Youth Development
Coaching Life Skills through Sport
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rebecca Varney
The purpose of this research is to better understand how a coach’s philosophy may affect the transferability of life skills onto their athletes. Effective coaches have been found to look beyond the idea of winning or losing and have a tendency to develop coaching models based off of improving life skills within an athlete. There is a gap in the literature regarding which contextual factors are linked to the characteristics of a coach’s ability, as well as a coach’s philosophy, in imparting life skills to athletes. Ultimately, the impact of both a coach’s perceived role and expectations regarding how to effectively coach, and their coaching style/philosophy on influencing the development of life skills within their athletes is examined. A combination of content analysis and semi-structured interviews were used to explore both the coaches’ and athletes’ perspectives on the impact of sport participation on areas that move beyond the sport itself. The results of this research conclude with specific techniques coaches can use to impact their athletes both in sport and in life.
Strategies to Prevent and Improve Childhood Obesity through Sport and Exercise
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eric Shamus
Obesity is defined by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 95th percentile for children and teens of the same age and sex. Although there has been a recent decline in the prevalence of pre-school aged childhood obesity in the United States, the overall prevalence amongst all children, including special populations, remains high. There are various health-related consequences of obesity in children including psychosocial effects, hyperlipidemia, sleep apnea, type 2- diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, musculoskeletal injuries and others. Factors contributing to childhood obesity can be genetic, behavioral and environmental. Reduced physical activity and a sedentary lifestyle are primary factors for the current obesity epidemic. Engaging in physical activity and improving physical fitness in children with and without disabilities, are areas of focus of Healthy People 2020. Healthcare professionals have the opportunity to play an important role in the prevention of childhood obesity and assist in promoting a healthy lifestyle in children. This presentation will discuss current trends in childhood obesity, strategies to prevent and improve childhood obesity, physical activity recommendation guidelines for children and youth with and without disabilities, cardiovascular response to exercise in children and the role of the healthcare professional in addressing childhood obesity.
Coaches Addressing Attributes of Self-responsibility and Resiliency in a Sports-based Youth Development Program
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sierra Cordova
This original sports-based youth development program out of a public university in the western United States was designed to increase attributes of self-responsibility and resiliency in at-risk youth in response to prevalent issues concerning youth delinquency in the surrounding urban communities. Program coaches provided at-risk youth opportunities to learn, develop, and practice positive behavior and attributes of self-responsibility (e.g., self-control, honestly, empathy, forethought, resisting negative peer influence) and resiliency (i.e., autonomy, social skills, and hope) through specific and intentional modified games/physical activity. To translate mentioned attributes from the abstract to practice, coaches identified precise outcomes, designed games/physical activities to explicitly address attributes, and constructed opportunities for inherent, emergent behaviors utilized for feedback and discussion between coaches and youth. Youth participants met for programming twice a week with pedagogy and community leadership graduate and undergraduate coaches over two eight-week sessions in the summer of 2017 and spring of 2018. Coaches experienced difficulties 1) designing activities to explicitly address abstract attributes, and 2) focusing delivery and feedback on behavioral skills rather than motor skills/performance during the first session. In response, a conceptual framework was developed that aimed to increase access, maintain deliberateness, and provide tangibility for coaches designing programming. Coaches employed the framework during second session program planning and unanimously reported increased comprehension of outcome goals, improved adherence to intention, and optimized planning. This framework has yielded program improvement and provided valuable assistance to coaches planning game/physical activity delivery for enhancing attributes of self-responsibility and resiliency in at-risk youth.
Youth Perceptions of Adult Leaders in an SBYD Program
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nneka Arinze
Sport based youth development (SBYD) programs use sports to encourage the positive development of youth participants. Among their key components are 5Cs- caring, competence, connection, confidence, and character. Central to the development of these 5 areas are relationships, especially the relationship between adult staff and youth participants. Previous studies have explored all 5Cs but have not expanded upon youth participants’ perceptions of these relationships. This paper draws from data from a larger study evaluating and in school SBYD program. Participants in grades K-8 participated in focus groups gauging their perceptions of various aspects of the program. Key themes speaking to relationships were staff members cared, were welcoming, and were willing to engage with them. Participants also noted that transient volunteers enhanced their experience by exposing them to new people and improving the game experience when they were fully engaged. The results of this study encourage further exploration of the role of relationships in shaping youth participants’ experiences in such programs.
