Abstract
Project SCORE is an online resource that sport coaches can utilize to intentionally deliver important youth development content, notably the 4 Cs: confidence, competence, character, and connection. This tool was both created and translated by an international research team into multiple languages, including the Portuguese context which was the focus of this study. Thirteen young (M = 26.23 years), experienced (M = 5.46 years of experience) head and assistant soccer and rowing coaches from two Portuguese clubs completed the P-CLSS-Q. Because of small sample size and non-normality, Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks tests were used to find that coaches ranked their ability to plan, support, and praise athletes’ life skills usage during and outside of training significantly higher after program implementation, Z = -2.04, p = 0.045, Z = -2.08, p = 0.039, and Z = -2.17, p = 0.035, respectively. Additionally, 70 youth Portuguese football and rowing athletes from various levels ranging from U11 to U19 completed the 4 Cs questionnaire. Paired sample t-tests using a Benjamini-Hochberg correction discovered several findings from pre- to post-intervention across the four inventories, including a significant increase in four coach-athlete relationship and four prosocial behaviour constructs, along with significant decreases in inversely scored low self-confidence and antisocial behaviour constructs. Surprisingly, ten of 14 self-competence factors demonstrated significant reductions in scores post program completion. Findings indicate that Project SCORE benefitted coaches in the areas of PYD and enabling life skill transfer, while athletes displayed relatively positive results save for the area of self-competence, which requires further investigation.
