Youth participation coach learning: A scoping review

Coaching in the youth participation sport domain has garnered considerable attention amongst researchers, sport development organisations and coach education bodies over the last decade. However, little is empirically known of how youth participation sport coaches learn and how to support them in their development of coaching skills and knowledge. A scoping review was therefore conducted with the aim of synthesizing the research that analysed the perspectives and experiences of youth participation coaches, and to suggest future research agendas. Informed by Arksey and O'Malley's five-stage framework (2005), leading sports and education databases were searched for empirical literature on coach education and learning in youth participation sport published between January 2010 to April 2025. Following the screening stages, eleven articles were descriptively mapped. To unveil further insights, quantitative and qualitative analysis was conducted. Quantitatively, the majority of the articles were focussed on examining the effectiveness of coach education programs related to autonomy-supportive coaching in team sports and were conducted in western countries. The qualitative analysis revealed four key topics: learning enablers, learning challenges, coach learning outcomes, and factors influencing the impact on coaches’ practice. Based on the review, we propose recommendations for future research (i.e., examining impact on coaches’ practice, studies in non-western contexts, research across different sport types, studies employing larger and more diverse samples of coaches, and explorations of learning in relation to the coaches’ role within specific contexts).