Social-Ecological Analysis of the Sport and Recreation Programs’ Impacts on Positive Development of Youth from Socially Vulnerable Backgrounds

Positive developmental experiences of youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds in sport and recreation programmes have a capacity to contribute to youth’s resilience and serve as protective factors. Nevertheless, this area is under-researched and poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to address this gap by investigating the effects of sport and recreation programmes on lives and positive development of youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds. Drawing upon constructivist grounded theory, the data collection involved 13 interviews with practitioners and volunteers working with this population. The data were analysed inductively using initial, focused, and theoretical coding, whereas the latter involved the Social-Ecological Model and Positive Youth Development approach to conceptualise the multidimensional and dynamic interrelationships between individuals and the social ecology of positive development. The findings reveal the programmes’ impacts on personal (social-emotional skills), interpersonal (prosocial relationships), school (support systems), community/neighbourhood (sense of citizenship), and societal levels (norms and policies) that can facilitate healthy developmental outcomes of those who face developmental challenges. This study contributes to the understanding of the multi-level capacity of sport and recreation programmes to promote positive development among youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds and offers valuable insights for the programmatic design and delivery.