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Sport Based Life Skill Development: The Explicit Development of Life Skills Within the New Zealand Football Junior Framework

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Thesis(1.51 MB)

Date

2025

Authors

Supervisor

Johnstone, Melody
Spencer, Kirsten

Item type

Thesis

Degree name

Master of Business

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Publisher

Auckland University of Technology

Abstract

Over the past decade in New Zealand, there has been a consistent trend of declining youth sport participation. Termed the ‘youth drop-off’, this refers to a certain age group of youth who stop participating in organised sport and physical activity, often for life. To counteract this decline, Sport New Zealand (Sport NZ) has developed various campaigns, provided funds, and created initiatives to encourage the wider sports industry to focus more resources on enhancing the youth sport experience. Yet very few of these campaigns, funds, or initiatives are structured around the development of life skills for youth participants. Life skills can be learned, practiced, and refined through sports to become personal assets or skills that help individuals succeed in many different life contexts (Martin & Camire 2020). New Zealand Football (NZF), as a National Sport Organisation (NSO) and the largest participation sport in New Zealand, has aligned its strategic priorities and messaging with Sport NZ (New Zealand Football, 2024). In doing so, NZF has embarked on a journey to further safeguard the experiences of young footballers across the country. This thesis examines the NZF Junior Framework, an existing youth development structure within NZF, focusing specifically on junior football coaches and their ability to explicitly promote the development of life skills within junior football. It aims to further the understanding of explicit life skill development within youth sports, specifically football, and to create greater awareness of the holistic developmental outcomes that youth can obtain through sport. These efforts may counteract the current negative experiences leading to significant youth drop-off. The research investigates whether explicit approaches to life skill development have a significant influence on the players, coaches, and parents involved. Given the challenges of measuring intangible outcomes such as life skills, a pragmatic approach to the research design was adopted, enabling the use of a multi-methods strategy to collect and analyse data. Data collection involved the analysis of existing strategic and operational documents, the implementation of a life skill development intervention alongside focus group interviews, and the administration of pre- and post-intervention parental surveys. Data were analysed through both content and thematic analysis for qualitative elements, as well as statistical analysis for the quantitative findings. The results demonstrated that explicit approaches to life skill development not only increased player engagement, but also enhanced coaches' focus on holistic youth development through sport. Furthermore, it improved the self-awareness of players, coaches, and parents regarding the influential role they play in shaping the experiences of young athletes. A particularly surprising finding was that explicit approaches also fostered positive behavioural modelling by coaches and parents, who increasingly discussed and demonstrated good behaviours and life skills with their players and children. The findings from this research offer tangible solutions for enhancing holistic development within the NZF Junior Framework. By specifically targeting explicit life skill development, the framework can provide greater care, attention, and understanding to participants, contributing to improved youth experiences of sport. This aligns with NZF’s goals and presents an opportunity to introduce age- and stage-specific developmental outcomes, further strengthening the framework to help mitigate the youth drop-off issue in New Zealand. Future research should continue to develop an increased understanding of age- and stage-specific life skills, improving how life skills can be aligned to specific frameworks or development pathways within sports. Replicating this study across a range of sports, both team-based and individual, would add to the broader knowledge base around life skill development. In addition, longitudinal research that compares implicit and explicit life skill development techniques would offer valuable insights into their respective impacts on long-term youth sport participation and development.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10292/19841

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Masters Theses