Social skill development among socially vulnerable youth is a growing concern due to structural risk factors in schools and communities. Research suggests sport-based positive youth development (PYD) programs are contexts that can be leveraged to support social skill development. One gap in our research is exploration of whether SEL curricula and instruction, delivered via positive verbal reinforcements and tangible incentives (i.e., buttons) in sport-based PYD programs, can positively influence the development of social skills among socially vulnerable youth. To address this gap, we analyzed pre- and post-test survey data from 301 socially vulnerable youth who attended a 19-day sport-based PYD summer camp. The summer camp curriculum was focused on four social skills: (1) Self-control, (2) Effort, (3), Teamwork, and, (4) Social Responsibility (S.E.T.S). We used youth self-report items and hierarchical regression analyses to assess the influence of: (1) verbal reinforcements; (2) tangible incentives (S.E.T.S. buttons); and, (3) the valuation of tangible incentives, to determine whether these SEL instructional techniques contributed to growth in each of the four social skills. Results indicated that both verbal reinforcements and the value placed on the S.E.T.S. buttons positively predicted the youth’s post-camp S.E.T.S. scores after controlling for the pre-camp scores. The number of buttons received, however, was not a significant predictor in our analyses. Findings indicate curriculum alignment and training youth sport leaders and social workers to draw connections between sport activities and social skills may be critical to supporting positive developmental outcomes. Notably, researchers advocate youth sport can be leveraged to support SEL instruction and skill development.

由于学校和社区的结构性风险因素，社会弱势青年的社会技能发展受到越来越多的关注。研究表明，基于体育的积极青年发展（PYD）计划是可以用来支持社交技能发展的环境。我们研究中的一个空白是探索基于体育的PYD计划中通过积极的言语增强和有形的激励措施（即按钮）提供的SEL的课程和指导，是否可以对社会弱势青年的社交技能的发展产生积极影响。为了弥补这一差距，我们分析了301名社会弱势青年的测试前和测试后调查数据，这些青年参加了为期19天基于体育的PYD夏令营。夏令营课程侧重于四种社交技能：（1）自我控制，（2）努力，（3），团队合作，以及（4）社会责任（SE TS）。我们使用青少年的自我报告项目和层次回归分析来评估以下各项的影响：（1）言语增强；（2）有形的奖励措施（“设置”按钮）；（3）对有形激励的评估，以确定这些SEL教学方法是否对四种社交技能中的每一种都有促进作用。结果表明，口头强化和SETS按钮上的值在控制了训练营前的分数后，都能积极预测青少年的训练营后SETS分数。但是，在我们的分析中，收到的按钮数量并不是一个重要的预测指标。调查结果表明，课程设置保持一致，对青年体育领袖和社会工作者进行培训，使他们在体育活动和社交技能之间建立联系，对于支持积极的发展成果可能至关重要。尤其，