Assessing the effectiveness of a training program designed to increase participants' self-efficacy for promoting positive youth development through sports in a developing nation

Advisors: Stephen Tonks; Lee Shumow.Committee members: Jennifer A. Schmidt; Lee Shumow; Stephen Tonk; Paul M. Wright.Includes bibliographical references.This study constituted a secondary analysis of the data collected at a week-long training for local Belizean youth leaders to foster Positive Youth Development through Sports. The training was embedded in a partnership between Northern Illinois University and youth organizations from Belize. Bandura's theory on self-efficacy beliefs was adopted as a framework to analyze participants' confidence regarding teaching personal and social skills within their own practices to youth. The purpose of this study was to analyze participants' self-efficacy beliefs for teaching personal and social skills using the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility model as a means for promoting Positive Youth Development. A mixed methods approach was adopted for this study. Quantitative analysis was used to determine whether there was an increase in participants' self-efficacy beliefs as measured by a pre- and post-training survey. The proposed qualitative analysis examined the process through which participants' beliefs were affected by their participation in the training; more specifically, by looking at the sources of self-efficacy and their interaction with participants' self-efficacy beliefs.M.S. Ed. (Master of Education