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Positive Youth Development and The First Tee

The First Tee is an example of a youth development program that contains the essential components of context, external resources, and internal assets for promoting positive outcomes. Golf is the context in which life skills are taught, coaches (trained in The First Tee Coach Program) serve as external resources, and the life skills curriculum (The First Tee Life Skills Experience) represents internal assets. Together these components are designed to achieve desirable outcomes, signified by the Nine Core Values of honesty, integrity, respect, responsibility, courtesy, sportsmanship, confidence, judgment, and perseverance. Within this program, a mastery-oriented climate emphasizing self-referenced success, optimal challenges, and intrinsically motivating activities defines the foundation in which external resources operate and internal assets are nurtured. In line with youth development researchers’ recommendations, The First Tee responded to the call for conducting evaluation research to document the program’s efficacy in achieving its goal of positive youth development.

Now spanning three years, our research provides longitudinal evidence of the efficacy of The First Tee life skills programs in promoting positive youth development. In Year 1 (2005), our purposes were to determine the impact of the life skills curriculum and delivery on youth development and identify unique aspects of the program that make such an impact. We interviewed 95 youth participants (ages 11 to 17), 26 coaches, and 24 parents to glean in-depth responses about what life skills are learned, how they are taught, and how they are transferred to other domains. Findings indicated that over 90% of youth showed transfer of life skills learned in the golf context to other domains (e.g., school, home, out-of-school time activities). These skills included meeting and greeting, showing respect, managing negative emotions, overcoming challenges, and helping others, among others. This evidence was corroborated through interviews with parents and coaches. A unique program quality is that context, external resources, and internal assets work synergistically to maximize positive youth outcomes in the Nine Core Values.

In the second year of the study, one main purpose was to assess retention of life skills through interviews with 20 of the 95 participants who gave in-depth responses the previous year. Qualitative analysis revealed that 90% of interviewees provided compelling evidence of retaining knowledge and transfer of life skills learned in The First Tee. Domains in which life skills were used (e.g., school, family, friends, sports teams) and specific life skill strategies (e.g., STAR [stop, think, anticipate, respond]; Goal Ladder) were consistently named over time. A second main purpose involved comparing participants in The First Tee (n = 533) to youth in other activities (n = 159) (e.g., sports, band, youth organizations) on life skills knowledge and developmental outcomes. Youth in The First Tee compared favorably to youth in other activities on most dimensions characterizing life skills transfer, general life skills usage, and developmental outcomes.

In the third year (2007), we assessed youth still participating in The First Tee on retention of participation rates, life skills, and developmental outcomes using mixed methods. Findings for participation retention, qualitative evidence of life skills retention, and quantitative evidence of sustaining ability to use life skills and experience positive outcomes provide multiple sources of data that The First Tee life skills programs are effective in teaching life skills and promoting positive outcomes. We found that 3 of every 4 participants continue their involvement in the program, that domains and themes for using life skills were retained over a three-year period, and that scores for life skills transfer, general life skills, and developmental outcomes remained stable over a two-year period. Collectively, findings over three years provide longitudinal evidence that The First Tee is an effective youth development program in attaining its goals of teaching life skills and promoting positive outcomes in the Nine Core Values.

Summary reports for Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3 can be accessed below. For more information, please feel free to contact Dr. Weiss directly at mrweiss@umn.edu.

 

 

The First Tee Web site