The developmental potential of sport for young people has long been recognised (Sandford et al., 2006; Armour & Sandford, 2013; Rossi & Jeanes, 2016; Hooper et al., 2020). Indeed, the ‘power of sport’ to effect positive change is often espoused in discussions about youth development in and through sport, with various skills, attributes or characteristics identified as potential outcomes (Holt, 2016). Sport participation is seen to lead to positive health and wellbeing both physically (e.g., improved fitness, muscle development and bone strength) and mentally (e.g., enhanced self-esteem, confidence and motivation). It can also support skill development (e.g., motor control, cognition and attention) and promote the development of key competencies and characteristics that can be applied beyond the educational context (e.g., teamwork, cooperation, leadership and resilience) (Eime et al., 2013; Hozhabri et al., 2022). In addition, there is growing recognition of the potential for sport participation to contribute to an individual's socio-moral development and the establishment of good character (e.g., Armour & Sandford, 2013; Coalter, 2013; Hooper et al., 2020). As such, it is perhaps not surprising that opportunities for sport participation are widely promoted for young people (UNICEF, 2004; Sport England, 2021), especially those who might be considered marginalised or disadvantaged, given such developmental potential (Sandford et al., 2023).

In recent years, we have seen an increased emphasis on developing ‘life skills’ within education and – given the perceived ‘power of sport’ – physical education and school sport are often positioned as having a key role to play in this respect (Goudas et al., 2006). However, there has been much debate as to the extent to which these skills might be ‘caught’ within these contexts or whether they need to be ‘taught’ explicitly for learning to occur (Allen & Rhind, 2019). As such, there is uncertainty around what makes for an effective programme or intervention with regard to life skills development within physical education and youth sport. This present study sought to address this gap by conducting a systematic review of the existing literature on life skills programmes and interventions within physical education and school sport contexts in order to identify ‘what works’.

The systematic review was conducted following PRISMA guidelines. Searches of eight databases were conducted in September 2024 (Cochrane Library, PubMed Library, JBI Evidence Synthesis, SportDiscus, Scopus, Science Direct, PsycInfo and Web of Science) in order to establish that there were currently no systematic review papers already covering this topic. Following this, the electronic databases PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus, Sport Discus, The Cochrane Library and PsycINFO/PsycArticle were searched to identify relevant studies. Searches of these databases were conducted between September 2024 and October 2024. The search strategy used the Population Intervention Comparison Outcome (PICO) model:  Population - Children and young people attending compulsory primary or secondary school.  Intervention - Life skills programmes/interventions delivered through physical education and/or school sport. These should be purposeful, intentional and structured with life skill development as a key outcome.  Comparison - Control groups may be used for comparative purposes but are not required.  Outcome - Outcomes that directly mention life skills development as well as outcomes that comment only on limited or singular elements of life skill development (e.g., confidence). There were no restrictions on the required publication period of articles. Electronic databases were searched using indexing terms specific to each database but using the agreed search strategy: Search: child* OR adolescen* OR "young people" OR boys OR girls OR youth Search: "physical education" OR PE OR "School sport" OR 'school-based' OR "whole school" OR 'school based' OR school* Search: "life skills" OR "life-skills" The electronic search initially highlighted 6134 studies from six electronic databases. After the removal of 2390 duplicates, 3744 studies went through title and abstract screening. 43 studies were then full text screened, with 18 chosen for inclusion and taken to the extraction stage.

The review is currently at the extraction stage and so is not yet completed. However, an initial assessment of the included studies identifies several points of interest. For example, there has been a recent growth of studies in this area with the majority of included papers having been published since 2017. Of these, most were from the North American context. The majority of the programmes and interventions took place within physical education lessons, but school sport opportunities (i.e., extra-curricular sport) also featured. Goal setting was the most commonly targeted life skill, followed by ‘helping others’ and coping skills (variously defined). Implementation within physical education and school sport context involved several means though most (n=8) developed a bespoke programme or intervention targeting life skills development, while some (n=6) utilised models-based practices (e.g., Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility, Cooperative Learning). These factors will be explored in more detail within the presentation, along with others that arise as the review is completed. It is anticipated that, based on the findings of the review, recommendations will be able to be made as to what features serve to facilitate effective life skills programmes or interventions within physical education and school sport contexts to inform future policy, practice and research.

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