Abstract
Physical activity programs are a suitable context to foster positive youth development (PYD) as they are active and afford youth with opportunities to acquire various life skills (Hellison, Martinek, & Walsh, 2008). Similar to PYD, Basic Needs Theory posits that satisfaction of the three psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness will result in optimal psychological functioning (Ryan & Deci, 2000). The Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (GJWHF) program is a physical activity-based life skills program designed to foster PYD outcomes for female members of the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa. The purpose of this research was to better understand whether the GJWHF program supported participants’ basic needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The results from interviews with program leaders and youth participants suggested that an autonomy supportive environment was achieved by empowering the youth, while the physical activities and sports integrated into the program enabled youth to demonstrate competence. The findings also indicated that a sense of relatedness was present as youth formed positive relationships with the program leaders and developed new friendships with peers. Notably, participants discussed how they transferred some of the life skills learned in the program (e.g., responsibility and ability to meet new people) to situations at school, home, and with their peers, which offers support for recent literature that suggests that the satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs may help youth transfer life skills to different life domains (Hodge, Danish, & Martin, 2012).
