Enhancing functional recovery for young people recovering from first episode psychosis via sport-based life skills training: outcomes of a feasibility and pilot study

Abstract

Early intervention within First Episode Psychosis (FEP) recovery efforts support functional recovery in several ways, including increasing levels of (1) physical activity (2) life skills, and (3) social connectivity. Sport has been proposed as an ideal platform to target these three goals simultaneously. The primary aims were to assess the feasibility of utilising sport-based life skills within FEP recovery efforts and test intervention components. The secondary aim was to evaluate the potential recovery benefits. Seven young people (aged 15–25 years) with FEP participated in a six-week sport programme alongside their support workers (community and peer workers) from the service, including peer workers with a lived experience of psychosis. The programme consisted of various sporting activities, which were designed to promote physical activity, maximise social connectivity, and teach life-skills (e.g. motivation, emotional regulation, and goal-setting) that are relevant and transferrable to other contexts (e.g. school, employment, independent living). The support participants engaged with the programme at the same level as the young people, with the role of providing support and normalising/modelling engagement. The young and support participants provided feedback during and after the programme via questionnaires and interviews. Young participants self-reported physical activity levels, psychological needs, recovery dimensions, and life skills pre- and post- intervention using established psychometric tools. We used thematic analysis to analyse the qualitative data and compared this information with other data collected (e.g. attendance, feedback, quantitative measurements). The study culminated with a process evaluation. The results indicated that, despite challenges with engagement for young people with FEP, sport-based life skills programming may be a feasible and useful recovery outlet. In addition, the results highlighted specific intervention components that were useful to promote engagement and recovery benefits. This study serves as a critical foundation for future sport-based work within FEP recovery.

Process evaluations of health-promotion interventions in sports settings: a systematic review

“…However, it is important to acknowledge that whilst certain factors can help facilitate intervention success, they may also act as barriers to implementation. For example, the findings demonstrated that although delivering sports-based interventions in a team setting helps encourage trust among participants, having too many participants may lead to higher levels of distraction, which can negatively impact participant engagement ( Wynters et al ., 2021 ; Brooke et al ., 2022 ). Future intervention planning, therefore, should also consider how and under what circumstances identified facilitators might act as barriers to maximize implementation success.…”

A scoping review of life skills development and transfer in emerging adults

“…Eight studies mentioned life skills transfer (Bal et al, 2016;Mmusi and van Breda, 2017;Brooke et al, 2019Brooke et al, , 2020Brooke et al, , 2022Kingsnorth et al, 2019;Duff et al, 2020;Pletschko et al, 2023). Table 4 gives an overview of the characteristics and goals of these studies.…”

The effect of student-centred learning approaches in physical education on positive youth development

“…It has been proven that effective sports-based youth development (SBYD) programmes help young people learn life skills and encourage their application in daily activities (Jacobs & Wright, 2021) and in developing life skills (Newman, 2020). The positive effects of exercise programmes on youth psychosocial development, including academic success, teamwork, leadership, and goal setting, have been documented by research (Malete et al, 2022), aiding functional recovery, increasing physical activity levels, and increasing social connectivity in First Episode Psychosis (FEP) recovery efforts (Brooke et al, 2022). Young people who take part in sport-based life skills programmes experience successful outcomes (Williams et al, 2022).…”