Search results for "POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT"

Learning in sport : from life skills to existential learning

2020

Youth sport is habitually promoted as an important context for learning that contributes to a person’s broader development beyond sport-specific skills. A growing body of research in this area has operated within a life skills discourse that focuses on useful, positive and decontextualised skills in the production of successful and adaptive citizens. In this paper, we argue that the ideological discourse of life skills, underpinned by ideas about sport-based positive youth development, has unduly narrowed the research on learning in sport to only what is deemed functional, teachable, and economically productive. After considering the problems associated with the currently dominant life skil…

Intersectional scholarship & positive youth development: Post-modern paradigm shift in understanding adjustment of marginalized youth

2016

Research on intersectionality of marginalized youth is generally situated in the assumption that non-normative identity leads to pathology and victimization. Further, most research to date has studied marginalized youth using a traditional nuclear family paradigm. In this paper we discuss how intersectionality addresses the combination of strengths and challenges of living with stigmatizing identities and family processes, towards developing successful youth adjustment. We apply the three-step intersectionality approach to study findings among a group of racial/ethnic minority and sexual minority identified youth and discuss the particular role of familism and extended kinship support belie…

Organizational justice at school and its associations with pupils' psychosocial school environment, health, and wellbeing.

2011

It has been shown that the psychosocial environment perceived by school staff is associated with children's academic performance and wellbeing. In this study we examined the associations between organizational justice (procedural and relational justice) as reported by school staff and pupils' perceptions of their school environment, health problems, academic performance, and absenteeism. We combined data from two surveys: for the staff (the Finnish Public Sector Study, n = 1946) and pupils (the Finnish school health promotion survey, n = 11,781 boys and 12,842 girls) of 136 secondary schools, collected during 2004-2005. Multilevel cumulative logistic regression analyses showed that after ad…

Fun, influence and competence—a mixed methods study of prerequisites for high school students’ participation in physical education

2016

Background: Many adolescents do not reach the recommended levels of physical activity (PA), and students attending vocational studies are less committed to take part in physical education (PE) than other students. The purpose of the present study was twofold: 1) to examine differences in physical activity, diet, smoking habits, sleep and screen time among Norwegian vocational high school students who selected either a PE model focusing on PA skills, technique and improvement of physical performance (“Sports enjoyment”) or more on health, play and having fun when participating in PE lessons (“Motion enjoyment”), and 2) to explore the students’ experiences with PE programs. Methods: In this m…

Positive Adolescent Development: Effects of a Psychosocial Intervention Program in a Rural Setting

2020

The Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach identifies adolescents as resources to be empowered rather than problems to be solved. All adolescents have strengths and will fully develop when these strengths are integrated with healthy resources in the diverse environments where they live and interact. The objective of this study was twofold: (1) to present the Positive Development Program for Adolescents living in rural areas (DPAR Program) and (2) to pilot test the intervention program. The DPAR program was evaluated using a repeated-measures design before and after the intervention, with an intervention group and a control group. The sample consisted of 176 adolescents between 11 and 15 …

Los efectos a largo plazo de las competencias emocionales y la autoestima sobre los síntomas internalizantes de los adolescentes

2021

Internalizing symptoms such as depressive mood, somatic complaints and anxiety among adolescents are a major and global concern for parents, educators and professionals. Empirical research suggests that high level of self-esteem during adolescents is associated with psychological adjustment and emotional well-being. This study examines self-esteem as a potential mediator in the interplay between emotional competencies and internalizing symptoms during adolescence. Self-report data from 855 Spanish adolescents (Mage = 13.6, SD = 1.09, 52% girls) were collected in two waves, using a longitudinal design. The mediation model was estimated using structural equation modelling (SEM). Results show …

2021

Most coaches and instructors would like to teach more than just sport skills to their athletes and children. However, to promote athletes’ or children’s holistic development and teach them to take responsibility and lead, requires the coaches and instructors to first master the skills themselves. Therefore, feasible, high quality leadership training programs where coaches and physical activity instructors are taught to teach and share leadership are needed. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the feasibility of a leadership training program to optimize it and to determine whether to proceed with its evaluation. In the leadership training program, eight Finnish novice physical activ…

2019

Previous research indicates that programmes employing Hellison’s Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model in physical activity have had a positive impact on youth development by inc...

The Contribution of Religiosity and Optimism on Well-Being of Youth and Emerging Adults in Italy

2017

In line with Positive Youth Development (PYD) framework positing that religion can provide youth with resources to thrive, this chapter presents a contribution analyzing the associations between religiosity and well-being among middle and late adolescents, and emerging adults in Italy. In fact, this country is a relevant context for studying this topic, considering the social and historical presence of Catholicism. We conceptualized religiosity as religious commitment and well-being as life satisfaction. Then, we focused on the mediating role of optimism between these two constructs and investigated differences among age groups concerning those associations. A multiple-group path analysis r…

Roma Youth

2021

This chapter highlights the importance of integrating research on positive youth development processes in the most disadvantaged youth groups. The authors focused on Roma youth, representing a prototypical low-status minority group. The first part of the chapter examines the demographics and the socially, politically, and ideologically challenging contexts in which Roma young people are embedded, taking into account the case of Italy, one European country with high anti-Roma sentiments. The second part summarizes the literature that deals with social-psychological factors underlying the developmental functioning and optimal well-being of Roma youth in spite of adversity. The third part focu…