Investigating Life Skill Needs of Youth in After-School Sports Programs

Background/Purpose: After-school programs are considered as one the critical developmental contexts for youth where they can have extended and enriched learning opportunities(Noam, Biancarosa, & Dechausay, 2003). The goal of after-school programs should not be limited to keep the youth off the street but provides skills and competency-building opportunities to promote healthy and positive youth development. Sport and physical activity programs can be one of the ideal contexts to cultivate life skills for youth and facilitate their transfer of life skills to their everyday lives. Although there is a growing interests in sport-based life skills programs in Korea, few studies have explored life skills needs of youth, and the majority of programs have been designed by program providers. As a result, diverse needs of youth, parents, and program instructors tend to be either overlooked or not fully considered for the program design. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore life skills needs of Korean youth in after-school sports programs and examine issues related to successful implementation of programs.

Method: Participants were ten school-based afterschool program instructors and 20 youth who participated in afterschool sport programs provided in the schools, and their parents(n=20). Data were collected from the interviews with instructors and youth to identify life skills needs of youth and issues related to successful program implementation. In addition, open-ended survey was administered to parents to examine their perceived life skills needs of youth.

Analysis/Results: Data were analyzed inductively and trustworthiness of data was ensured through data source triangulation and member check with participants. Findings revealed the four categories of life skills: (a) playing well, skills for maintaining active life styles (e.g., active leisure, having fun), (b) connecting well, skills for promoting social competence (e.g., connecting with diverse community personnel, coaches), (c) coping well, skills for dealing with stress and challenges (e.g., coping with stress, conflict resolution), and (d) dreaming well, skills needed for having future aspiration and purposes (e.g., sense of purpose, career exploration). For the successful implementation of sport-based life skills programs, participants addressed the needs of: (a) adopting ideal mix of explicit and implicit methods of teaching life skills, (b) providing extra-curricular contents as well as extended contents, and (c) strengthening educational values of after-school sports program.

Conclusions:

The findings of this study provides implications for designing after-school sport programs by incorporating life skills identified from triangulation of multiple perspectives.