Roughly forty million boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 18 take part in organized athletic activities, most of which are not school-based. Boys and girls play in sports as varied as swimming, baseball, soccer, wrestling, and field hockey. The great majority participate in "recreational" leagues in which teams enroll all-comers, compete against local counterparts, and honor the norm "everyone gets to play." The lessons a child takes from his sports involvement-lessons about sportsmanship, fair play, and competition-are shaped in large measure by parental attitudes and behavior. A good deal of attention by sports organizers and scholars focuses on the effect of coaches on young players' attitudes, and justifiably so, but evidence suggests that a player's family has the greatest influence on his views, and within the family, parents are more influential than siblings. Appended are: (1) Shields and Bredemeier; (2) Stoll, Lumpkin, Beller, and Hahm; (3) Kohlberg; and (4) Neo-Kohlbergianism. (Contains 214 endnotes.) [This Working Paper was produced by CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement). For CIRCLE Working Paper 45, see ED491132.]