Our Research Goals
In line with our mission, the Centre for Healthy Youth Development through Sport aims to learn about and apply evidenced-based research into practice with the goal of fostering healthy development for youth who participate in sport.
We do this through studying youth sport from diverse perspectives, including coaching, life skills development, physical literacy, injury and risk assessment, sleep and diet, mental health, and program planning, implementation, and evaluation.
A strength of our Centre, and our research, stems from the multiple disciplines our team members come from including education, recreation and leisure studies, kinesiology, education, and physiology.
Please check out some of our Current Projects and Past Projects to find out more about the research we do.
Current projects
Co-Creating Knowledge regarding the Role of Unconscious Bias on Youth Development in a National Girls Youth Sport Organization
Project Lead: Dr. Corliss Bean, Brock University
Partner Organization: Canadian Girls Baseball
Funders: SSHRC
Summary
Research suggests that unconscious gender bias can negatively affect girls and women’s participation and retention in sport. Unconscious gender biases are learned, subconscious attitudes, prejudices, and stereotypes towards individuals of a particular gender. Sport is a unique institution in which its structure tends to maintain and promote unconscious gender biases, favouring men over women. Sport stakeholders, including coaches, athletes, and parents, all play critical roles in perpetuating unconscious gender biases and fostering girl-identifying athletes’ development. This collaborative project aims to explore unconscious gender bias in CGB and its impact on girl-identifying athletes’ psychosocial development. Study findings will be integrated into actionable organizational change to better support gender equity and make important recommendations for the larger sport sector as a whole.
Physical Literacy Screening: The validity and reliability of using a single screening tool
Project Lead: Dr. Nicole Chimera, Brock University
Project Co-investigator: Dr. Nathan Hall, Brock University
Partner Organization: YMCA of Niagara
Funders: SSHRC
Summary
This project is a collaborative effort between researchers from the Department of Kinesiology at Brock University and our Partner, the YMCA of Niagara. The YMCA Niagara has an established Kid Fit program, which is intended to positively impact child and youth physical literacy in the Niagara Region. Physical literacy is a multifaceted development of the motivation, confidence, competence, knowledge, and understanding of movement which has the potential to lead to lifelong engagement in physical activity and improved health outcomes. The researchers and the YMCA of Niagara have worked together over the past two years to understand the intent and current administration of the Kid Fit program as well as the needs of the YMCA of Niagara as they sought advice and assistance in streamlining their physical literacy assessment process. Therefore, the overall goals of this project are to determine the validity of using a single screening tool (Physical Literacy Assessment for Youth – PLAYbasic) to assess physical literacy across various physical activity programs and to assess the reliability of this tool when scored by raters (individuals assessing physical literacy) of different professional backgrounds. This research will inform decision-making at the YMCA of Niagara as they are interested in streamlining their Kid Fit assessment process while providing researchers with valuable information about the validity and reliability of this physical literacy assessment tool.
Dietary energy intake, energy balance, nutrition knowledge and supplement use among youth athletes participating in the 2022 Canada Games
Project Lead: Dr. Nota Klentrou
Funders: Brock University Canada Games Fund
Year: 2022
Summary
The proposed study aims to investigate the dietary energy, macro- and micronutrient intake, and energy balance, as well as the nutrition knowledge of youth athletes participating in Canada Games 2022 and compare it to that of non-athletic youth. In addition, this study will investigate the prevalence of supplement use among Canadian youth athletes and their knowledge about supplementation and will assess the impact of selected aspects of socioeconomic status on nutritional knowledge, perceptions, and dietary behaviors of young athletes in Canada. Participants will be youth athletes of various sports participating in Canada Games 2022, as well as non-athletic age-matched controls. Participants will be provided with a code to access the online survey. This study will enhance our knowledge and understanding of the nutritional choices that youth athletes make, along with their supplements use during their preparation for Canada Games. The results of this study will further contribute to initial groundwork for subsequent research studies on short- and long-term supplementation on recovery and performance in youth and Canadian youth athletes.
Reimagining High School Sport Coaching through a Social Justice Lens
Project Lead: Dr. Martin Camiré, University of Ottawa
Project Co-investigator: Dr. Corliss Bean
Partnering Organization: School Sport Canada
Funders: SSHRC
Year: 2021-2024
Summary
In Canada, over 750,000 youth participate in high school annually. Considering recent social justice movements, there is a growing need to examine how high school sport can be leveraged to confront issues of systemic inequity. This project seeks to reimagine high school sport coaching through a social justice lens and will gaining insight from coaches and student-athletes across Canada.
This partnership, and associated project, will enable School Sport Canada to endorse a more socially responsible, critical practice in Canadian high school sport. Reimagining high school sport coaching is vital to maximize the influence coaches can exert by advocating for and teaching youth about social justice issues.
Examination of Student-Athletes’ responses of the Canadian Campus Well-Being Survey
Project Lead: Dr. Philip Sullivan
Year: 2021-22
Funders: Brock University’s Match of Minds Project
Summary
This project is part of a larger research program that focuses on the mental health of student athletes in Canada. Specifically, this project will access and analyse data from the Canadian Campus Well-Being Survey (CCWS). The CCWS is a Canadian assessment tool to help colleges and universities collect the data they need to support student health and wellbeing. It is a voluntary and anonymous survey designed to help post-secondary institutions better assess student health and wellbeing on campuses, identify priorities for intervention, and increase capacity to link research with policy and practice. The CCWS covers nine core sections related to student health and wellbeing: Mental health assets, Mental health deficits, Student experience, Health service utilization, Physical health, Academic achievement, Substance use, Nutrition, and Sexual health behaviour. Among demographic variables included in the scale is whether the respondent is a varsity athlete. This project will involve requesting access to the CCWS database and analyzing it for differences on the nine core sections between student athletes and student non-athletes.
Meaningfulness in Youth Sport (MiYS)
Project Lead: Dr. Déirdre Ní Chróinín, Mary Immaculate College, Ireland
Project Lead: Dr. Richard Bowles (Mary Immaculate College, Ireland), Dr. Nicola Carse (University of Edinburgh, UK), Dr. Paul McMillan (University of Edinburgh, UK), Dr. Biljana Popeska (Goce Delcev University, North Macedonia), Dr. Mats Hordvik (Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Norway), Dr. Bård Solstad (University of Agder, Norway), Dr. Tim Fletcher (Brock University, Canada)
Partnering Organizations: Mary Immaculate College; University of Edinburgh; Goce Delcev University; Norwegian School of Sport Sciences; Brock University; Ladies Gaelic Football Association, Ireland; Access Parkour, Scotland; Stip Volleyball Club, Macedonia; Asker Ski Club, Norway.
Year: 2021-2022
Funders: European Union, Erasmus+ Programme
Summary
The MiYS project is a network specifically focused on using meaningfulness as a lens to promote more equal opportunities in children’s youth sport experiences. Each individual child’s experience in sport is critical to their long-term commitment to participation. A more positive experience means the child will be more likely to continue participating. If the experience is negative, the child may drop out of sport, and avoid or lose interest in participation. Too many children are dropping out of youth sport. Meaningfulness is a key concept in preventing dropout by helping children to stay involved and committing to sport and physical activity as a valued and enriching part of their everyday lives. The overall aim of the MiYS project is to enhance the meaningfulness of ALL children’s youth sport experiences, by helping coaches to deliver diverse and more differentiated pedagogies, resulting in greater opportunities for more individualised participation by more children. Here is a webinar some of us did for ICOACHKIDS on Meaningfulness in Physical Education and Youth Sport:
Past projects
Development and delivery of a sleep hygiene workshop for Brock student-athletes
Project Lead: Dr. Philip Sullivan
Partnering Organization: Brock Sports
Funders: SSHRC/BUAF
Summary
The proposed project seeks to leverage the research team’s expertise to develop a sleep-based webinar to meet the needs of our research partner, the Brock athletics community. As noted above, this line of research has included several more traditional forms of knowledge mobilization with local and national bodies. The proposed project will signify a new applied and solution-focused form of knowledge mobilization – a series of tailor-made interactions (virtual or face to face) to address specific knowledge gaps in specific populations (starting with the student-athletes at Brock). At the local level, this project will directly address a knowledge gap within the Brock athletics community by co-developing a webinar to improve athlete’s sleep hygiene and well-being. At a broader level, findings will be used as pilot data to apply for a SSHRC grant to refine and extend the findings beyond the Brock athletics community.
Youth Participation and Retention in Rugby Ontario: Why do they play & Why do they stay?
Project Lead: Dr. Philip Sullivan
Partnering Organization: Rugby Ontario
Year: 2021-2022
Funders: SSHRC
Summary
This project aims to identify what conditions facilitate athletes to participate in club rugby at the Junior level in Ontario. This study explores questions such as what key factors act as drivers for youth participation in club rugby; what role do age, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnic and cultural backgrounds play in participation; what potential impact(s) does an individual club environment have on potential and current club rugby participation; how does coaching impact participation in rugby; what are the multivariate effects rugby teams and organizations can have on youth in both in the short and long term; and what influence do clubs and sport organizations have on the attraction and retention of new and existing participants to a specific sport or activity.
Walking the talk: Mobilizing knowledge to enhance evaluation capacity in the Canadian sport sector
Project Lead: Dr. Corliss Bean
Partnering Organization: Sport Information Resource Council
Funders: SSHRC, FAHS, VPR
Summary
Evaluation has become identified as an essential organizational practice in the sport sector. However, many stakeholders do not have capacity to engage in evaluative work despite the increasing demands for accountability and evidence-based practices. The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated evaluation as a means of answering important questions about organizational adaptability and improvement while developing and/or adhering to ‘return to play’ guidelines. Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Brock University, Dr. Bean has partnered with the Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC) to co-host a 4-part webinar series to translate evidence-based evaluation practices in an accessible and meaningful way. This project will build accessible evaluation capacity and enhance professional practice at all levels of sport in Canada.
COVID-19: Building Capacity of Trauma-Informed Practices in a National Youth-Serving Organization during COVID-19 and Beyond
Partnering Organization: BGC Canada
Funder: SSHRC
Year: 2020-2021
Summary
Children living in under-resources communities are at increased risk of exposure to traumatic experiences (e.g., abuse, family dysfunction). These experiences can lead to negative health consequences. With the COVID-19 pandemic, these consequences have been amplified. Therefore, it is important that community programs are well-equipped with trauma-informed approaches to support children’s unique needs. BGC Canada (BGCC) is a non-profit organization that serves over 200,000 youth each year, primarily from at-risk environments. Since 2016, we have worked with BGCC implement trauma-informed practices into a sport program, the Bounce Back League, that is being implemented at clubhouses across Canada. Given the pandemic, further expansion for both staff training and programming has pivoted to virtual means. This project aims to work with BGCC to transition the trauma-informed training program to an online format so that more BGCC staff can be trained in these supports and support youth across all sport and recreation programming in their clubs.
A Cross-over study of Greek Yogurt effects on indices of recovery and markers of bone turnover after short-term intense training in adolescent female athletes
Project Lead: Dr. Nota Klentrou and Dr. Bareket Falk
Partnering Organization: Canadian Sports Institute Ontario (CSIO)
Funders: MITACS, Own the Podium, NSERC
Year: 2017-2020
Summary
The purpose of this randomized, double blinded, cross-over study was to examine the effects of increased dairy protein consumption with plain Greek yogurt (GY) on performance, indices of recovery and markers of bone turnover during an intensified soccer training camp in 13 adolescent female soccer players. The study took place over two intervention weeks, which consisted of: a pre-training assessment day, 5 days of training and a post-training assessment day. Participants completed the GY condition, and a carbohydrate isocaloric placebo control pudding condition (CHO) in random order, 4 weeks apart. Morning, fasted, resting blood samples were collected pre- and post-training in each condition. Creatine kinase (CK), insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin 6 (IL6), interleukin 10 (IL10) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) were measured in plasma. Total and undercarboxylated osteocalcin, C-terminal telopeptide of type 1 collagen (CTX), osteoprotegerin (OPG), and receptor activator nuclear factor kappa-β ligand (RANKL) were measured in serum. The results of this study demonstrated that short-term high-impact intense training had no direct catabolic impact bone metabolism, with GY adding no benefit beyond that of the isocaloric CHO control pudding. Likewise, the GY did not offer any added recovery benefit with respect to measures of performance and the exercise-induced muscle damage above that achieved with the isocaloric CHO control pudding in this group of young female soccer players. However, regular consumption of GY may assist with the acute anti-inflammatory response during periods of intensified training in adolescent athletes.
Effects of post-exercise whey protein consumption on indices of recovery and bone turnover in adolescent swimmers
Project Lead: Dr. Nota Klentrou and Dr. Bareket Falk
Partnering Organization: Canadian Sports Institute Ontario (CSIO)
Funders: MITACS, Own the Podium, NSERC
Year: 2017-2020
Summary
This study examined the effect of whey protein consumption following high-intensity interval swimming (HIIS) on performance, muscle damage, inflammatory cytokines, and bone turnover markers in adolescent swimmers. A total of 58 (31 female, 27 male) swimmers (14.1±0.4 years) were stratified by age, sex, and body mass to a whey protein (PRO), isoenergetic carbohydrate (CHO) or a water/placebo (H2O) group. Following baseline (morning, fasted) blood samples and a standardized breakfast, participants performed a maximal 200m swim, followed by HIIS. A total of two post-exercise boluses were consumed immediately post-HIIS and ~5h post-baseline. Blood and 200m performance measurements were repeated at 5h, 8h and 24h from baseline. Muscle soreness was assessed at 24h. Creatine kinase (CK), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-10 (IL-10) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) were measured in plasma. Procollagen type 1 intact N-terminal propeptide (PINP) and carboxy-terminal collagen crosslinks (CTXI) were measured in serum and were used to calculate bone turnover rate and balance. The results demonstrated that, compared to isoenergetic amounts of carbohydrate, post-exercise consumption of whey protein appears to have no additional benefit on performance and indices of recovery following HIIS, but it may assist with the acute inflammatory response and promote positive bone responses up to 24h following exercise in adolescent athletes.
Markers of bone metabolism at rest and following high-impact plyometric exercise in children and adolescents
Project Lead: Dr. Nota Klentrou
Funders: NSERC
Year: 2015 – 2017
Summary
This series of studies examined resting levels of catabolic and anabolic osteokines related to Wnt signaling and their responses to a single bout of plyometric exercise in children and adolescents. Fourteen pre-pubertal/pre-menarcheal girls (10.5 ± 1.8 years old), 12 post-menarcheal adolescent girls (15.0 ± 1.0 years old) and 12 pre- and early pubertal boys (10.2±0.4 years) performed a plyometric exercise trial. One resting (pre-exercise) and 3 post-exercise (5min, 1h, 24h) blood samples were analyzed for sclerostin, dickkopf-related protein-1 (DKK-1), osteoprotegerin (OPG), receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-β ligand (RANKL) and transforming growth factors (TGF-β1, TGF-β2 and TGF-β3). The results showed that high-impact, plyometric exercise induces an overall osteogenic effect through a transitory suppression of catabolic osteokines up to 24 hours following exercise during growth and development, although the timeline and mechanism(s) may differ based on sex and pubertal stage.
Assessment of Physical Literacy in Ontario Children and Youth
Dr. Ken Lodewyk and Dr. James Mandigo
Partnering Organization: Canadian Sport for Life
Funders: Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport
Year: 2014
Summary
The Centre received $164.000 from the Ontario Sport and Recreation Communities Fund through the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport. The funding will be used to learn more about developing and assessing physical literacy among children and youth in Ontario. The Centre partnered with Canadian Sport for Life to discover more about the physical literacy levels of children and youth (aged 7-17) in sport and recreation programs of Ontario. This research was focused on developing key measures using a battery of assessments to chart levels and changes in physical literacy in both research and practical settings (through Physical Literacy Assessment for Youth or PLAY for short). The specific aims of the project are to review the effectiveness of PLAY training in 300 practitioners by having them complete post-training assessments of its effectiveness. This project also includes the assessment of the physical literacy levels of over 3000 children and youth. Overall, the program will evaluate changes in participants’ physical literacy over the two years of the study and will help inform meaningful features of programs in the future for children and youth.
Enhancing coaches’ confidence in confronting athletes who are suspected of doping
Project Lead: Dr. Phil Sullivan
Project Co-investigator: Dr. Deborah Feltz
Partnering Organization: World Anti-Doping Agency
Funders: WADA Social Science Research Grant Program
Year: 2013
Summary
Although coaches are knowledgeable about banned substances, they may lack the confidence to act on this knowledge. This study aimed to develop and validate a measure for coaches’ confidence in this context. We explored the literature on confrontation to create a multidimensional model (i.e., legitimacy, intimacy, initiation, outcomes and resources). A 21-item, 5-factor model of coaches’ efficacy was developed for confronting suspected dopers. Coaches’ confrontation efficacy is significantly related to their perceptions and motivational climate. High confrontation efficacy is related to coaching climates that focus on self-comparison and improvement, and negatively related to social climates that focus on social comparison and competitive outcomes. A 3-hr coaching workshop was developed based on the 5-factor model. Initial investigations show that the workshop is effective based on pre- and post-workshop confrontation efficacy scores for football coaches of teenage athletes.
Assessment of Physical Literacy in Ontario Children and Youth with Disabilities
Partnering Organization: Canadian Sport for Life
Funders: Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport
Summary
The project involved many sport and recreational agencies from across Ontario including in Niagara and St. Catharines.
School-Based Physical Literacy Assessment
Partnering Organization: Ridley College, Physical and Health Education Canada, and the Ontario Physical and Health Education Association
Evaluate the impact of the Hoodlinks program on the prevention of youth violence and the development of life skills
Funders: International Olympic Committee
Summary
Hoodlinks was run by the Guatemalan Olympic Foundation and took place in high-risk areas of Guatemala City.
The Recess Project
Partnering Organization: Niagara Catholic District School Board and District School Board of Niagara
Funders: Canadian Tire Jumpstart, MITACS
Summary
This was a collaborative investigation of elementary school students’ motivation, feelings, and engagement in recess. Five elementary schools in the Niagara Catholic District School Board (NCDSB) and 12 elementary schools in the District School Board of Niagara (DSBN) were involved in this project.
Facilitating the development of the Passport for Life – a national online assessment of physical literacy
Partnering Organization: Physical and Health Education Canada
Summary
One example from this initiative was partnering with Ridley College and Physical and Health Education Canada to investigate the validity of the new national (Canadian) Passport for Life program for assessing the physical literacy levels of children at Ridley College.