An investigation of coach autonomy support, life skills acquisition, and the five Cs among junior and senior secondary school athletes in Botswana

Guided by models of positive youth development (PYD), this study examined the associations among perceived coach autonomy support, life skills acquisition, and the Five Cs of PYD. Cross-sectional data were collected from a purposive sample of 300 youth athletes (M-age = 17.16, SD = 1.28, male = 53.5%) recruited from public junior and secondary schools in Botswana. Participants completed measures of coach autonomy support, life skills acquisition, and the Five Cs. Results from regression analyses indicated that perceived coach autonomy support was significantly associated with the perceived acquisition of eight life skills through sport (e.g., teamwork, goal setting), as well as character (B = .10, p = .001), connection (B = .15, p < .001), and caring/compassion (B = .10, p = .006) dimensions of PYD. Of the eight sport-specific life skills examined, perceived acquisition of teamwork was significantly related to athletes' perceptions of competence (B = 0.21, p = .023), confidence (B = 0.14, p = .009), and connection (B = 0.16, p = .012), while perceived acquisition of social skills was significantly related to athletes' perception of character (B = 0.11, p = .022). These findings highlight perceived coach autonomy support as important to life skills acquisition and positive developmental outcomes among Botswana youth athletes. Importantly, in this African context, sport appears to be a compelling pathway through which youth can attain valuable competencies, such as teamwork and social skills, that promote positive personal (i.e., competence, confidence, character) and social outcomes (i.e., connection) external to sport.