The Role of Physical Education in the Prevention of Youth Violence: A Life Skills-Based Approach in El Salvador
Sport, Social Development and Peace
ISBN: 978-1-78350-885-3, eISBN: 978-1-78350-886-0
Publication date: 17 July 2014
Abstract
Purpose
El Salvador’s youth have faced a climate of violence for decades. Schools have been identified as the most cost-effective ways to help students develop the life skills they need to prevent violence. This study examined the potential role of a physical education (PE) program taught by some of the first Salvadoran teachers to be trained to foster life skills through PE within schools.
Design/methodology/approach
Fourteen schools that had hired a PE teacher trained in life skills-based PE volunteered to participate in the study. Semi-structured interviews with the school director, PE teacher, and a focus group of students at each school were conducted.
Findings
Interviews were content analyzed and potential themes were initially placed into one of three life skills categories using a deductive analysis based upon the World Health Organization’s (WHO) (2002) three categories of life skills: (i) Coping and Self-Management; (ii) Communication and Interpersonal; (iii) Decision Making/Problem Solving. Then, using an inductive analysis, various themes within each life skills category were identified. The findings revealed that participants in the study identified the role that PE provides in developing life skills in each of the three categories and many identified the importance of these life skills to prevent violence both in and out of schools.
Social implications
Findings from this study highlight the important role that schools play in the development of life skills and the prevention of youth violence. PE in particular offers a promising approach due to its applied nature and opportunity for students to learn through doing and the application of life skills in a safe manner. The findings also support the importance of trained PE teachers to deliver such programs.
Originality/value
Central America has and continues to be a region with high levels of youth violence. Given that PE is a mandatory school subject in Salvadoran schools (and in other Central American countries), shifting the focus toward a life skills-based approach to PE offers educators an opportunity to address the country’s number one public health concern which is youth violence. To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind in El Salvador to explore the role of PE as it relates to youth violence and can help in future curricular revisions in schools and the development of degree programs at local universities.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
Funding for this research was supported by an International Opportunities Fund Grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded to John Corlett, James Mandigo, Pedro Ticas, Ken Lodewyk, Enrique Garcia, and Joanna Sheppard. The authors wish to thank the following individuals for their assistance with this research project: Luis Mario Aparicio, Jessica Cerritos, staff at the UPES Research Office, Nick Beamish, and Jillian Weir. The authors also wish to acknowledge the work of Dr. Andy Anderson who was instrumental in helping to start this research and was taken from us far too early. We miss you Andy! Finally, the authors also wish to acknowledge the contributions of Scotiabank International who helped to provide initial funding to the Salud Escolar Integral program in El Salvador.
Citation
Mandigo, J., Corlett, J., Ticas, P. and Vasquez, R. (2014), "The Role of Physical Education in the Prevention of Youth Violence: A Life Skills-Based Approach in El Salvador", Sport, Social Development and Peace (Research in the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 8), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 103-126. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1476-285420140000008005
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014 Emerald Group Publishing Limited