Alex Murata

Coaches help shape sport environments and athlete experiences. However, many coach development programs do not adequately teach the knowledge and skills necessary for holistic athlete development. Accordingly, a positive youth development program, the 1616 Program (1616), was created to foster developmentally rich opportunities for youth ice hockey players. To overcome many current coach development program shortcomings, 1616 includes a coach-specific segment grounded in coaching effectiveness, leadership, and behavior change literature. We explored the coach segment’s impact using a mixed-method convergent parallel design with coaches across North America. In total, 36 coaches ( n = 3 females; M _age = 43.8 years; SD = 5.33 years) with an average of 10.1 years ( SD = 8.04) of coaching experience completed questionnaires. We interviewed nine coaches ( n = 1 female; M _age = 43.0 years; SD = 8.04 years) with an average of 8.5 years ( SD = 3.73) of coaching experience. Results suggest that coaches felt that athlete personal assets improved while describing improvements in their own behavior change markers, efficacy beliefs, and interpersonal and leadership skills. Despite noting areas for improvement, coaches who completed the 1616 Program generally improved their self-perception, experienced more positive athlete interactions, and appreciated the high-quality program design and delivery.

Positive youth development (PYD) through sport is not attributed to a single factor or intervention. Instead, it results from a combination of thriving structures and practices that generate immediate positive experiences, foster personal strengths, and lead to long-term developmental outcomes. This chapter aims to present the personal assets framework (PAF) as a guiding framework for understanding the key components and expected outcomes that result from positive engagement in sport across various timeframes. We will provide a systematic approach to planning, implementing, and evaluating sport programs that foster PYD. Additionally, we will underscore the significance of young athletes’ immediate experiences as the building blocks for high-quality engagement to develop personal strengths, skills, and qualities that empower young people to remain interested and enjoy sport at whatever level of performance they choose to be involved.

The underrepresentation of female research participants, women, and girls has been highlighted as an issue of concern within a variety of research areas and disciplines across academia. More specifically, this lack of visibility has contributed to widening knowledge gaps regarding these populations while also perpetuating and strengthening existing inequities. Given these concerns, the purpose of this review was to explore whether similar imbalances could exist within the sport psychology literature and, if so, what future research projects might be completed to rectify these issues. To do so, all articles (n = 3,005) published between the years of 2011 and 2021 in five journals of sport psychology were assessed. Following an analysis of the relevant studies collected, it was found that more articles including all boys, men, and male athletes (n = 343) were published within this time frame compared with articles including exclusively girls, women, and female athletes (n = 155). Additionally, it also appeared that research working with girls, women, and female athletes was lacking: (a) in recreational sport, (b) at both young and older ages, and (c) within team sport contexts. Further, most of the studies assessed often conflated participant sex- and gender-descriptive terminology. As such, it is highly encouraged that researchers in sport psychology make greater strides to conduct purposeful and targeted research focusing on girls, women, and female athlete participants and their specific issues over the coming years.

Previous research looking into youth sport coaching indicates that a majority of coaches may also be a parent to an athlete on their team. While previous studies have also sought to understand how being a parent–coach might affect parents’ relationships with their own child(ren), little work appears to explore how occupying this role might affect an individual’s ability to remain effective as a coach. As such, 14 parent–coaches were interviewed to examine how they perceived their dual role to influence their coaching effectiveness and to hear what strategies they used to remain effective. Interviews were analyzed thematically, and findings indicated that parent–coaches have few formalized resources to aid them in navigating the issues associated with their challenging dual-role position. More support would be welcomed by this population to improve their effectiveness and to ensure that all developing athletes in their care continue to have positive experiences within the youth sport environment.

Despite increased participation across all sporting contexts, many sports are still thought to be more or less appropriate for female athletes to engage with based on biologically or socially constructed characteristics (Plaza et al., 2017; Abadi & Gill, 2020). Further, the persistence of gender stereotypes continues to impact the participation levels of girls in sport; particularly in traditionally masculine sports (Tucker Center, 2018; Staurowsky, 2016). Given the influence parents can have in dictating their children’s participation in sport (Dorsch et al., 2020), the objective of the present study was to explore how parents perceive their daughters’ participation in traditionally boy-dominated sport. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight parents of daughters currently engaged in traditionally boy-dominated sports at a competitive level. A laddering interview technique—based on the personal construct theory—was used as a basis for the interview guide (Bourne & Jenkins, 2005). This technique allowed the interviewer to elicit participants’ higher-level constructs, revealing their overarching values more effectively. Three themes were constructed through the assessment of the interviews, these being that parents believe participation in non-traditional girls’ sport provides young female athletes with (a) the capability to identify gender inequality more easily, (b) opportunities to face unique challenges and shed the perceived limitations imposed upon girls, and (c) opportunities to express less stereotypically feminine traits and, therefore, to grow. These results suggest that parents of daughters who participate in traditionally boy-dominated sports perceive these sports to contribute to building several positive aspects of their daughters’ development.

Pathways towards expertise in soccer can differ due to the diverse activities and trajectories that players engage in throughout childhood and adolescence. As in many other sports, researchers and youth soccer stakeholders are currently faced with a myriad of issues surrounding the competing developmental pathways of early specialisation and early sampling. For these individuals, early specialisation can be summarised as the intensified participation in soccer and soccer-specific training to the exclusion of other activities, whereas early sampling could be described as participation in soccer as well as a variety of other sports at varying levels of competition and intensity. A large and continually growing body of research exists describing both the benefits and drawbacks of each contrasting developmental pathway. The purpose of the present chapter is to assess prominent works within this literature in an attempt to help those involved with youth soccer programming (e.g., athletes, parents, coaches, administrators) to make informed decisions around what optimal participation might look like. Research outlining how each trajectory relates to player’s overall personal development as well as their soccer specific development will also be discussed. Based on the evidence presented, considerations for researchers and practitioners will be offered.

Childhood and adolescence provide opportunities for coaches and practitioners to positively impact the development and lives of youth athletes, as well as establish habits and behaviours to help youth cope with the inevitable highs and lows of being a competitive sportsperson. Accordingly, this chapter provides an overview of psychological considerations for practitioners working with young players, towards the overarching aim of improving talent identification and development within the context of youth soccer. First, this chapter discusses psychosocial considerations pertinent to youth soccer populations. The general challenges and processes associated with childhood and adolescence are considered, along with those introduced (or magnified) via sport and athletic development. Second, the influence that external stakeholders (i.e., parents, coaches, and peers) may have on the psychosocial development of youth soccer players and how this may change throughout adolescence are discussed. Third, as youth soccer players approach transition to senior and professional sport, challenges associated with selection, deselection, and dropout, including the potential psychological distress experienced during deselection and dropout, are outlined. Finally, recommendations for future research along with limitations of existing literature are identified, as well as practical applications and suggestions to help mitigate some of these issues in practice.

In December of 2019, COVID-19 began spreading globally. As a result, many youth sport organizations were forced to halt programming. While unfortunate, this imposed disengagement from youth sport provided an opportunity to explore what youth sport means to parents, being that this was the first time many were without it. As such, researchers aimed to explore the attitudes and perceptions of youth sport parents regarding their child’s sport participation in its absence. Semistructured interviews were conducted to explore these perceptions, and three themes were constructed through thematic analysis. Findings suggest that sport parents miss their experiences as “live-in” sports fans of their child’s sport participation due to the absence of their spectator experiences, social opportunities, and feelings of success, which drive their motivation for continued involvement. Understanding parental motivations to support youth sport participation may lead future researchers to uncovering the influences of parental behavior in the youth sport context.

There is general agreement within the fields of sport psychology, coaching, child and youth development that early sampling (i.e. engaging in a breadth of activities differing in level of intensity both within and across sports) has a variety of benefits for young athletes. In fact, global leaders in youth sport research contend that the personal assets (i.e. competence, confidence, connection, and character) gained by engaging in these different types of sport settings strongly outweigh the risks (e.g. overuse injuries) and serve as a protective factor against mental health concerns (e.g. burnout and pressure). Despite this, young athletes are increasingly engaging in early sport specialisation (i.e. intensive engagement in a single sport beginning in childhood) to gain an early advantage in terms of skill development. As a result, children relinquish both an opportunity to engage in other sports and to experience different social settings associated with structured and unstructured sporting activities. In this climate, the sport ‘offseason’ has evolved for many child athletes from a time of sampling different sports at lower intensities to the exclusive promotion of specialised training and continued competition. Interestingly, it is often parents and coaches that promote this specialised climate of sport engagement. Through the lens of sport coaching, this chapter considers the nature of sampling and specialising in sport using the Developmental Model of Sport Participation (DMSP) as a guiding framework. Throughout, this chapter will offer a critical review of the existing literature, practical implications for coaching children, and propose a conceptual definition of sport ‘sampling’ to guide future research.