
Martin CamiréUniversity of Ottawa · School of Human Kinetics
Martin Camiré
Ph.D. Human Kinetics
About
138
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Introduction
Professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Human Kinetics. Research interests lie in the domain of sport psychology and sport pedagogy. Interested in looking at how youth development can be facilitated in the context of sport and how coaches learn to implement strategies to promote the development of life skills in youth.
Additional affiliations
May 2017 - present
July 2012 - May 2017
Education
September 2008 - June 2012
Publications
Publications (138)
Intervention research entails the measurement of change in a situation or individual after a modification has been imposed. In sport and exercise psychology, interventions have been implemented in a variety of situations (e.g., performance, doping, physical activity, mental health) for a variety of individuals (e.g., athletes, coaches, sedentary pe...
Work conducted in the critical posthumanisms and postqualitative inquiry (i.e., the posts) has expanded in many fields, including psychology. Despite claims that the posts can help inquirers venture beyond the purported limits of conventional qualitative research (i.e., the conventional), the posts are not absolved of questioning. The present paper...
Mental health is positioned as a key outcome of organised youth sport participation and is a public health priority around the world.
However, discussions on the priority of and intersection between mental health and youth sport are just beginning in some countries.
Portugal and Brazil have made efforts to reflect on the current state of sport and...
Competitive youth sport coaches who aim to foster inclusive and safer sport often face challenges from their peers, their organisations, and the sociocultural systems in their contexts. A personal learning coach may support coaches’ critical awareness, reflection, and readiness for working towards changing their youth sport contexts. This study det...
Sport can at once promote social justice and reinforce systemic inequities. Considering the influence coaches have on athlete development, research related to coaches’ perspectives on social justice issues is warranted. The purpose of the study was to explore Canadian high school sport coaches’ attitudes towards social justice. An online survey saw...
Research indicates that movement behaviors are intricately linked to mental health outcomes. Although previous research has generally focused on the detrimental effects of poor movement behaviors, the present study took a closer look at how adherence to movement behavior guidelines may contribute to positive mental health outcomes among high school...
Promoting life skills is a prominent focus of the mission of high school sports. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived coaching approaches for life skills development and life skills outcomes for high school athletes. A total of 346 athletes participating in high school sports from the United States completed t...
Postqualitative inquiry (PQI) has emerged in recent years as a potential-filled approach to inquiry for researchers seeking to move beyond humanist paradigms such as postpositivism and interpretivism. PQI offers researchers exciting opportunities to shift from method-focused scholarship to theory-focused scholarship, amongst other moves. As a gradu...
The stay-at-home measures enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic led to sudden changes in the lives of individuals worldwide. For high school student-athletes, these changes meant transitioning to online schooling, heavily reducing their social activities, and enduring the cancelation of sport activities. Scholars have expressed concerns related to t...
In Portugal, national sports organisations receive funding from the government to achieve three key objectives: organise competitions; train key stakeholders; and foster human development. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine Portuguese sports organisations' strategic decisions towards fostering human development. A document a...
In this study, nine Canadian competitive youth sport coaches' challenges and successes in creating safer and more inclusive sport spaces were explored through individual pre-and postseason interviews and an in-season reflective portfolio of their coaching experiences. From a story analyst approach, the central narrative theme of "it's my responsibi...
Across the academic landscape, scientific organizations host conferences that enable researchers to come together to foster learning, stimulate innovation, and promote change. Within the diverse field of kinesiology, conferences can help develop and disseminate knowledge on a range of issues such as athlete development and coach education. The purp...
Positive youth development is a popular guiding framework for studying the psychosocial development of youth. In sport research, for more than two decades, this framework has enhanced our understanding of the mechanisms involved in successful shifts from youth to adulthood. Nonetheless, scholars have recently taken a more critical stance on the pos...
Coaching science is a thriving sport science with a history of overlapping topical, methodological, and conceptual shifts drawing from humanist and poststructural lenses. Recently, a deeper engagement with the possibilities of inquiring through a posthumanist lens has been proposed, opening ontological passageways for coaching scholars to think and...
High school sport coaches are important non-parental sources of influence who can help adolescent athletes develop in and beyond sport. In light of recent social movements that have led citizens to organize in the name of social change, there is a need to examine how coaches can leverage high school sport to foster athlete development in manners th...
Sport constitutes an important setting in which to study whiteness given ongoing issues related to power, privilege, and oppression. The purpose of the study was to examine white privilege in Canadian high school sport by investigating white coaches’ perspectives on social justice issues. A total of 463 high school coaches who self-identified as wh...
Continuous coach education courses (CCEC) are considered a crucial vehicle for exposing coaches to topics (e.g., nutrition, mental health, positive youth development) not addressed in their initial coach training. CCEC can help coaches develop well-rounded coaching practices based on youth's physical, social, emotional, and psychological needs. The...
Qualitative research in sport and exercise psychology is a flourishing area of inquiry. Nonetheless, several limitations with conventional humanist qualitative research have been identified, most prominently how preformed methodologies impede a full
appreciation of the complexity of existence. As a viable alternative, a posthumanist lens on inquiry...
High school sport presents opportunities for adolescents to build a solid foundation for positive mental health. Given recent calls to consider gender as a key variable when studying mental health, the purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of gender on the relationship between the satisfaction/frustration of the three basic psycholo...
Youth sport is often prefaced as an accessible social practice facilitating development and wellbeing, yet social controls and inequalities abound along racial, gender, and sexual divisions. In efforts of transformative theoretical manoeuvring, the purpose of the paper is to deploy assemblage thinking as attunement to race, gender, and sexuality in...
In the sports coaching field, learner-centered teaching (LCT) has been advocated as a viable approach to increasing learners' involvement in the learning process. However, implementing LCT is not a simple undertaking as coach developers, and coaches have encountered dilemmas when it comes to shifting to LCT in coach education. This study aimed to i...
Given that coaches who enroll in coach education courses may have diverse levels of openness to learning about positive youth development (PYD), the purpose of this study was to profile coaches’ openness to PYD before, during, and after their participation in a coach education course. A multimethod approach that involved field notes, nonparticipant...
Although psychological distress has been shown to increase during adolescence, participation in organized activities may have protective effects. The present study aimed to identify whether there is a relationship between high school student-athletes’ breadth of participation in organized activities and psychological distress, using a latent class...
Life skills refer to a person’s ability to do life well through the successful completion of everyday tasks and a meaningful engagement at school, at work, at home and in the community. However, several scholars have critiqued existing approaches to life skills teaching in sport, often situated as individualistic and focused on economic productivit...
The COVID-19 pandemic, and associated stay-at-home orders, instigated far-reaching disturbances in the lives of student-athletes, which included school closures and sport cancellations. The purpose of the study was to examine first-hand student-athletes’ pandemic-related experiences with screen time and mental health. A total of 22 Canadian high sc...
Life skills training programs have recently received increased attention in the literature, as they have the potential to provide stakeholders with the necessary knowledge and resources to facilitate life skills development and transfer through sports. Nonetheless, few attempts have been made to qualitatively examine the experiences of several grou...
Este artigo tem como objetivos refletir sobre as políticas e a cultura vigentes no sistema desportivo português e propor a integração de uma abordagem centrada nos fatores determinantes para o desenvolvimento dos jovens. As propostas apresentadas visam promover uma reflexão acerca das políticas implementadas pela tutela, com o intuito de melhorar o...
Life skills, defined as psychosocial skills enabling individuals to successfully meet life demands, have been popular in youth sport research to frame what we learn through sport. In light of recent critiques of life skills, the purpose of the present paper is to propose a move to rethink life skills as assemblages through a postqualitative inquiry...
The purpose of this article is to propose the integration of an assets-based approach to development in the Portuguese sport system. The propositions advanced are aimed at instigating reflections on policy-level initiatives that can be undertaken with the intent of bettering the state of sport in Portugal. We argue that changes from an assets-based...
Since the early 2000s, models of positive youth development (PYD), as well as the concept of life skills, have served as popular approaches by which to situate psychosocial development in youth sport research. However, critiques have been put forth in terms of
how the PYD approach fails to address power, privilege, and oppression and how life skill...
Although there have been studies on the use of information and communications technology (ICT) as a pedagogical tool to enhance teaching and learning in physical education (PE), more research is warranted to understand perceived barriers and facilitators to usage. The purpose of the present study was to understand key factors that influence the ado...
The Coaching Life Skills in Sport Questionnaire (CLSS-Q) is a 5-factor 36-item scale developed in the English language to assess the extent to which coaches are intentional in their approaches to teaching life skills through sport. To allow for usage of the CLSS-Q in Portuguese-speaking countries, the purpose of this study was to investigate the cr...
Sport has been deemed a favourable context to foster positive youth development and life skills. However, researchers have cautioned for vigilance before assuming that sport naturally leads to positive developmental outcomes. An important aspect in understanding sport participation outcomes consists of examining how sport leaders facilitate the dev...
Researchers have been increasingly interested in exploring how coaches can be best supported to explicitly teach life skills through sport. The purpose of the present paper is to describe the process of developing the Life Skills Self-Assessment Tool for Coaches. The tool represents a knowledge product designed for practical use on the ground, anch...
Objectives
Researchers have advocated for coaches to intentionally teach life skills to their athletes given the accrued developmental benefits. The purpose of this research was to develop and offer initial evidence of validity and reliability for a measure assessing the extent to which coaches are intentional in their approaches to teaching life s...
Appropriately structured youth sport programs have been shown to promote participants’ physical activity and well-being. When compared to Canadian citizens and permanent residents, newcomers to Canada have lessened access to sport programs due to a multitude of interrelated factors. In the present case study, the authors explored the experiences of...
Physical activity occurring through organized sport has been positioned as an engaging manner not only to prevent chronic-degenerative diseases but also to promote healthier societies. However, there is a lack of evidence linking competitive sport participation in the club environment in promoting youth athletes’ psychosocial development and mental...
While the impact of coaches on their athletes has been appreciated for more than a century, only recently have researchers reached a consensus concerning the key coaching principles and methods that consistently ensure the most positive outcomes for athletes and coaches. Sport Coaches’ Handbook presents this more holistic approach to coaching and p...
Coaches have been shown to play key roles in the life-skills development and transfer process. The purpose of the study was to examine coaches’ approaches to teaching life skills and their transfer in youth sport. A multiple case study design was employed. Each case was composed of one coach and at least two of their athletes involved in youth base...
Coaching is a global profession and coaches play a central role in enhancing the performance of millions of athletes worldwide. In the 21st century, the global mobility of coaches has increased, with many coaches taking advantage of opportunities to coach abroad. Norway leads the all-time Winter Olympics medals table (i.e., 368 medals), and with mo...
Coach education has been positioned as an important catalyst in enabling coaches to maximise the positive influence of high school sport on student-athlete development. The purpose of the study was to conduct a subsequent season follow-up evaluation, examining longer-term changes in coach-athlete relationship, coach interpersonal behaviours, and li...
To date, the majority of empirical investigations into the life skills transfer process have presented what have often been singular instances of application, thus positioning life skills transfer more as an outcome rather than an ongoing process of learning/refinement. Conceptualising transfer as an outcome overlooks the cognitive and emotional fa...
Coach education programs focused on positive youth development have the potential to equip coaches with the knowledge and tools necessary for them to foster improved developmental outcomes for youth in sport. Coach developers play a crucial role in the creation and implementation of coach education programs designed to promote high quality coaching...
The purpose of this study was to examine if a positive youth development (PYD) coach education course would (i) result in more positive developmental experiences perceived by athletes of participant coaches and (ii) increase the frequency of PYD-oriented behaviors exhibited by participant coaches. A total of 14 coaches and 270 athletes participated...
The present study examined the roles of coaching experience and coach training on coaches’ perceived life skills teaching. Canadian high school sport coaches (N = 1356) completed a demographic questionnaire and the Coaching life skills in sport questionnaire. Results suggested that coaches with more experience perceived themselves to discuss and pr...
Objectives
High school sport is considered a suitable context in which to develop life skills, yet most coaches are not equipped with the knowledge/tools needed to deliberately teach life skills. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Coaching for Life Skills online training program in helping coaches create environments...
Coach developers play essential roles in “coaching the coaches,” and investigating their lifelong learning pathway is key for better understanding the mechanisms that lead certain coaches to become coach developers. Thus, the purpose of the paper was to conduct a case study to investigate the lifelong learning pathway of a coach developer operating...
This paper reports findings of two systematic reviews of Sport for Development (SfD) evidence, with a particular focus on managerial and policy implications. We suggest that the outcomes of the systematic reviews yield significant insights regarding the current state of the SfD literature, particularly with respect to the diversity of interventions...
Research on positive youth development and life skills in sport has gained considerable attention over the past decades. However, there is a lack of translated questionnaires examining youth development and life skills available to non-English researchers and practitioners. The purpose of this research project was to adapt in French two questionnai...
The purpose of the present study was to examine and compare Singaporean physical education teachers’ attitudes towards information and communication technologies in physical education across different demographic groups that included gender, age, teaching experience, and school level. A total of 422 Singaporean full-time physical education teachers...
Positive youth development represents a strength-based approach to development in which life skills are recognized as desired assets that prepare youth to function as productive members of society. In many countries around the world, there is increased attention paid to the teaching of life skills through sport, but researchers have cautioned again...
High school sport is one of the most popular school-based extracurricular activities in North America, situated as a developmental activity during which coaches can foster quality relationships with students to promote basic psychological needs satisfaction and teach life skills. The primary purpose of the study was to examine associations between...
The practice of high school sport is, in large part, justified based on the premise that participation exposes student-athletes to an array of situations that, when experienced positively, allow them to learn and refine the life skills necessary to become active, thriving, and contributing members of society. The purpose of this paper is to examine...
The youth sport context is considered an ideal environment for the development of life skills, a process that is greatly influenced by sport coaches’ intentions and actions. The purpose of the present study was to profile patterns of congruence in youth golf coaches’ life skills teaching by matching self-report and observational data. Thirteen [nat...
Life skills transfer represents an ongoing process by which an athlete
learns/refines a life skill in sport and subsequently applies the same skill
beyond sport. Many qualitative investigations on transfer have used the ‘oneshot’
interview design to explore the experiences of athletes, thus offering
static snapshots of perceived life skills learnin...
Different types of evidence can be used to inform organisational decision making. The purpose of this study was to identify types of evidence used in sport organisations. Data were collected via interviews with 60 Canadian Provincial Sport Organisation representatives from five provinces. A qualitative description approach was used and data were su...
In early adolescence, parents generally retain a high level of influence in their children’s lives but as they get older, children typically look to gain more autonomy over decision-making and parents’ role gradually shifts to that of support. The purpose of the study was to examine parents’ and children’s perspectives on how parental involvement i...
Sport has been and continues to be a significant context in which athletes can acquire many of the skills necessary to become productive and thriving members of society. Indeed, the importance of developing life skills through sport has been highlighted on numerous occasions by the Singapore Ministry of Education (Koh, Camiré, Bloom, & Wang, 2017)....
Background
The growing number of sport-based youth development interventions provide a potential avenue for integrating sport meaningfully into the U.S. public health agenda. However, efficacy and quality must be reliably established prior to widespread implementation.
Methods
A comprehensive search of databases, peer-reviewed journals, published...
Golf Canada recently restructured its national junior golf development program, Learn to Play, going from an original curriculum that focused on teaching golf skills to an updated curriculum that integrates the teaching of golf and life skills. The purpose of the study was to examine whether there were differences in program quality through impleme...
The purpose of the present study was to explore the lived experiences of one male Paralympic athlete who maintained a longstanding relationship with his coach. This case provides insight into how a coach can serve as a key supportive agent in enabling an athlete to thrive both in sport and in life. The athlete was interviewed on two separate occasi...
Many forms of mainstream coach education continue to sparingly address content specifically related to positive youth development and/or life skills, instead maintaining a focus on the technical and tactical aspects of sport. The purpose of the paper is to present the evaluation findings of the pilot implementation of the Coaching for Life Skills p...
Objectives: The life skills process (i.e., sport to life) involves three interrelated stages: (a) life skills learning in sport, (b) life skills transfer, and (c) life skills application in at least one life domain beyond sport (Pierce, Gould, & Camiré 2017). The purpose of the study was to examine how athletes apply in life the skills learned or r...
Recently published reviews have begun the process of synthesizing the knowledge within the growing Sport for Development (SfD) field, but there is a need to critically evaluate the research on which these findings are based. This systematic review is a critical appraisal of both quantitative and qualitative evidence in academic and grey literature...
Objectives
The overall purpose of this study was to examine Canadian Provincial Sport Organization representatives' research priorities in order to provide directions for future research and knowledge translation initiatives in youth sport.
Design
Qualitative description methodology.
Method
Interviews were conducted with 60 representatives of Can...
There is an ongoing discussion as to how life skills development and transfer should be addressed. Previously, researchers have proposed an implicit/explicit dichotomy to explain how life skills teaching occurs. As research within the area of sport-based youth development continues to progress, a model is needed to delineate the varying levels of i...
Research has demonstrated that quality sport programs have the potential to foster the physical and psychosocial development of youth. However, there is an absence of observational measures to assess program quality related to psychosocial development within youth sport. The purpose of this paper is to report on two studies conducted to develop a v...
Generating a common understanding of knowledge translation among stakeholders is a key issue for increasing the use of research evidence in practice. The purpose of this article is to create a better understanding of knowledge translation in youth sport by providing a framework and guidelines for facilitating knowledge translation. We present PYDSp...
The purpose of the present study was to explore the contribution of extracurricular coaching on high school teachers’ job satisfaction. Specifically, the study looked at how perceptions of the coaching
environment (athlete relationships, colleague relationships and opportunities through coaching) influenced teachers’ perceptions of stressors (athle...
The purpose of the study was to create, implement, and evaluate a values-based training program for sport coaches and physical education teachers in Singapore. Four sport coaches with two to eight years of coaching experience (M = 5.0, SD = 1.4) and four physical education teachers with two to nine years of teaching experience (M = 5.25, SD = 3.3)...
Although high school sport in Canada has traditionally been an extracurricular activity overseen by physical education teachers, recent findings demonstrate how the majority (n = 1677, 60%) of coaches are in fact non-physical education teachers. The purpose of the present study was to compare physical education and non-physical education teachers w...
The purpose of this study was to explore factors associated with the use of research evidence in Canadian National Sport Organisations (NSOs). Data were collected via individual semi-structured interviews with 21 representatives from Canadian NSOs. A qualitative description approach was used. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and subjected to an...
In Canada, hockey is part of the country's history, culture and identity, but its practice is also linked with high rates of alcohol consumption. The purpose of the present study was to conduct a season-long case study examining alcohol use and misuse in Canadian junior hockey. Data were collected throughout the 2015–2016 season through extensive o...
Positive youth development (PYD) is a framework that has been widely used within sport research to outline
sport’s potential as a developmental context. Past research has indicated how coaches play important roles in facilitating PYD through sport and yet, PYD-related material remains largely absent from mainstream coacheducation courses (CEC). The...
For a sport skill to be considered a life skill, it must be successfully transferred and applied beyond sport. Life skills transfer is an essential process, but it has yet to be fully delineated within the sport psychology literature. The purpose of the current paper is to present a definition and model of life skills transfer and outline future re...
The overall purpose of this study was to create a model of positive youth development (PYD) through sport grounded in the extant qualitative literature. More specifically, the first objective was to review and evaluate qualitative studies of PYD in sport. The second objective was to analyze and synthesize findings from these studies. Following reco...
For athletes, life skills transfer represents the vital ongoing process in their personal development whereby they internalize the skills they have learned in sport and apply them to multiple life domains. The purpose of this article is to offer coaches practical strategies that they can integrate into their coaching to explicitly promote life skil...