ABSTRACT
Much of the policy rhetoric about ‘development’ and ‘empowerment’ tends to be vague and imprecise. While such studied vagueness might be advantageous for partnership and alliance building it does not provide a basis for robust definition and evaluation of the impact of participation on individuals, or an understanding of the presumed processes and mechanisms involved. As already noted, the hypothesis underpinning the project reported in this book was that sport contributes to ‘the personal development and well-being of disadvantaged children and young people’. Attempts to operationalise ‘personal development’ led us to the concept of perceived self-efficacy as there are strong arguments for regarding this as a core component of any definition of personal development. For example, Pajares (2002: 1) argues that
self-efficacy beliefs touch virtually every aspect of people's lives — whether they think productively, self-debilitatingly, pessimistically or optimistically; how well they motivate themselves and persevere in the face of adversities; their vulnerability to stress and depression, and the life choices they make.
