Life skills development and learning contexts among members of China women's national soccer teams

ABSTRACT

The objectives of this study were to explore life skills development and learning contexts among members of the China women's national soccer teams. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 members of the China women's national soccer teams. Data were subjected to inductive and deductive analytic procedures. Data pertaining to life skills development were initially inductively analysed and then deductively matched with the Chinese adaptation of the “4Cs” of character, competence, confidence, and connection. Data pertaining to life skills learning contexts were inductively analysed and we constructed themes that revealed participants’ experiences in four contexts (sport, family, school, and work). There appeared to be a particular emphasis on the sport context, whereby participants described learning life skills from teammates, coaches, meeting competitive demands, and living with the team. Family also appeared to be an important life skills learning context, whereas school and work were less prevalent. Overall, these results suggest the Chinese adaptation of the 4Cs is appropriate for use with Chinese athletes. The emphasis on the sport context may be reflective of the intense and unique training demands associated with the Chinese national team.

KEYWORDS:

• Positive youth development
• Chinese athletes
• Women’s soccer
• 4Cs model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in Dataverse at https://doi.org/10.5683/SP3/7DC3AF

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by China Scholarship Council: [Grant Number 201806520001].