Positive Development, Personal and Social Responsibility and Sport… what relationship? – “A Study carried out in a Portuguese School with priority intervention”

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the relationships between the sporting practice of Portuguese students from a school considered a Priority Intervention Educational Territory with their levels of positive youth development and personal and social responsibility. Four hundred and thirty students of both sexes (45.6% female), aged between 10 and 20 (M = 13.94 and SD = 2.61) participated in this study. To assess Positive Development, was used the PYDp/red questionnaire to assess Personal and Social Responsibility, the PSRQ questionnaire was used. The results showed that only 24.2% of young people practised sports more regularly. Regarding positive youth development, the results showed that female individuals had higher average levels in the Care/attention dimension. Regarding the Character dimension, it was verified that students in older groups seemed to show greater respect for the rules, while the younger ones showed higher average levels of Connection. Also was found that the perception of social responsibility was higher than that of personal responsibility. Finally, a trend was identified: the more years of sports practice and weekly frequency, the higher the positive youth development and personal and social responsibility values.