The development of life skills and values in high school sport: Is there a gap between stakeholder's expectations and perceived experiences?

Although research has shown that youth can learn life skills and values through sport, and a multitude of scholars assert that sport is a context that should promote the development of life skills and values, little research has investigated the collective expectations and experiences of youth sport stakeholders. This research was designed to examine stakeholders' expectations regarding the influence sport should ideally be having on youth development compared to their perceived experiences of how much sport is, in reality, having an impact on youth development. Results indicated that although stakeholders perceive sport as a context that is helping youth develop life skills and values, there are significant discrepancies within and across stakeholders when comparing expectations with perceived experiences.