The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an ongoing AIDS education intervention program (EMIMA) using peers in a sport context. A secondary purpose was to determine whether a mastery-based motivational strategy would enhance the effectiveness of the peer coaches. A quasi field experimental study was employed in which at-risk children in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania (N 5 764) were recruited (average age 5 13.6 years) and were randomly grouped into two treatment groups and two control groups. The treatment groups were peer coaches conducting the AIDS education to the children within sport, one with mastery coaching strategies and one without. The two control groups were in-school children, who received traditional AIDS education, and out-of-school children, who received no education at all. The intervention lasted for 8 weeks. The results indicated that the intervention using peers in sport was more effective in transmitting HIV prevention knowledge, cognitions and perceived behaviors than the control groups. The mastery-based motivational strategies were effective in influencing some of the variables. Contrary to expectation, the school-based HIV education was no more effective than the informal education obtained by the out-of-school children. The use of peer coaches within the EMIMA program was reliably the most effective means for HIV/AIDS education for these at-risk children.

Sport-based life skills interventions offer compelling pathways to understanding the role of physical activity and sport on youth psychosocial and other development outcomes. This is because of evidence that shows the benefits of sport programs to health and well-being of youth, and more lately other areas such as academic achievement and various life skills such as teamwork, leadership and goal setting. However, much of the research in this area of youth development is largely descriptive, with limited capacity to infer causal relationships and application across contexts. Therefore, this study examines the effects of a sport-based intervention program on life skills and entrepreneurial mindsets of youth from three African countries (n = 146, average age = 15.9 years, female = 48.6%). Half of the recruited participants were assigned to a three-week life skills intervention program and the remaining half to a sport-only control program. Both groups completed a demographic information questionnaire, Life Skills for Sport Scale and the General Enterprising Tendency v2 test. Two-way mixed ANOVAs showed significant post-intervention changes in life skills for both groups but changes in entrepreneurial mindsets for the intervention group only. This demonstrates the relevance of sport-based interventions to youth development outcomes in different contexts and the transformative potential of youth sport reported in previous studies. The findings have important implications for intentional and targeted delivery of programs to enhance specific youth development outcomes.

Many U.S. college campuses have ways in which users’ lives can be enriched through wellness efforts. Provision of wellness and recreational services through a state of the art or newly renovated recreation and wellness facility is one avenue. The primary goal of this study was to determine the level of campus recreation facility satisfaction and utilization outcomes among student users at a Midwestern U.S. institution. The Recreation Wellness Survey was designed and its items were successfully tested for reliability using Cronbach’s α. Study results revealed that student perceptions of satisfaction in key areas predicted their development of healthy habits and overall satisfaction. The study highlights the necessity of satisfaction with key aspects of campus recreational facilities in the development of utilization outcomes among student users.

The study investigated whether mastery motivational strategies could enhance the effectiveness of life skills interventions for HIV education through sport. A quasi field experimental study was conducted in Tanzania with at‐risk children (n= 564) randomly grouped into two intervention groups and one control group. The intervention groups received AIDS education using trained peer coaches in football, with one group using mastery strategies. Children in the intervention groups all reported significantly greater HIV knowledge, and positive attitudes and safe‐sex behavioural intentions. The mastery motivational strategies reliably enhanced risk reduction for some of the variables. Canonical correlation analysis revealed meaningful relationships of mastery strategies with the variables. The life skills intervention through sport for HIV risk reduction was effective, and mastery motivational strategies enhanced that effectiveness.