Positive Youth Development: Life Skills Integration in Competition-Based Softball Sports

Among softball players, negative attitudes and behaviours are more common than favourable ones. Athletes and coaches who are still focused on reaching goals or winning games impede the growth of other athletes by denying them the chance to compete for a championship. Therefore, through sports activities, a new paradigm must be developed in the sports development process through a life skills integration program to develop life skills, which is a form of positive youth development. The experiment was carried out on teenagers aged 14–18 who were divided into two groups, namely the competition-based life skills integration group and the non-life skills integration group in the sport of softball. A significant difference exists between the competition-based life skills integration group and the non-integration group, as indicated by the independent sample t-test analysis results, which show sig values (2-tailed) of 0.000 < 0.05 for both life skills integration groups. The competition-based integration group's average gain value for life skills is greater than that of the non-integration group, indicating that their rise in life skills is superior to that of the non-integration group. The findings in this study illustrate that participants in softball training activities can apply the life skills domain in their daily activities through the intentional structure of life skills delivered in the softball training program.