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Research Article: A Proof-of-Concept Evaluation of the 1616 Story-Based Positive Youth Development Program

Date Published: 2023-04-28

Abstract:
The 1616 Program is a newly developed and evidence-informed story-based positive youth development (PYD) program for young ice hockey players (10–12 years of age) in North America. The program uses elite ice hockey players as role models—through story-telling—to serve as inspirational figures to engage youth athletes and important social agents (i.e., parents, coaches) with evidence-informed PYD concepts. The objective of this study was to use a Proof-of-Concept evaluation to assess whether the 1616 Program ‘worked’ in enhancing PYD outcomes and to determine if the concepts were engaging and enjoyable for youth, their parents, and coaches. The 5 week Proof-of-Concept evaluation was conducted with 11 ice hockey teams (n = 160 youths, 93 parents, and 11 coaches), encompassing both qualitative (e.g., focus groups) and quantitative (e.g., retrospective pretest-posttest questionnaires) processes and outcome assessments. Results showed that the program was well received by participants and positively impacted the intended outcomes. Overall, the data presented in this Proof-of-Concept evaluation was deemed to support the development and implementation of the full-scale 1616 Program for a more comprehensive evaluation.

Introduction:
Extensive evidence supports the positive outcomes of sport participation for youth [1]. Unfortunately, despite the potential for physical, social, and emotional development, researchers caution that simply participating in sport is not enough [2]. Indeed, sport should not be assumed to automatically contribute to healthy developmental opportunities, especially with the growing emphasis on performance and achievement at younger and younger ages [3,4,5]. As such, ensuring that sport programs are age appropriate,…

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