Citation

Watson GG, Kando TM. Pac. Sociol. Rev. 1976; 19(3): 291-316.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1976, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Unlike the children's games described by Mead and Piaget, Little League Baseball is characterized by much external regulation and much ritual. It was hypothesized that rules would, in this case, not be viewed as a means of facilitating the execution of game events, but rather as a form of game control, i.e., social control. This hypothesis was verified. Furthermore, this tendency to view rules as a social control mechanism was found to be stronger among middle-class children than among the working-class respondents.