Peace and Development Indicators in Liberia Youth Through Sport for Development Programming

Sherrod (2017) called for more empirical research on strategies designed to foster positive development among youth in the majority world and sport has been identified as a potentially effective grassroots developmental intervention (United Nations, 2005; Whitley et al., 2019). Recognizing the extreme challenges confronting Liberian youth from a civil war and Ebola crisis, a sport-for-development program called Life and Change Experienced Through Sport (L.A.C.E.S.) for marginalized youth was established. L.A.C.E.S. seeks to use sport and character activities to cultivate aspects of positive youth development including social responsibility, personal relationships, peace, and purpose to support the healthy development of Liberian youth. Thus, researchers used a mixed-method quasiexperimental research design to explore these indicators in 181 youth in 3 Liberian communities at the beginning and end of 1 year of the L.A.C.E.S. program. Overall, quantitative survey data based on equal sample sizes of 34 random participants from each community indicated small decreases in attitudes toward violence and increases social responsibility, purpose, and relationship with coaches, with small (.06) to moderate (.36) partial eta square effect sizes (Ferguson, 2009). Interviews explored these indicators of development, and a photojournalistic methodology investigated the experiences, conditions, and relationships that cultivated and impeded the healthy development of Liberian youth, with themes indicating that sport in combination with character-development components was meaningful for development. Limitations, including the lack of a control group and challenges in working with marginalized youth, as well as implications of these findings for promoting peace, purpose, and positive development among other majority world youth are addressed. Public Significance Statement This study suggests that a deliberately designed sport-for-development program overtime can foster some key indicators of peace and healthy development among majority youth. Findings suggest programming can help reduce attitudes of violence and increase purpose, social responsibility, and meaningful relationships.