TITLE:
Positive Youth Development through a Co-Designed Modified Boxing Program
AUTHORS:
Paul Perkins, Allan Hahn
KEYWORDS:
Box’Tag, Co-Design, Community Sport, Modified Boxing, ModBox, Positive Youth Development, Sport for Development, Youth-Adult Partnership
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.8 No.1,
January
14,
2020
ABSTRACT: A modified boxing program in which youth and adults participated together
ran for almost five years at an Australian community youth club. It was
initially focused on preparing participants for occasional modified boxing
competitions in which impacts to the head and neck were prohibited and any
forceful impacts were penalized. The Head Coach of the program initiated
regular small-group and individual discussions with participants and used the
outcomes to guide program iteration. The participants became co-designers of
the program and therefore architects of their own sport experience. This led to
substantial changes in the nature of the program, with interpersonal
competition progressively de-emphasized and eventually almost entirely removed.
Increased attention was directed to building a cohesive, inclusive community
and engaging in cooperative endeavours that provided a shared sense of purpose.
Natural adult mentors emerged, and some adolescents took on peer leadership
roles. Through a partnership between the club and a local university, program
participants became involved in diverse research activities aimed at program improvement. Young
program participants began to anecdotally report obtaining broad-ranging
benefits from the program, and these reports were subjectively corroborated by
parents and natural mentors. To determine the nature of any such benefits, we
examined records of discussions that the Head Coach had logged in a detailed
journal over the course of the program. We
targeted a purposeful sample that included six young program participants and
twelve adults who had varying program connections. Thematic analysis performed on the records of discussions with the selected subjects
revealed that the most common perceived benefits that young people derived from
the program were increased determination, increased self-confidence and
enhanced leadership skills. Specific program features most clearly associated
with these outcomes were fostering of positive and supportive relationships,
collaborative involvement of the young people in determining program directions
and provision of opportunities for positive observational learning. These findings
are consistent with published literature and contemporary theories on positive
youth development. Although positive youth development was not the explicit
objective of the modified boxing program, the establishment of functional
youth-adult partnerships and co-design procedures in the program environment
caused the program to take on characteristics that research has identified as
critical to attainment of positive youth development outcomes.