Mentoring for the Positive Youth Development of Girls in Sport: Sport Organization Perspectives and Practices

Abstract

Mentorship represents a promising approach for sport organizations interested in supporting the positive youth development, retention, and well-being of girls in sport. Despite growing interest in mentorship as a youth development strategy, limited research explores how sport organizations understand and deliver mentorship programming for girl-identifying youth in Canada. The purpose of this study was to examine how Canadian sport organizations conceptualize mentorship and implement it to support girls’ developmental and sporting experiences. Using a qualitative research design, we conducted semi-structured interviews with Canadian sport organizational leads (N = 9) and analyzed available program resources (e.g., evaluation reports, program manuals). Reflexive thematic and document analysis revealed three findings: (a) how organizational staff understand mentorship for girls in sport; (b) how mentorship is delivered in practice; (c) system-level barriers and recommendations that shape mentorship (programming). Findings contribute to sport and youth-focused scholarship by illustrating how sport organizations shape mentoring as a developmental experience for girls in sport and by pointing to gender-responsive, co-designed mentorship frameworks as priority areas for future research. Practically, this research underscores the importance of investing in relational capacity and evidence-based mentorship models to better support girls’ sport experiences in Canada.