With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, outdoor spaces remained one of the few places for youth recreation. Outdoor recreation and sport have been associated with positive youth development (PYD) prior to the pandemic, so we sought to test these relationships during the pandemic, accounting for self-efficacy and demographic factors that may be…

This study builds on previous research and policy that view teen sports as an educational tool and public health asset. The results highlighted that school-based athletics continued to be the most popular activity provided by high schools in the U.S. and was the only school-based extracurricular activity that showed an increase in participation…

In order to prepare students for adulthood and responsible citizenship, most high schools offer extracurricular activities designed to facilitate the learning of a wide range of competencies. The purpose of this study was to examine how participation in a single or a combination of extracurricular school activities for high school students may…

This paper is based on analyses of ideas about girls and boys in sports as they are presented in textbooks used in coaching education programmes in Sweden. Specifically, it explores gender in relation to descriptions of girls' and boys' bodies and bodily development during puberty. Texts construct gender differences. Masculinity is shaped around…

In order to examine youth experiences in athletic activities with different characteristics, the present study explored the developmental outcomes associated with participation in three different types of sport (individual sports, team sports, and dance-type sports) as well as across six identified patterns of participation (no participation,…

In this study, we examined the associations between organized activity participation during early adolescence and adjustment in a large and economically diverse sample of African American and European American youth. The sample included 1,047 youth (51% female and 49% male and 67% African American and 33% European American). We used analysis of…