The relationship between psychosocial developmental and the sports climate experienced by underserved youth

ObjectivesThis study was designed to assess developmental outcomes underserved youth report from their sports participation; identify perceptions of the sports climate their coaches create; and, measure the relationships between participants reported gains and perceptions of the psychosocial sports climate.MethodParticipants were 239 urban youth sports participants from an underserved community who completed the Youth Experiences Scale (YES-2), Sport Motivational Climate Scale, Caring Climate Scale and measures of the importance their coaches placed on life skills.ResultsMultivariate analyses revealed a number of significant relationships between YES-2 outcomes and motivation and caring climate predictor variables, which clearly show that the more coaches create caring, mastery-oriented environments, the more likely positive developmental gains result.ConclusionThese findings are consistent with the previous motivational (Smith, Smoll, & Cumming, 2007) and caring climate (Fry & Gano-Overway, 2010) research and shows that coaching actions and climates have an important influence on personal and social development of young people.

► Assessed sport psychosocial climate and underserved youth development outcomes.
► Youth learned teamwork and social skills, emotional skills, and initiative.
► Positive, mastery, caring climates are associated with positive outcomes for youth.
► Ego climate was the greatest predictor of youth experiences.