No Cover Image

Journal article 177 views 23 downloads

Exploring how and why a sports-based multi-component intervention works for disengaged students: a longitudinal realist evaluation

Emily Owen-Boukra Orcid Logo, Camilla Knight Orcid Logo, Denise Hill Orcid Logo

Sport, Education and Society, Pages: 1 - 22

Swansea University Authors: Camilla Knight Orcid Logo, Denise Hill Orcid Logo

  • 67094.pdf

    PDF | Version of Record

    © 2024 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.

    Download (829.76KB)

Abstract

School dropout is associated with numerous detrimental consequences including prolonged unemployment, poverty, a wide range of psychological and physical health problems, and premature mortality. As such, designing and implementing interventions to prevent school dropout and ensure successful school...

Full description

Published in: Sport, Education and Society
ISSN: 1357-3322 1470-1243
Published: Informa UK Limited 2024
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67094
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Abstract: School dropout is associated with numerous detrimental consequences including prolonged unemployment, poverty, a wide range of psychological and physical health problems, and premature mortality. As such, designing and implementing interventions to prevent school dropout and ensure successful school completion is crucial. The purpose of the current study was to conduct a longitudinal realist evaluation to understand how, and under which circumstances, a multi-component intervention delivered through the charitable foundation of a professional sports team may impact the developmental outcomes of disengaged students. The intervention comprised one-to-one mentoring, classroom-based learning, sport and physical activity. Participant observations and fifty-two interviews were conducted with teachers and students over a ten-month period to form context-mechanism-outcome configurations (CMOCs) and to refine initial programme theories. The CMOCs developed highlighted the importance of students developing healthy conflict resolution skills and emotional regulation strategies, the potential of sporting content to re-ignite interest in academic learning, the powerful effects of deviant peer contagion, the synergistic impact of a multi-component intervention, and the role of pre-existing and ongoing contextual factors in determining whether interventions can create sustainable and lasting desirable outcomes among students. The findings provide practical recommendations for future sport-framed intervention design, implementation, and evaluation.
Keywords: Realist evaluation; multi-component intervention; sport and physical activity; mentoring; professionalathlete; classroom-based learning
College: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Start Page: 1
End Page: 22