Youth Leadership in a Physical Activity-Based Positive Youth Development Program for At-Risk Youth

Abstract

Physical activity-based positive youth development (PA-PYD) programs can serve to empower and alleviate barriers to development for at-risk youth. Youth leaders may play an important role in these programs to foster the development of their younger peers, while mutually benefiting from the program as they foster and apply skills such as leadership, communication, and self-direction. Currently, there is a gap in literature as very few studies have examined youth leadership within PA-PYD programming. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to explore the perspectives and experiences of youth leaders and their fellow program participants in relation to youth leadership within the context of a PA-PYD program for at-risk youth. Data were gathered from 16 youth leaders (Mage= 13.37, SD = 1.36) and 15 program participants (Mage= 10.53, SD = 1.12) across four different program locations, using semi-structured, one-on-one interviews. This thesis is composed of two articles. The first article used a deductive-inductive thematic analysis to better understand the experiences that youth leaders had in the program. Three themes were identified: (a) building youth leaders is a process, (b) mentorship is perceived as critical for one’s leadership development, (c) trust is important for enhancing youth leader engagement. The second article also used a deductive-inductive thematic analysis to examine how youth leaders perceive the influence they have on younger peers who participate in the physical activity-based youth development program, as well as how these program participants perceive the role and impact of the youth leaders. Five themes emerged from the analysis, which were: (a) learning and building skills, (b) receiving support, (c) enjoyment, (d) relatability, and (e) lack of maturity. This research contributes to current gaps in the literature on youth leadership within physical activity-based youth programming and provides practical recommendations to improve such programming.