Participation in sport and recreation-based youth development programming has been linked to the enhancement of youths' interpersonal skills (Collingwood, Sunderlin, & Kohl, 1994; Hattie et al., 1997); increased social competence; and increased athletic competence (Biddle & Armstrong, 1992; Donaldson & Ronan, 2006; Harter, 1981). While there has been much research conducted on long-term sport/recreation-based youth development programs, little is known about sport/recreation-based youth development summer camps and their outcomes. Research conducted thus far, however, has demonstrated promising results regarding youth benefits from participation in these programs (Ullrich-French, McDonough, Smith, & Harper, 2008). As such, the purpose of this study was to 1) understand key outcomes from youth participation in OSU's 2008 National Youth Sport Program, an intensive sport-based summer youth development camp and 2) gain an understanding of program strengths and areas for improvement that could be used to enhance the following year's program design.
Method
408 youth ages 9-16 (M=11.65, SD=1.64) completed a pre/post questionnaire assessing social competence (Anderson-Butcher, Iachini, & Amorose, 2008); belonging (Anderson-Butcher & Conroy, 2002); and overall athletic and sport-specific competence (Amorose, 2002). Ten site observations were conducted to explore staff-youth interactions, success of specific activities, and youth engagement.
Analysis/Results
Paired mean t-tests compared pre-test and post-test responses on targeted outcomes. Site observation data were recorded on an observation sheet, and themes were generated across site visits to determine areas of strength and improvement.
Results demonstrated significant increases in participants' perceptions of overall athletic competence and competence in volleyball, swimming, aerobics, and whiffleball. No significant differences were found in participants' perceptions of social competence, belonging, or competence in football, track, or basketball. Qualitative data suggested thematic areas of programmatic weakness included, a) lack of time on task b) poor behavioral management, and c) lack of coaching strategies focused on social competence development.
Conclusions
While OSU's NYSP provided campers with many sport-specific gains, campers' social competence and sense of belonging were not impacted. Since coaches were not implementing specific social competence strategies as part of their practice and activities, and because campers often were not fully engaged in activities, there is little surprise that there was no difference in these outcomes. This highlights the need for training to help coaches identify and implement strategies to better target these outcomes. Together, these data strengthened the design of OSU's 2009 camp, now called LiFE Sports, and should help inform the design of other sport-based youth development summer camps.