Examining Positive Youth Development Interventions With a Physical Activity Component to Address Bullying Among Pre- and Early Adolescents: A Critical Review of the Literature

Abstract

This review aimed at identifying specific features of PYD interventions with a PA component that appear most promising at reducing bullying behaviors among pre- and early adolescents. We reviewed articles that included PYD interventions with a PA component among pre- and early adolescents aged 8–14 years from five databases and found seven studies representing 3892 participants. Studies collectively showed that PYD-PA interventions can promote an interactive and supportive relationship between participants and staff and foster adolescents’ psychosocial development. The review’s limitations include the variation of PA components and geographical contexts of interventions leading to a difficulty in synthesizing the results. PA-based PYD interventions provide a promising approach that can foster youth’s psychosocial development such as the use of an interactive approach and the use of several PYD components (e.g., empathy and caring ). This approach, consequently, may lower bullying behaviors. Given the nature of this review, further evaluation is warranted.