Facilitating Positive Youth Development through Competitive Youth Sport: Opportunities and Strategies

Participation in sport during high school has been linked with a range of educational and developmental benefits. However, there is limited research investigating the benefits of participation in sport from the perspective of Aboriginal former youth sports participants. The purpose of the current research was to investigate how participation in sports impacted on the educational engagement, aspirations and development of Aboriginal former youth sports participants. Interpretive phenomenological analysis of semistructured interviews with six participants was conducted. Analysis was conducted utilising the Positive Youth Development asset framework. Participants reported a positive influence for their participation in youth sport on key education related assets including, achievement motivation, school engagement and relationships with teachers. Participants also reflected upon the role of participation in youth sports in the development of empowerment and positive identity assets. For these participants, involvement in youth sport had clear educational and developmental benefits. It is concluded that youth sports participation is one developmental context with the potential to have a positive influence on the educational and developmental trajectory of Aboriginal youth.

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Youth Sport Coaches’ Perspective on Positive Youth Development and its Worth in Mainstream Coach Education Courses

International Sport Coaching Journal ◽

10.1123/iscj.2016-0092 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 38-46 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Fernando Santos ◽

Martin Camiré ◽

Dany J. MacDonald ◽

Henrique Campos ◽

Manuel Conceição ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Youth Development ◽

Positive Youth Development ◽

Youth Sport ◽

Past Research ◽

Coach Education ◽

Related Material ◽

Developmental Context ◽

Sport Coaches ◽

Education Courses ◽

Practical Implications

Positive youth development (PYD) is a framework that has been widely used within sport research to outline sport’s potential as a developmental context. Past research has indicated how coaches play important roles in facilitating PYD through sport and yet, PYD-related material remains largely absent from mainstream coach education courses (CEC). The purpose of the current study was to examine youth sport coaches’ perspective on PYD and its worth in mainstream coach education courses. The participants were twelve Portuguese youth field hockey coaches (one female and eleven males) who coached athletes between four and eighteen years of age. Findings indicated that coaches valued PYD within their coaching philosophy, but were also highly motivated by performance and improving their players’ motor skills. The participants deemed that CEC generally lack PYD-related material, adding that practical strategies informed by the PYD approach should be inherently part of CEC delivery. The findings have practical implications for coach educators, indicating a need and a desire on the part of coaches to have PYD-related content in mainstream CEC.

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Maltreatment in Youth Sport: A Systemic Issue

Kinesiology Review ◽

10.1123/kr.2019-0016 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 237-243 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Gretchen Kerr ◽

Anthony Battaglia ◽

Ashley Stirling

Keyword(s):

Youth Development ◽

Positive Youth Development ◽

Youth Sport ◽

Organizational Policies ◽

The Public ◽

Youth Athletes ◽

Systems Model ◽

Critical Attention ◽

Interpersonal Level

The recent, highly publicized cases of maltreatment of athletes have garnered critical attention by the public at large and stakeholders in sport, alike. For many, these cases threaten popular views that sport contributes in important ways to positive youth development. The growing evidence showing that maltreatment occurs to youth sport participants highlights the need for safe, harm-free sport environments as a fundamental prerequisite for positive developments to be reaped. By unpacking the case study of USA Gymnastics and Dr. Larry Nassar’s abuses in this paper, the authors show that for athlete maltreatment to occur and be sustained across so many victims and so many years, more than a perpetrator is needed. The nature of the environment, from the interpersonal level to organizational policies and societal influences, contributes to the occurrence and perpetuation of athlete maltreatment. Using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological-systems model, the authors argue for a systemic approach to preventing and addressing athlete maltreatment. Recommendations are posed for safeguarding youth athletes and fostering the sporting conditions in which positive youth development can occur.

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Peer- and Coach-Created Motivational Climates in Youth Sport: Implications for Positive Youth Development of Disadvantaged Girls

Social Inclusion ◽

10.17645/si.v5i2.870 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 163-178 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Hebe Schaillée ◽

Marc Theeboom ◽

Jelle Van Cauwenberg

Keyword(s):

Youth Development ◽

Positive Youth Development ◽

Strong Predictor ◽

Youth Sport ◽

Personal Characteristics ◽

Motivational Climate ◽

Multilevel Regression ◽

Motivational Climates ◽

Experience Survey ◽

Climate Scale

The relationship between coach- and peer-created motivational climates and Positive Youth Development is largely unexplored. This is especially true for the latter and in particular with regard to disadvantaged girls. The present study was designed to examine the relationships between perceived coach- and peer-created climates and reported developmental gains among disadvantaged girls participating in sports programmes, and to determine whether these relationships were moderated by personal characteristics. Two hundred young women aged between 12 and 22 completed a questionnaire which included the ‘Youth Experience Survey for Sport’ (MacDonald, Côté, Eys, & Deakin, 2012), the ‘Motivational Climate Scale for Youth Sports’ (Smith, Cumming, & Smoll, 2008), the ‘Peer Motivational Climate in Youth Sport Questionnaire’ (Ntoumanis & Vazou, 2005), and questions regarding participants’ socio-economic characteristics. Multilevel regression analyses were performed to take into account the hierarchical data structure. The analysis revealed that a mastery-oriented coach climate is a very strong predictor of perceived Positive Youth Development. This is based on both the number of developmental domains on which it had a significant impact and the explained variance based on the PRV values of the multi-level models. Unlike previous research on disadvantaged youth in general and disadvantaged girls in particular, the observed interaction effects did not show that disadvantaged girls necessarily gain more from their involvement in organised activities such as sport.

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What is it About Organized Sports? Understanding the Associations Between Experiences in Youth Sport and Positive Youth Development

10.22215/etd/2021-14610 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Katy Hill MacEachern

Keyword(s):

Youth Development ◽

Positive Youth Development ◽

Youth Sport ◽

Organized Sports

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Ties That Bond: Youth Sport as a Vehicle for Social Identity and Positive Youth Development

Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport ◽

10.1080/02701367.2017.1296100 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 88 (2) ◽

pp. 209-214 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Mark W. Bruner ◽

Shea M. Balish ◽

Christopher Forrest ◽

Sarah Brown ◽

Kristine Webber ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Identity ◽

Youth Development ◽

Positive Youth Development ◽

Youth Sport

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Youth sport coaches’ role in facilitating positive youth development in Portuguese field hockey

International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology ◽

10.1080/1612197x.2016.1187655 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 221-234 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Fernando de Sousa Ferreira dos Santos ◽

Martin Camiré ◽

Paulo Henrique da Fonte Campos

Keyword(s):

Youth Development ◽

Positive Youth Development ◽

Youth Sport ◽

Field Hockey ◽

Sport Coaches

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An Experiential Approach to Sport for Youth Development

Journal of Experiential Education ◽

10.1177/1053825917696833 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 40 (3) ◽

pp. 308-322 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Tarkington J. Newman ◽

M. Antonio G. Alvarez ◽

Melissa Kim

Keyword(s):

Experiential Learning ◽

Youth Development ◽

Positive Youth Development ◽

Outdoor Education ◽

Youth Sport ◽

Adventure Therapy ◽

Research And Practice ◽

Experiential Approach ◽

Potential Impact ◽

Groups And Teams

Experiential learning has been used to inform programming and practices in a wide variety of contexts such as adventure therapy and outdoor education. Furthermore, experiential learning has been used to explain the learning process of individuals, groups, and teams. Its relationship with the context of youth sport, however, has yet to be fully explored. Within youth sport, especially sport-based positive youth development (PYD), experiential learning can be utilized to help guide programming and practices of the youth sport leader (YSL). The integration of sport-based PYD and experiential learning is important, as research has indicated that YSLs lack intentionality as they aim to facilitate sport toward youth development. To highlight the potential integration of sport-based PYD and experiential learning, one previously developed model is identified. Moreover, the utilization of experiential learning within sport-based PYD is discussed to help illuminate the potential impact of experiential learning in both research and practice.

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