Positive Youth Development Through Sports Part 2

This chapter has examined research in youth sport through an integrated developmental and ecological lens. The PPCT components of Bronfebrenner’s

ecological system theory and principles of positive youth development combined with the DMSP served as a framework to increase understanding of healthy
youth development through sport participation. Based on youth sport research,particularly Cote and colleagues’ DMSP, the following suggestions are made for youth sport programs aiming to promote positive youth development.

1.Sport programs for children (i.e. age 6–12) should include interactions between children, and between children and adults, that are based on play and opportunities to try out different forms of sporting activities.‘Sampling’ and ‘playing’ during childhood is posited as the proximal processes that form the primary mechanism for continued sport participation at a recreational or elite level.

2.Sport programs during adolescence (i.e. age 13+) can change to include proximal processes built upon more specific training activities and specialization in one sport. As such, adolescents should have the opportunity to either choose to specialize in their favorite sport or continue in sport at a recreational level.

3.The developmental assets of the person (i.e. child or adolescent) involved in a sport program should be a priority of coaches, parents, and adults involved in the sport experience.

4.The eight setting features of the NRCIM should be implemented in sport programs to provide youth with a context that promotes developmental assets and the growth of life skills, competency, and responsibility.

5.Youth sport programs must be designed in consideration of children’s healthy development over time. Administrators, coaches, and parents must look beyond the next game or the season final, to focus as well on the long-term positive developmental outcomes of the child-athlete.

6.The role of coaches and parents in sport is more than simply promoting motorskill development. Parents and coaches have a significant impact on the personal and social development of children involved in sport. Given the importance of these relationships, appropriate training that includes the principle of positive youth development should be provided to all adult leaders in youth sport programs.

The PPCT model serves to highlight the multiple features that should be combined to design and deliver youth sport programs that promote physical health, motorskill development, and psychosocial development. This chapter has showed that these three objectives are not mutually exclusive and that effectively designed sport programs can contribute to healthy youth development. In light of the role that sport can have on the whole development of youth, it becomes imperative that youth sport and positive youth development research inform each other on the best available means to promote enhanced life for all youth.

...........continue Part 3(Final)