Corliss Bean

Understanding how organized youth sport maybe harming individual players within the family unit: a literature review.

Within the United States, close to 45 million youths between the ages of 6 and 18 participate in some form of organized sports. While recent reviews have shown the positive effects of youth sport participation on youth health, there are also several negative factors surrounding the youth sport environment. To date, a comprehensive review of the negative physical and psychological effects of organized sport on youth has not been done and little thus far has documented the effect organized sport has on other players within a family, particularly on parents and siblings. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to conduct a review of studies on the negative effects of organized sport on the youth athlete and their parents and siblings. Articles were found by searching multiple databases (Physical Education Index and Sociology, Psychology databases (Proquest), SPORTDiscus and Health, History, Management databases (EBSCOhost), Science, Social Science, Arts and Humanities on Web of Science (ISI), SCOPUS and Scirus (Elsevier). Results show the darker side of organized sport for actors within the family unit. A model is proposed to explain under which circumstances sport leads to positive versus negative outcomes, ideas for future research are drawn and recommendations are made to optimize the youth sport experience and family health.

Examining the Importance of Intentionally Structuring the Youth Sport Context to Facilitate Positive Youth Development

Researchers argue that sport must be deliberately structured to teach life skills. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in program quality and positive developmental outcomes across 3 youth programming contexts (intentional sport, nonintentional sport, intentional leadership) pertaining to the importance of intentionally teaching life skills. Researchers conducted 184 observations, and 377 youth completed 2 questionnaires. Results indicated intentionally structured programs scored higher on program quality and positive youth development outcomes than nonintentionally structured programs, with intentional sport scoring significantly higher on some measures of program quality and positive youth development than leadership programs. Practical implications and future research areas are discussed.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun: a process evaluation of a female youth-driven physical activity-based life skills program

IntroductionIntegrating a positive youth development framework into physical activity programming has become popular as it is believed that this integration can create the development of both physical and psychosocial skills. However, there has been a lack of intervention fidelity research within the field of positive youth development.Case descriptionThe Girls Just Wanna Have Fun program was designed in response to increased calls for physical activity programs for female youth and is a theoretically-grounded physical activity-based life skills program that aims to empower female youth. The purpose of this paper was to provide a detailed description of the program and a process evaluation of the first year of program implementation. From interviews with youth and leaders, as well as documentation from the leaders’ weekly online log of each implemented session, themes emerged regarding the successes.Discussion and evaluationFindings from this study indicated that program goals were attained and it appears that the program was implemented, for the most part, as designed. The themes related to successes included using activities to facilitate relational time, providing intentional opportunities for leadership, having communicative program leaders who supported one another, and engaging youth in different types of physical activity. The themes related to challenges included difficulties with facility and transportation, some activities being too much like schoolwork, and social distractions and cliques. Included in the paper is a discussion of practical implications and recommendations for community programmers, as well as future directions for the program.ConclusionsOverall, this process evaluation represents an important step in responding to calls for increased evaluation in community-based programs and aids in understanding the process in which positive youth development programs can be effectively implemented.

Integrating life skills into Golf Canada's youth programs: Insights into a successful research to practice partnership

ABSTRACT This article offers insights into a successful research to practice partnership created between the University of Ottawa and Golf Canada, who worked together over the span of two years to integrate a life skills curriculum within two national programs for young golfers: (a) Golf in Schools and (b) Future Links Learn to Play. More specifically, the purpose of this article is to (a) describe how the partnership was created, (b) explain how the life skills curriculum was developed, and (c) share lessons learned from establishing a successful partnership with a national sport organization.

Moving Beyond the Gym: Exploring Life Skill Transfer Within a Female Physical Activity-Based Life Skills Program

Physical activity programs are viable contexts to foster life skills. Researchers contend that programs must be structured to deliberately teach life skills and teach how such skills can be transferred. The purpose of this study is to understand female youths’ perceptions of life skills transfer from participation in a physical activity-based life skills program. Interviews were conducted with eight youth. Results indicated that youth learned intrapersonal (i.e., emotional regulation, focus, goal setting), interpersonal (i.e., respect, responsibility, social skills), and physical activity skills and applied these skills in other life domains. Leaders’ practical strategies used to explicitly teach transferable skills are discussed.

Boozing, brawling, and community building: sport-facilitated community development in a rural Ontario community

Sport, and specifically hockey, is discussed extensively in relation to social identity formation and other social outcomes, both positive and negative, within Canadian society. In this article, we utilize a collaborative analysis to examine an autoethnographic account of participation in a rural community hockey tournament and its various social outcomes. Through this analysis, we discuss the construction of social identities, social capital, nostalgia, and heritage and then we explore the tensions that exist between the values made explicit by institutional sporting bodies, such as the Canadian Sport Policy, and the values embodied by the tournament. We discuss how idiosyncratic elements of the tournament generate social outcomes and promote community development, despite violating institutional norms. By revealing the rift between institutional- and community-level values, we highlight a need for more contextual interpretations of rural community sporting events in order to better understand the complex ways in which they may contribute to local culture and community development.

Is Life Skill Development a By-Product of Sport Participation? Perceptions of Youth Sport Coaches

The purpose of this study was to understand youth sport coaches’ perceptions of life skill development. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 youth sport coaches across 5 organizations. Analyses revealed 4 themes based on coaches’ perceptions: (a) life skills are a by-product of sport participation, and transfer “just happens”; (b) if intentionally addressed, its reactive; (c) coaches recognize the value of intentionally teaching life skills; and (d) coaches identify challenges associated with using an explicit approach to teaching life skills. Results provide evidence for the state of the current sport context and highlight areas for coach education related to life skills integration.

Facilitators and Barriers to Leadership Development at a Canadian Residential Summer Camp

An extensive body of literature has demonstrated how residential summer camps, when appropriately structured, can expose young participants to experiences that are conducive to their global development (Bialeschki, Henderson, & James, 2007; Garst, Browne, & Bialeschki, 2011; Thurber, Scanlin, Scheuler, & Henderson, 2007). However, much less is known about how the development of camp staff members, those who oversee camp activities, is influenced by their camp participation (Duerden et al., 2014). This is an especially important area of inquiry given that in most cases, camp staff members are adolescents and emerging adults still in an ongoing process of development. Some studies have shown how there are positive developmental outcomes associated with working as a staff member at camp, with a primary outcome being the development of leadership (Brandt & Arnold, 2006; Garst & Johnson, 2005). However, to date, no studies have specifically examined staff members’ perspectives on their camp participation and leadership development. The purpose of this study was to examine the facilitators and barriers perceived to influence leadership development at a Canadian residential summer camp. The current study took place at a nonprofit residential summer camp in the province of Ontario, Canada. Interviews were conducted with 12 individuals (seven females, five males) who were in different leadership positions at camp, and the interviews were analyzed using an inductive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The findings revealed how the majority of participants believed being placed in positions of authority at camp exposed them to learning situations that facilitated the acquisition of the knowledge and skills needed to become effective leaders. More specifically, some participants described how learning communication skills, developing confidence, and shadowing more experienced counselors facilitated leadership development. However, many participants also faced situations that hindered their ability to develop leadership skills as they experienced internal conflicts and discussed the lack of constructive feedback they received. Taken together, the findings of this study demonstrate how residential summer camps can offer staff members a wide range of experiences that can both facilitate and hinder their leadership development. The current findings have important practical implications, highlighting how administrators can deliberately structure their camps to promote the development of staff members’ leadership skills.

Re-examining the youth program quality survey as a tool to assess quality within youth programming

Abstract The Youth Program Quality Survey is a 24-item measure of program quality designed to evaluate participant perceptions of experiences in short- and long-term youth programs. The Youth Program Quality Survey was developed based on the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine’s eight program setting features that can contribute to the positive development of youth. This measurement tool is quite new within the field and as such little research has been conducted to determine its validity and reliability. The current study is designed to examine three previously proposed factor structures with a sample of 391 youth between the ages of 10 and 18 who participated in 38 different youth programs (e.g. sport, leadership, in-school-mentoring). Confirmatory factor analysis results indicate model fit issues with all three proposed factor structures. Therefore, an exploratory factor analysis is performed to improve model fit, and a revised 4-factor 19-item model is proposed. An analysis of invariance by age shows that the measurement model did not vary between younger and older youth participants. Practical implications and areas of future research are offered.

Putting program evaluation into practice: Enhancing the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun program

In recent years there has been a call for increased community physical activity and sport programs for female youth that are deliberately structured to foster positive developmental outcomes. In addition, researchers have recognized the need to empirically evaluate such programs to ensure that youth are provided with optimal opportunities to thrive. This study represents a utilization-focused evaluation of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, a female-only physical activity-based life skills community program. A utilization-focused evaluation is particularly important when the evaluation is to help stakeholders utilize the findings in practice. The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to gain an understanding of the ongoing successes and challenges after year two of program implementation and (b) to examine how the adaptations made based on feedback from the first year evaluation were perceived as impacting the program. From interviews with youth participants and program leaders, three main themes with eight sub-themes emerged. The main themes were: (a) applying lessons learned can make a significant difference, (b) continually implementing successful strategies, and (c) ongoing challenges. Overall, this evaluation represents an important step in understanding how to improve program delivery to better meet the needs of the participants in community-based programming.