TY  - CHAP
AB  - 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.
VL  - 8
SN  - 978-1-78350-885-3, 978-1-78350-886-0/1476-2854
DO  - 10.1108/S1476-285420140000008005
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S1476-285420140000008005
AU  - Mandigo James
AU  - Corlett John
AU  - Ticas Pedro
AU  - Vasquez Ruben
PY  - 2014
Y1  - 2014/01/01
TI  - The Role of Physical Education in the Prevention of Youth Violence: A Life Skills-Based Approach in El Salvador
T2  - Sport, Social Development and Peace
T3  - Research in the Sociology of Sport
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 103
EP  - 126
Y2  - 2024/04/25
ER  -