ABSTRACT
The roots of Positive youth development (PYD) in sport and physical activity extend back to early physical education works, before sport and exercise psychology (SEP) was an identifiable field. Most of the current SEP work on PYD draws from developmental psychology models, and some scholars have drawn from those models to develop models more specific to sport and physical activity programmes. The leading SEP researchers and current PYD work draw from Benson’s developmental assets, Lerner’s 5Cs and Larson’s developmental or growth experiences. All sport-based PYD programmes focus on life skills that generalize and transfer outside the programmes. Social missions using sport include PYD and often extend to broader social issues such as sport for peace or sport for cultural exchange and social justice. Motivational climate is the environmental factor that has received the most research attention – both in SEP research on moral behaviour and PYD.
