Abstract
Research on positive youth development through sport is confronted with a number of limitations: it lacks a clear theoretical basis of mechanisms underlying life skill development through sport, it has a narrow focus on the sports setting thereby neglecting the interplay between life domains in reaching positive youth development, and the mechanisms underlying the transfer process of newly acquired skills and competences from the sports setting to other life domains are unclear. This study aims to advance research in in this field by applying theoretical insights from the salutogenic model of health to address the aforementioned limitations. The salutogenic model of health describes how health and well-being develops in challenging or stressful situations and offers an interesting perspective on the mechanisms underlying youth developmental processes while simultaneously aligning well with the tenets of the positive youth development approach. The application of the salutogenic model of health offered a number of interesting theoretical insights to further understand 1) the mechanisms underlying positive youth development through sport (i.e., enhancing comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness), 2) that youth development arises in the interaction between an individual's stressors, resources and sense of coherence across different life domains, and 3) the central role of both generalized and resistance resources and sense of coherence in the transfer of life skills between life domains. Given that sense of coherence plays a vital role in the healthy development of individuals and the transfer of life skills across life domains, it would make sense to strengthen the sense of coherence of youths in sports programs. Based on this theoretical analysis, several recommendations and considerations for further research on positive youth development through sport are provided.
Highlights
The ability of sports to promote positive youth development is increasingly recognised by researchers and health professionals
Given that sense of coherence (SOC) plays a vital role in the healthy development of individuals and the transfer of life skills across life do mains, we argued that it makes sense to strengthen the SOC of youths in sports programs
Doing so capacitates them to understand that the stressors they meet in everyday life are appropriate for using the life skill they have learned in the sport program and it would provide them with sufficient manageability and meaningfulness to use these life skills in those challenging situations
Summary
The ability of sports to promote positive youth development is increasingly recognised by researchers and health professionals. Positive youth development (PYD) refers to a process in which young people strengthen their ability to deal with the stressors they encounter in everyday life. A growing body of literature has demonstrated the potential positive effects of sports participation on the development of young people (Bailey et al, 2013; Fraser-Thomas et al, 2005). Based on research in the PYD field, many researchers contend that sport is a promising avenue for positive youth development (Fraser-Thomas et al, 2005). This article discusses a number of these limitations and offers theoretical insights from the salutogenic model of health (Antonovsky, 1979) to advance theory-building in this field. This article starts by shortly summarising the current knowledge on PYD through sport and discusses several limitations of research in this area.
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