Youth

The process of youth leaving residential care, for those who grew up in care, remains a global challenge. In South Africa, leaving care is complicated by the almost complete absence of aftercare support services, and a general lack of preparation for leaving care. This study aims to describe South African care-leavers’ views on how well they think they were prepared for care-leaving and what they believe could improve preparation for leaving care. This study is framed in resilience theory, to identify the interactional processes that facilitate better-than-expected outcomes. One-on-one qualitative interviews were conducted with 17 care-leavers, from both state-run and non-governmental residential care facilities. Grounded theory methods of data analysis were used. Participants identified both enablers of care-leaving (e.g., supportive relationships and early workplace exposure) and hinderances to their leaving care (e.g., overprotection and lack of family reunification services). This study concludes that more purposeful preparation for leaving care is required, with an emphasis on building youths’ capacity for interdependence, completion of education before leaving care, and ensuring family reunification work is done. Full article

The current article seeks to understand, and critically analyze the implications of, how youth custody workers understand the relationship between sport, physical activity, and health among youth who are incarcerated. Data was collected through surveys (n = 15) and semi-structured interviews (n = 16) with youth custody workers in Ontario, Canada. We present and analyze three themes emerging from participants’ narratives: the potential for sport and physical activity to contribute, in a holistic way, to the physical, mental, and social health of youth who are incarcerated; the possibility for sport and physical activity to create space for building “therapeutic alliances” between staff and youth, which can improve the mental and social health of youth who are incarcerated; and perceptions of health deficits among youth who are incarcerated and their implications for social inequality. Through an analysis of these themes, we deepen the limited scholarly analysis of sport, physical activity, and health among young persons who are incarcerated and connect these discussions to broader considerations of social determinants of health (that is, structural and social factors that create health inequities) as a matter of social justice. Full article

All too often, the Sport for Development (SfD) field minimizes talent development and competition in lieu of youth development. In this article, we deconstruct assumptions about what is important for young people who are marginalized to learn and experience as they grow up, along with the role of talent development and competition in an SfD intervention, by centering their stories. The young people featured in these stories experience marginalization because of their race, ethnicity, and parents’ country of origin (outside the United States), among other factors that play a role in their everyday lives, and yet their stories highlight the symbiotic relationship between talent development and youth development. Full article

Participatory action research (PAR) has been increasingly used in sport for development research due to its potential to challenge hegemonic forms of knowledge production within sport contexts. Drawing on the youth and feminist action literature, we explore the methodological and ethical challenges of conducting participatory research as young academic researchers collaborating with young coaches as community collaborators. This article calls for greater transparency in how researchers conduct YPAR, whether it is youth-centred or youth-led, and underscores the utility of a feminist lens and trauma- and violence-informed framework in grounding critical reflexivity throughout the research process. These contributions aim to advance ethically grounded, trauma-informed action research projects with young people in sport and physical activity settings. Full article

YouthMappers chapters, utilizing OpenStreetMap (OSM), play a pivotal role in tackling climate challenges through education and activism. This study investigates the influence of a booster grant project on enhancing Climate Activism and Education efforts through YouthMappers chapters in Sri Lanka. Through a geometric approach, the research integrates measurable survey data from OSM platform data from 223 YouthMappers chapter respondents at four (04) universities in Sri Lanka to evaluate five critical factors/dimensions: Capacity Building and Funding Support (CBFS), Climate Activism and Education (CAE), Community Engagement and Collaboration (CEC), Technical Skills and Resources (TSR), and Sustainability and Policy Integration (SPI). The Friedman test confirmed statistically significant differences across all factors’ variables (p < 0.001), highlighting strengths in technical competence and educational integration, with gaps identified in community engagement and sustainability. A Radial Basis Function (RBF) model revealed moderate predictive accuracy, excelling in variables like CAE and TSR but indicating higher error rates in SPI and CEC. Practical outcomes include flood risk maps, curriculum-integrated teaching schemes, and localized mapping workshops. These results underscore the booster grant’s role in enabling impactful, youth-led geospatial initiatives. However, challenges such as internet access, training gaps, and language barriers remain. This study recommends expanding student and community participation, refining training strategies, and integrating OSM into university curricula. These scalable interventions offer valuable insights for replication in other vulnerable regions, enhancing climate resilience through community-driven, data-informed youth engagement. Full article

Youth sport research has routinely suggested that sport has the potential to serve as a meaningful context for learning. particularly when programs are designed to promote positive youth development (PYD) outcomes. Indeed, participation in sport-based PYD programs has been shown to lead to the development and transfer of life skills. Yet, even given the growth of sport-based PYD research over the last two decades, much remains unknown about specific programmatic design features. Promising practices point to the role of reflection in facilitating life skill development and the application of newly learned skills to real-life. This study investigates the reflective journaling of 234 youth experiencing social vulnerabilities who participated in a sport-based PYD program called LiFEsports. Thematic analyses explored text and illustrations included in youth journals. Results suggest that youth both understand and consider how life skills (i.e., self-control, effort, teamwork, social responsibility, personal responsibility, leadership) can be transferred to settings such as at home, during school and in the community. Further findings highlight the relationship between significant others (e.g., teammates, coaches, parents) and life skills transfer, particularly related to reinforcement. Ultimately, journaling may serve as a viable method to prompt reflections among youth. Full article

There are few conceptual frameworks or models related to educators’ competencies at the intersection of social justice; youth development; and physical education, activity, or sport content and pedagogy. The purpose of this multiple case study was to examine how the racialized and pedagogical experiences of individuals teaching physical education contribute to understanding the integration of social justice principles in youth development contexts through sport and physical activity. This study involved the within-case and cross-case analyses of two main cases: preservice teachers and graduate teaching assistants teaching physical education in a youth development context. The preservice teacher and the graduate teaching assistant within-case analysis each resulted in two complementary themes (four total). The cross-case analysis resulted in three total themes. Together, these seven themes are conceptualized into three categories: (1) assumptions prior to teaching, (2) emergent just teaching, and (3) considering race. While training all future professionals for equitable and justice-oriented teaching is key, we cannot ignore the glaring reality that many individuals with more culturally diverse backgrounds are predisposed to embodying such orientations. Findings reinforce the importance of preparing (and recruiting) educators who not only have pedagogical skills but who can also teach for justice. Full article

This article explores the notion of “gender empowerment” in relation to feminist claims around collectivity and the real lives of young women and non-binary people who grew up in post-Katrina New Orleans. Drawing on participants’ narratives, the article calls into question the assumption that collectivity and isolation are diametrically opposed experiences. Instead, it offers a more nuanced view of “alone space” as forced aloneness—not as inherently negative or disconnected, but as a vital and generative terrain through which participants navigated recovery, identity, and empowerment. The findings suggest that meaningful collective action and participation often emerged not despite but through moments of solitude that allowed for reflection on individual passions, desires, and agency. In this way, individualist approaches were intricately linked to collectivity. Participants carved out unique spaces for change that were both personal and social, finding that their most powerful engagements with collectivity were often rooted in the growth fostered during periods of isolation. These journeys were nonlinear and fraught with complexity, marked by feelings of insecurity and powerlessness, particularly around decision-making and identity formation in the wake of disaster. Yet, within the altered landscape of post-Katrina New Orleans, the experience of aloneness became an unexpected catalyst for empowerment, offering routes back into collective life on renewed and self-defined terms. Full article

Youth make up a fifth of the world’s population and will suffer the consequences of the climate catastrophe to differing extents depending on their social and geographical locations. The climate crisis is thus a matter of both intergenerational and racial/imperial injustice. Intersectional and interdisciplinary climate justice approaches are growing in the field of youth climate activism and, more often, these are necessarily engaging with collaborative methods to platform the voices of marginalised youth and those who live the colonial difference. Our paper provides early reflections from a youth climate activism artistic research project titled ‘Theatre of Climate Action: Amplifying Youth Voices for Climate Justice in Guadeloupe and South Africa’ (ToCA). In this project, sixteen young people aged 18-30 from South Africa and Guadeloupe collaborate to design, produce, and create theatre performances that reflect their exploration of climate justice through their lived experiences using artistic research methods. Specifically, we examine the opportunities and challenges in using the framework of Safe(r), Brave(r), and Riskier Spaces to support collaborative and emancipatory art-making practices that allow youth to become co-creators in this project. Insights revealed that an intentional embrace of safety, bravery, and risk as an ethico-political basis for art making was critical to cultivate a sense of community, trust, and belonging for youth co-creators. Full article

Social justice has become the panacea for all types of concerns and issues—providing a sense that all concerns are worthwhile, comprehensive, and matter for today’s world. Thus, developing alternative concepts, ideas, and imaginaries can potentially provide solid grounds for scholars to advance beyond conventional understandings about social justice. Therefore, this manuscript aims to experiment with ethics of care as a conceptual device to disrupt Trumpism, as well as propose alternative worlds where sport, youth/athlete development, and social justice can connect otherwise. Specifically, efforts will be deployed to advance notions concerning sport–social justice in ways beyond our contemporary understandings. The work of feminist theorist and scholar Maria Puig de la Bellacasa (and many other human, non-human and more-than-human entities) is used to situate care as a relational doing. Moving forward, alternative worlds with alternative caring responsibilities matter if youth sport is to continuously thrive for justice. The conventional game of sport–social justice inquiry may have consequences and implications for caring that may be deemed unsustainable and continued sources of oppression. Therefore, caring becomes much more than a fact, a concern, or a concept. It becomes an ontological compromise, an ideal, and an ontological project for scholarly work, which implies a willingness to navigate towards the unknown and unprecedented—potentially our main caring responsibility as scholars. Full article

Youth sport has been recognized as a unique learning context for positive youth development (PYD); yet, as society’s critical consciousness continues to progress, limitations of PYD have been acknowledged. Thus, youth sport scholars have begun to embrace critical perspectives to interrogate the systems and institutions of sport and society that influence the healthy development of all youth. This has included researchers and practitioners alike, adopting critical PYD (CPYD) as a means to empower young people to question and challenge their histo-contemporary experiences and support collective action towards social change. Our article explores the concept of CPYD and social justice life skills within ‘non-traditional’ sport spaces, including practice examples from the fields of youth disability sport and sport in youth justice. The first practice example provides an in-depth discussion of the theoretical principles of CPYD and their applicability within youth disability sport. The second practice example outlines the practical use of social justice life skills in sport programs within the youth justice system. Together, the practice examples from the field highlight both the theoretical and practical applications of CPYD and social justice life skills within real-world settings, and valuable implications are identified for research and practice moving forward. Full article

The content in this autoethnography manuscript is significant because it takes a different angle than the typical discourse surrounding sport-based youth development (SBYD). Typically, the discourse on SBYD focuses on the positive outcomes of improved social–emotional learning and academic achievement. In using an autoethnographic approach, I share stories from my personal experience as a practitioner in the field to illustrate a new perspective on how to think about the impact of sport-based youth development on young people. Though those outcomes are positive and impactful, they fail to capture the continued inequity in the quality of youth sports programs in underserved communities compared to others. I utilize research in SBYD to analyze each story as a practitioner in the field to thoroughly reflect on my personal experiences and their relation to social justice. The stories are also a tool for making the connection between the individual work of various organizations pursuing sport equity. Through storytelling, reflection, and analysis, I connect the mission of each organization I worked with to the concept of social justice youth development in a more personalized way than numbers and data can illustrate. Additionally, this autoethnography highlights non-traditional sport spaces and advocates for a way to fuse social justice into them. This manuscript seeks to simultaneously refresh the way equity in sport has been looked at, while also illuminating the ways it is already being examined. The paper presents new questions that can be used to better analyze the presence of social justice in youth sports and provides a potential pathway forward by grounding in a definition of quality SBYD programming. These questions imply that the measures of the impact and potential benefits of SBYD may need to be redefined to better match the real lived experiences of individual youth participating in such programs. Full article

Cisheteronormativities inform and distort what LGBTQ+ young people’s bodies can be and do, and what choices about the body are possible, profoundly impacting mental health. This article presents findings from a UK study examining ‘what works’ in early intervention mental health support for LGBTQ+ youth to examine how these impacts can be addressed. Data were collected across 12 mental health support services via the following: interviews with LGBTQ+ youth aged 12–25, service staff/volunteers, and parents/carers (n = 93); document review; and non-participant observation. In analysis, ‘Body’ was identified as a key principle underpinning effective early intervention mental health support. This article presents three key areas: the ability to name and define the body; the body’s ability to ‘do’; and the ability to make informed decisions about one’s body, life, and future. This article highlights the urgent importance of upholding bodily autonomy for LGBTQ+ youth if efforts to address mental health inequalities are to have any chance at success. Full article

This study investigates the integration of youth work into school environments as a response to contemporary educational challenges. Drawing on the implementation of selected best practices in four European countries—Greece, Finland, Estonia, and Portugal—within the framework of the Youth Work in Schools (YWIS) Erasmus+ project, this research explores the potential of youth work to enhance school communities, promote sustainability, support student well-being, and deepen democratic practices. Employing a mixed-methods approach that combines case studies and survey data from educators and youth workers, the study examines the transformative impact of youth work in promoting inclusive, engaged, and resilient educational settings. Preliminary findings indicate that youth work contributes meaningfully to holistic youth development by creating collaborative school cultures, supporting emotional and social well-being, and encouraging active civic participation. Youth workers’ interventions—ranging from peer mentoring and participatory governance to sustainability initiatives—demonstrated the value of experiential, student-centred learning. However, the sustainable integration of youth work in education requires institutional openness, professional recognition, and systemic support. By analysing the reflections of practitioners across diverse national contexts, this paper offers critical insights for policymakers, educators, and practitioners aiming to bridge the gap between formal and non-formal education. It argues that embedding youth work in schools can serve as a catalyst for educational transformation, cultivating more democratic, sustainable, and supportive learning environments. Full article

Organised sport is one potential antidote to the global youth inactivity crisis. Therefore, understanding why young people drop out constitutes a key research endeavour. In part I of this series, we developed and validated a new Youth Sport Dropout Questionnaire (YSDQ). In part II, we used the YSDQ-LV (49-item long version) to examine dropout in 960 university students from seven European countries. A four-stage analysis investigated the relative and combined importance of dropout reasons. Three items—the rocks—were statistically more important: “I prioritised schoolwork and had no time left to take part in sport”; and “I found other things that I enjoyed doing more than sport”; and “I found it stressful when I did not perform/play as well as I expected”. On average, however, these rocks were rated as “moderately important”, along with 19 reasons (the pebbles) rated as “slightly important to moderately important”, and the remaining 27 reasons (the sand) rated as “slightly important to not at all important”. These findings suggest that sport dropout is not caused by a single reason but is underpinned by a dynamic tricky mix of reasons—a series of rocks, pebbles, and sand unique to each young person. Full article

Despite the widespread health benefits of physical activity, globally, four out of five adolescents are insufficiently active. Sport participation, a key vehicle for physical activity, diminishes by as much as 80% as children get older. To date, no theoretically grounded, validated research measure of dropout exists. In this two-paper series, we attempt to resolve this issue via the development, initial validation, and application of the Youth Sport Dropout Questionnaire. In the current paper—Part I—we used the COM-B framework to design and initially validate the Youth Sport Dropout Questionnaire. Three sequential studies were conducted. Study 1 includes a review of the existing literature, an expert consultation, and participant focus groups. Study 1 generated 49 reasons for youth sport dropout. Study 2 explored the functionality of the 49 items in a sample of 479 students. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a 28-item four-factor solution. Study 3 tested the dimensionality and reliability of scale in a sample of 648 students from seven European countries. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a final 16-item, four-factor solution, suggesting that reasons for dropout behavior were captured by capability (C), opportunity (O), motivation (M) with the important new addition of injury (I). This initial validation supports the YSDQ as a rigorous research tool to capture the reasons underpinning youth sport dropout behavior. Full article

The transition from correctional service to life in the community can be very challenging for young ex-offenders because they often lack the skills and knowledge they need to function successfully in society. This exploratory study aimed to explore whether the educational opportunities provided in correctional services really help young ex-offenders make a successful transition back into society. The study adopted a qualitative research approach, interviewing a group of 20 young ex-offenders aged 18 to 35 from the Cape Flats region. The data from the interviews were analysed through thematic analysis. The study found that correctional education, particularly programmes focused on mental health, counselling and life skills, significantly improved the mental well-being and self-efficacy of young ex-offenders, aiding their successful reintegration into society. These programmes also emphasised moral education, fostering harmonious coexistence with community members’ post-release. This study recommends a revolutionary pedagogical approach to correctional education aiming at comprehensive education of young offenders. This pedagogy should use modern digital technologies, allowing correctional educators to undertake pre-attendance assessments of each offender’s learning preferences, inclinations as well as individual aptitudes and limitations. This method facilitates the learning of basic education required for successful reintegration of young offenders into society. Full article

Collegiate sports serve as a powerful platform for advancing youth development and social engagement, contributing not only to athletic growth but also to personal development, teamwork, and social justice among student-athletes. This study explores the relationships among procedural justice, coach trust, perceived organizational support (POS), and team commitment in collegiate athletes. A self-reported questionnaire administered to college athletes collected 285 usable responses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the hypothesized relationships. The findings reveal that higher perceptions of procedural justice are significantly associated with greater team commitment, increased coach trust, and higher POS. Additionally, coach trust positively influences both team commitment and POS. However, no significant relationship was found between POS and team commitment, indicating that POS alone may not be a direct predictor of athlete commitment without the presence of mediating factors. These findings highlight the pivotal role of procedural justice, coach trust, and POS in shaping team commitment among collegiate athletes, underscoring the importance of fair decision-making and relational trust in fostering youth development and reflecting the broader influence of behavioral and social dynamics in collegiate sport settings. Full article

This reflective essay presents some examples of overcoming challenges that can face academic researchers who study young people and far-right populism using qualitative methods. Misogyny and mistrust of elites are common features of far-right populism. Therefore, a challenge lies in the markers of age, gender and institutional status of the researchers themselves, which might prevent rapport from developing between an interviewer and interviewee. Moreover, there is the challenge of the digital generation to be faced in any such investigation. Young people today inhabit a fast-moving world of social media engagement which can be difficult for anyone older to comprehend. Suitably selected young people can assist research endeavours in the role of cultural brokers. Using examples of lived research experience, the author invites reader reflection on attuning research approaches to the lifeworlds of young people, especially young men, who engage with far-right populism. Full article