Effects of a sport-based positive youth development program on youth life skills and entrepreneurial mindsets

Abstract

Sport-based life skills interventions offer compelling pathways to understanding the role of physical activity and sport on youth psychosocial and other development outcomes. This is because of evidence that shows the benefits of sport programs to health and well-being of youth, and more lately other areas such as academic achievement and various life skills such as teamwork, leadership and goal setting. However, much of the research in this area of youth development is largely descriptive, with limited capacity to infer causal relationships and application across contexts. Therefore, this study examines the effects of a sport-based intervention program on life skills and entrepreneurial mindsets of youth from three African countries (n = 146, average age = 15.9 years, female = 48.6%). Half of the recruited participants were assigned to a three-week life skills intervention program and the remaining half to a sport-only control program. Both groups completed a demographic information questionnaire, Life Skills for Sport Scale and the General Enterprising Tendency v2 test. Two-way mixed ANOVAs showed significant post-intervention changes in life skills for both groups but changes in entrepreneurial mindsets for the intervention group only. This demonstrates the relevance of sport-based interventions to youth development outcomes in different contexts and the transformative potential of youth sport reported in previous studies. The findings have important implications for intentional and targeted delivery of programs to enhance specific youth development outcomes.

Sparking entrepreneurial tendencies in youth: Lessons from sport and life skills education in three African cities

“…As this is a practice article with the aim of describing the program as it relates to engaging young people and their futures in African cities, a detailed description of the study methodology and results are not included, but are summarised in a section below. The research study of this program was published separately in Malete et al (2022).…”

“…As previously mentioned, project leaders conducted a study that examined several research questions related to this program during the initial implementation of the program. This study is explained in detail in Malete et al (2022). The purpose of that study was twofold: to provide proof of concept and to feedback to project leaders to inform future iterations of the program.…”

Promoting development of entrepreneurial skills of youth in Ghana through a structured sport intervention program

“…The cross-cutting nature of sports allows individual and organizations to use it as a platform to promote positive youth development (Camiré, 2012;Bruner et al, 2021;Malete et al, 2022;McCole et al, 2022) and to reduce the occurrence of aggression (Carraro et al, 2014). Positive youth development (PYD), an asset-based approach to youth development, has attracted McLaren et al, 2021;Zhu and Shek, 2021;Qi et al, 2022).…”

An Examination of the Latent Structure and Reproducibility of the Life Skills Scale for Sport in Botswana and Ghana

“…Interest in the role of sport in promoting PYD, as well as the use of sport-based youth development interventions, has grown tremendously over the past decade across the African continent (e.g., Sport for Development Movement; Delva et al, 2010 ; Langer, 2015 ). In fact, recent findings from a study conducted among youth sport participants in Ghana, Botswana, and Tanzania provide evidence for the utility of sport-based interventions on life skills development ( Malete et al, 2022 ). Despite this, and other findings indicating the potential for sport participation to promote adaptive development, there remains a paucity of research examining life skills development through sport among African youth.…”

“…Currently, there is only one known study that has utilized the LSSS in Botswana and Ghana ( Malete et al, 2022 ), but the structural validity of scores produced by this tool within these two countries, and across the African continent is yet to be determined. There are strong similarities in the organization and structure of youth sport in Botswana and Ghana, but potential cultural differences in the value placed on sport.…”