy to sports.

Sure, I had fun, no doubt. And I got plenty of exercise, not to mention carte blanche into certain social circles that would have been otherwise closed to the likes of me. I also learned about perseverance and teamwork, not to mention the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. But when I think back on it all, I often wonder, was it really worth dedicating so much time and emotion, especially at the expense of other potentially enriching activities?

In retrospect, I’d have to say no, especially in light of the strange and interesting things that happen when you get a bunch of teenage guys together who are pumped up on testosterone. The interactions and experiences, not to mention the attitudes that you end up embracing, whether you like them or not, have a profound affect on you, for better or worse. Now, it seems as if science has determined that in certain cases, it really isn’t such a good thing.

Psychologists out of Tufts University have found that youth who participated solely in sports tended to have lower positive development and a higher likelihood of risk behavior when compared to kids who combined sports with other youth activities. Positive development is measured by possessing feelings of competence, confidence, character, and caring. While scoring low on positive development, sports-centric kids also displayed higher levels of bullying, substance abuse, and depression.

This seems to contradict previous studies that have determined that sports participation has a positive influence on a child’s psychological and emotional development, not to mention improved academic performance and professional success later in life (think of Title IX). While this may be true, the current data digs a little deeper and considers whether a combination of activities as well as total time spent participating in them is an important consideration.

According to the study, which appears in the journal Developmental Psychology, that appears to be the case, whereby even one additional activity outside of the athletic sphere might be enough to counteract the effects that the sports mentality has on the emotional and behavioral development of a child. In fact, the researchers found that when young people combined sports with other development programs, they actually scored the highest for positive development and the lowest for risky behavior. Development programs involve such activities as working with adult mentors, life-skills education, and leadership training. These include Boys and Girls Clubs, 4-H, and Scouts.

In the end, the answer is not a simple one. Sports are in fact the single most popular extracurricular activity amongst young people in this country, and there are a lot of positives to playing them. Maybe the key is finding some balance and structuring your child’s extracurricular activities around what they want, taking into account their strengths and weaknesses, rather than simply doing what all the other kids are doing, or following the parent’s wishes.

Joining into the fray just for the sake of fitting in does not always bring about the best results, and there are some darker aspects to the group mentality that do not always bode well for the individual, with the key word here being “individual.”