Search Results (66)

The Relative Age Effect (RAE) refers to the advantage that relatively older athletes within the same age group may have in sports. While this phenomenon has been widely documented in numerous disciplines, its presence in orienteering remains largely unexplored. This study aimed to analyse the existence of RAE among Spanish orienteers selected for international competitions organised by the International Orienteering Federation (IOF) between 1987 and 2023. A total of 384 participations (225 male, 159 female) were examined across the European Youth Orienteering Championships (EYOC), Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC), and the European and World Orienteering Championships (EOC + WOC). The distribution of birth dates by quartiles and semesters was compared using chi-square tests, Cramér’s V, Z-tests, and odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals. The results revealed a significant RAE in male athletes, particularly in JWOC, where those born in the first quartile were up to 3.77 times more likely to be selected than those in the third quartile. In contrast, no significant associations were found in female athletes, which may reflect structural or developmental differences related to sex. These gender-based disparities highlight the importance of integrating sex-specific considerations into selection policies. Overall, the findings suggest a selection bias favouring relatively older males, which may hinder the development of late-born talent. Therefore, it is recommended that selection criteria be reassessed to ensure fairer and more inclusive talent identification and development in youth and elite orienteering. Full article

Physical activity is well-established as beneficial for children’s physical and mental health, yet limited research has explored how different activity types impact psychosocial outcomes. This is a cross-sectional study that examined associations between youth participation in organized sport, unstructured physical activity, and land-use recreation and their psychosocial health. Survey data were collected from 3246 caregivers of children in the Intermountain West region of the United States. Respondents reported on children’s physical activity engagement and psychosocial outcomes, including mental health, emotional control, and social well-being. All three activity types were significantly associated with improved psychosocial health (p < 0.001). Compared to organized sport, unstructured physical activity and land-use recreation were associated with significantly higher levels of mental health and emotional control (p_adj < 0.001), although with a small effect size (η² < 0.006). No significant differences were observed in social well-being across activity types (p = 0.2928). When controlling for gender and community type, distinct psychosocial benefits emerged between activity types. These findings suggest that, while all forms of physical activity support psychosocial development, unstructured and nature-based activities may offer particular advantages. Findings highlight the importance of promoting diverse forms of physical activity and considering individual and contextual factors in maximizing their psychosocial benefits. Full article

Background: Fundamental movement skills (FMS)—including muscular strength, endurance, and mobility—are linked to better health-related quality of life and higher physical activity in children. Rural children often score lower on FMS tests than urban peers due to resource limitations rather than ability. Thus, increasing access to FMS activities in under-resourced rural areas is essential. The primary objective was to test the feasibility of Hoosier Strength in a rural middle school sample, and the secondary objective was to observe the preliminary changes in FMS-related outcomes pre- to post-intervention and at follow-up. The exploratory objective was to explore how participants responded to different coaches on the Hoosier Strength coaching team (i.e., gender, coaching style during activities). Methods: This study used a Hybrid Type 3 design to evaluate feasibility and FMS outcomes, integrating qualitative and quantitative data. The four-week intervention included a test group (n = 24; 14 females, 10 males; mean age: females 12.4 ± 0.5 years, males 12.7 ± 0.4 years) and a control group (n = 12; 8 females, 4 males; mean age: females 12.9 ± 0.3 years, males 12.7 ± 0.3 years). Data analysis included descriptive statistics for feasibility indicators (Acceptability of Intervention Measures [AIM], Intervention Appropriateness Measure [IAM], and Feasibility of Intervention Measure [FIM]), linear regression for mobility and muscular endurance changes, t-tests for psychological need satisfaction and frustration, and regression analysis for squat knowledge and post-intervention confidence. Results: (1) There was high feasibility across the 4-week Hoosier Strength intervention and at follow-up; (2) there were no statistically significant changes in squat performance; (3) participants’ confidence in their ability to squat at the end of the intervention was significantly predicted by their squat knowledge at baseline; and (4) participants prioritized leadership and team management over tactical analysis, highlighting a preference for coaches who foster teamwork. Conclusions: The findings offer a transparent approach for evaluating the feasibility and preliminary outcomes of the Hoosier Strength intervention in an under-resourced rural middle school, thereby encouraging further investigation into strength training interventions in rural schools. 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

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

Early detection of modifiable motor deficits is essential for safe, long-term athletic development, yet most field screens provide only binary risk scores. We therefore designed a practical and interpretable profiling system that classifies youth athletes into one of four functional categories—Functionally Weak, Strength-Deficient, Stability-Deficient, or No Clear Dysfunction—using three common assessments: Functional Movement Screen, hand-held dynamometry, and Y-Balance Test. A total of 46 youth athletes aged 11–16 years participated in the study, including 37 male soccer players (13.3 ± 1.6 y) in the development cohort and 9 handball players (5 male, 4 female; 12.8 ± 0.7 y) in the external validation group. Expert rules based on FMS quartiles and ≤−0.5 SD Z-scores for strength or balance generated the reference labels. The random forest model achieved 81% cross-validated accuracy (with balanced performance across classes) and 89% accuracy on the external handball group, exceeding the performance of the decision tree model. SHAP analysis confirmed that model predictions were driven by domain relevant variables rather than demographics. An accompanying web-based application automatically generates personalized reports, visualizations, and targeted training recommendations, making the system directly usable by coaches and clinicians. Rather than merely predicting injury, this field-ready framework delivers actionable, profile-based guidance to support informed decision making in athlete development. Further validation in larger, sport-diverse cohorts is needed to assess its generalizability and long-term value in practice. Full article

Background: Significant factors impact the wellbeing of South Sudanese youth who settle in Australia. This article proposes a community empowerment framework based on outcomes from research and community feedback undertaken in Melbourne, with South Sudanese youth and elders to improve social connection and community engagement of the youth. Methods: Twenty-three semi-structured interviews, four focus groups and two community forums were conducted using qualitative, case study methodology. Data were collected from South Sudanese youth aged 14 to 21 years, social workers, elders and parents from the South Sudanese community. Inductive thematic analysis was used to gain an understanding of the social issues facing South Sudanese youth, Results: Four themes—health and wellbeing, the experience of racism, sports and intergenerational conflict—were identified during analysis. These themes were then used to develop and propose a Community Empowerment Framework (CEF), that outlines strategies to empower South Sudanese youth to improve their wellbeing at different levels: personal empowerment, career empowerment and community empowerment (both internal and external). Conclusions: The CEF provides a community-informed model for service providers and policy makers to promote positive community engagement and social connection to improve the lives of South Sudanese youth living in Australia. Full article

Squash, which originated in the early 19th century, was officially incorporated into the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee in 2023. This inclusion marks a significant milestone, highlighting its growing international recognition and potential for global development. However, squash has historically been underrepresented in academic research compared to other popular sports, with studies being scattered and relatively underdeveloped. To systematically evaluate the current state of squash research and foster academic development in the field, this study employs a combination of bibliometric and qualitative analyses, aiming to provide a comprehensive overview of squash research in terms of research progress, collaboration networks, key findings, and thematic evolution. Drawing on Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed data, the analysis covers 206 publications from 36 countries spanning from 1973 to 2024. Network analysis based on co-authorship frequency and geographic clustering identifies the UK and Australia as leading contributors, with extensive collaboration among institutions and authors. Performance analysis (tactical and technical modeling), physiological profiling (energy demands), and medical studies (injury epidemiology) emerged as the three core research areas. The study reveals a shift in research focus from safety and physiological characteristics to performance enhancement, which is driven by technological innovation. Future research should prioritize underdeveloped areas such as youth development, psychology, and nutrition while integrating diverse participant groups (e.g., female athletes, recreational players) and advanced technologies. Full article

Interventions have been designed to close achievement gaps in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) disciplines and to remedy the “leaky STEM pipeline”. However, there has been little focus on designing complementary interventions that seek to broaden the youth population who “enter the STEM pipeline”. The current work aims to broaden STEM engagement in youth by developing a STEM intervention using unrecognized forms of cultural capital. These novel, basketball-based interventions were designed to engage a naturally occurring population of youth with pre-existing interest in sports but low levels of pre-existing STEM interest, ranging from the 2nd to the 12th grades. These interventions utilized sports as a venue for informal STEM learning across three variations: a single-hour event, a one-day clinic, and a multi-day camp. Participants’ interest in pursuing a STEM career significantly increased across all three variations of the STEM intervention. Notably, these effect sizes were descriptively larger for programs of longer duration and were significantly stronger for students who reported playing basketball prior to the program. The current work introduces a novel STEM education intervention that has been shown to be repeatedly successful in utilizing students’ pre-existing interest in sports as a bridge to STEM engagement. Full article

This paper proposes the application of Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) framework, rooted in the critical race theory (CRT), as a transformative lens for sport-based youth development (SBYD) research. Moving beyond traditional deficit-based models, which often depict youth as problematic or at-risk, CCW emphasizes recognizing and building upon the cultural strengths and assets of marginalized youth. We begin by reviewing the development of theoretical applications within the youth development, positive youth development (PYD), and SBYD literature to highlight the criticisms against conventional deficit-focused approaches. CCW offers an asset-oriented lens by offering six forms of capital—aspirational, linguistic, familial, social, navigational, and resistant—that are typically overlooked in mainstream frameworks. We illustrate how these forms of capital can reposition SBYD programs as spaces for cultivating resilience, identity, and social justice while addressing systemic inequities. By incorporating CCW with participatory research methods and critical theories, such as intersectionality and CRT, researchers can broaden the theoretical and methodological scope of SBYD. This paper concludes by suggesting practical implications for program design, organizational advocacy, and policy development, advocating for culturally responsive, community-led initiatives that prioritize the active engagement and empowerment of marginalized youth. In sum, CCW provides the “why” for critical SBYD research and practice. Full article

Accurate measurement of participation in sport/physical recreation for children with disabilities is important due to decreased physical activity in this population. This review examines the psychometric properties of relevant assessments. Four databases were searched for studies investigating assessments of participation in sport/physical recreation for children and youth with disabilities. The assessment content was analyzed by the proportion of items relevant to sport/physical recreation and the inclusion of participation elements (attendance or involvement). The evidence quality was evaluated using COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health status Measurement Instruments (COSMIN) checklists and summarized according to Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE). Nine assessments (46 papers) met criteria. Only the Children’s Assessment of Participation and Enjoyment measured attendance and involvement. Five assessments measured attendance (12–90% items related to sport/physical recreation) and three context-dependent assessments measured involvement. Only the Measure of Experiential Aspects of Participation and Self-reported Experiences of Activity Settings (involvement) were recommended by GRADE. No assessment adequately measured attendance and involvement in sport/physical recreation for children and youth with disabilities. While existing assessments may continue to be used to measure global participation, a comprehensive assessment of sport and physical recreation should be developed with and evaluated for children and youth with disabilities. Full article

While Sport for Development (SfD) scholars have deconstructed the interplay between global development discourse, policy, funding, practice, and local agency, SfD organizations in the Global North have yet to be deconstructed with the same intensity, rigor, and scope. In this paper, the complex, dynamic interplay among development discourse, policy, funding, practice, and local agency will be deconstructed as it relates to SfD provision in the United States. There will be a particular focus on SfD leadership structures that can unlock more sustainable, egalitarian development discourse and practices which promote and advance social justice. Full article

A substantial amount of the literature has examined the impact of participation in sport-based youth development programming and its global contribution to the lives of young people. In a similar vein, the outcomes of sport-based leadership programs are heavily influenced by the relationships and life skills acquired. One often overlooked demographic in this literature is incarcerated youth, a unique population who’s time spent in juvenile justice is fundamentally designed to prioritize rehabilitation and development. This paper sought to understand youths’ experiences in a sport-based leadership prison program with regards to content, relationship building, and transfer. This study included semi-structured interviews with three, currently incarcerated, adolescent black males, exploring their experiences as participants in their sport leadership program. Results included themes around the program meaning, relationship enhancers, and life skill learnings. Findings explore how sport-based prison programs may consider the importance of physical and psychological safety, relationship building, and life skill teachings as crucial components of a program that remain with participants well into their reintegration within society. Full article

Urban environments have incorporated sustainable development into their planning by designing more green spaces. Access to urban green space is the key to the progress of urban sustainability, not only environmentally and ecologically but also socially. Research on social sustainability in parks can be achieved through the inclusive design of park settings that encourage diverse social activities. However, previous research rarely considers how park settings can foster social sustainability for young people. Within this context, this paper employs a qualitative research approach to explore young people’s preferences and engagement with parks through art-based and visual methods to understand how they interact with parks in the context of social sustainability. The visual survey, comprising 32 park scene photos, was administered to 192 youth (ages 9–17) in the Moreton Bay Region, Queensland, Australia. These photos captured four park features: play areas and playgrounds; informal and open areas; formal spaces and pathways; and sports spaces. The findings show that young people like park environments with a balance of physical activity, socialisation, and connection to natural areas. Playgrounds were selected for their active play areas, and open spaces were selected for their social and leisure possibilities. Formal pathways, particularly those connected to natural areas, were selected for their quiet and socialising potential, and sports areas, especially those with equipment, were less preferred due to their solitary nature. The findings highlight the importance of designing parks that promote social sustainability through fostering inclusivity and social cohesion. Such insights inform urban planning policies for making public spaces to meet diverse social needs and support social interactions. Full article

The objective of this study was to verify the leisure time activity (LTA) patterns among students of three university courses (including students in their first, second, and third year of their bachelor’s degree)—Physical Education (PE) vs. Sports Diagnostics (SD) vs. Tourism and Recreation (TaR)—at the University of Szczecin and their possible correlations with the faculty of the studying youth. The study involved a total of 219 respondents: 96 were studying TaR, 93 were studying PE, and 31 were studying SD. The research was based on the following questionnaires: the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and a questionnaire created by the authors which covered the type of leisure time activity (LTA) with emphasis on leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and its type, frequency, and whether students sought companionship while engaging in such activities. The data obtained were developed using statistical methods such as analysis of structure and correspondence analysis. Several research questions were put forward in the study. Surprisingly, TaR students were characterized by a greater variety of sports activities than the PE or SD students. The TaR students had also undertaken long trips more often than the PE students. No difference in the frequency of long trips was found between students from either course. Regardless of the type of university course studied, no significant differences were found between the genders in terms of spending free time alone vs. in the company of family/friends. Full article