Exploring participant characteristics in an assessment of changes in psychosocial outcomes in a physical activity-based positive youth development programme for girls

Girls on the Run (GOTR) is an after school programme for girls in third through fifth grades which utilises a physical activity-based positive youth development (PA PYD) curriculum and culminates with training completing a 5 K run. Unfortunately, little research has explored how individual characteristics of girls are associated with changes that align with the curriculum. We conducted two studies to explore change in GOTR outcomes and how individual participant characteristics associate with these changes. Study 1 (N = 140) tested an instrument to measure physical self-worth, perceptions of physical competence, and emotional self-efficacy at pre- and post-programme and autonomy support at post-programme in a sample of 7–11-year-old participants. This study provided support for the measurement instrument in the sample of young girls and found that increases in perceived physical competence and physical self-worth were predicted by autonomy support perceptions. Study 2 (N = 249) used the same instrument an...