Sara Kramers

University of Ottawa · School of Human Kinetics

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...

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...

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...

Despite recent advancements for women in leadership roles, women remain underrepresented in sport coaching contexts. Mentorship has been advocated as a potential avenue for advancing and sustaining the careers of women coaches. In line with this, national sporting bodies have implemented mentorship programs to pair new and aspiring women coaches wi...

Interest in the value of sport as a vehicle for promoting positive developmental outcomes for children and young athletes has been longstanding in youth sport psychology research. However, there has been a more evident surge in research over the past 20 years that lies adjacent to more global, public health and well-being concerns over the integrit...

Sports are fun activities that help kids learn skills, like how to shoot a free throw or skate backwards. But what if sports could teach us more than physical skills and prepare us for life? If the environment is safe and welcoming, sports can also teach us skills that we can use in our lives—life skills! Participating in sports can teach us about...

There remains limited research into the role that parents play to support their child’s psychosocial development within elite youth sport contexts. The present study was conducted in an English professional youth football (soccer) academy that has intentionally integrated the 5Cs framework (Harwood; commitment, communication, concentration, control...

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...

To date, little research has explored differences between competitive and recreational youth sport contexts beyond descriptions of inherent features. The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine if differences existed between competitive and recreational youth sport on (a) observed quality delivery and (b) youth’s perceptions of basic psych...

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...

Sport is often described as a vehicle for promoting positive outcomes among youth, including the adoption of life skills. However, limited research has examined the processes of life skills development and transfer within youth sport contexts. The purpose of this study was to explore the processes of life skills development and transfer in youth ho...

O esporte tem sido apontado como uma ferramenta valiosa para promover o desenvolvimento positivo de jovens (DPJ). Além disso, o desenvolvimento de life skills destaca-se por auxiliar jovens a ter sucesso dentro e fora do contexto esportivo. Devido as discussões limitadas no Brasil acerca do DPJ e das life skills tanto no âmbito científico quanto na...

Sport has been identified as a favourable tool for promoting positive youth development (PYD). Moreover, the development of life skills is highlighted for supporting youth to thrive in and beyond sport. Due to the limited discussions in Brazil regarding PYD and life skills both in research and in the structuring of sport programs, this paper aims t...

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 p...

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...

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...

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...