Integrating Life Skills into a Volleyball-Based Positive Youth Development Program for School Students: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Ever Sovensi; Muhammad Suhdy; Uray Gustian

doi:10.17509/jpjo.v11i2.105300

Integrating Life Skills into a Volleyball-Based Positive Youth Development Program for School Students: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Ever Sovensi, Muhammad Suhdy, Uray Gustian

Abstract

This study examined whether a volleyball-based Positive Youth Development (PYD) program with explicit life skills integration produces greater improvements in transferable life skills than regular volleyball activities. A quantitative quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control-group design was employed with 86 students, comprising 44 students in the experimental group and 42 in the control group. The experimental group participated in a 12-session, eight-week volleyball-based life skills program, whereas the control group participated in regular volleyball activities. Life skills were assessed using the Life Skills Scale for Sport-Transfer. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, mixed-design repeated-measures ANOVA, partial eta squared, and Cohen’s d. Both groups showed improvements from pretest to posttest; however, the experimental group demonstrated a greater increase in life skills scores, from M = 3.209 to 4.246, compared with the control group, which increased from M = 3.447 to 4.138, despite having a higher baseline score. The time × group interaction was statistically significant, F(1, 84) = 25.918, p < .001, partial η² = .236, with a large effect for the gain-score difference (d = 1.10). These findings suggest that volleyball can contribute to the development of transferable life skills when embedded within an intentional PYD framework. The results highlight the importance of explicit pedagogical integration of life skills rather than relying on sports participation alone.

Keywords

life skills transfer, Positive Youth Development, school students, sport-based youth development, volleyball.

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References

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.17509/jpjo.v11i2.105300