Background Over the two last decades, the interest in personal and psychosocial youth development has been growing due to its engagement in sport activities. Furthermore, participation in sport has been referenced as a favourable mechanism and context for positive youth development (PYD). However, some studies and researchers continue to question the linearity of this association. Considering the place and importance of the practice of sports in and out of school in young people’s lives, it is necessary to systematically gather empirical evidence about the relationship between sports involvement and the development of children and young people attending school. This knowledge is important not only for teachers, coaches and professionals who work at schools, clubs and associations, but also for policymakers.Objective to study the relationship between the practice of sport and the positive development of children and young people attending school. This purpose was guided by the following research question: What is the relation between the practice of sports and positive development of grade 5 to 12 children and youth attending school?Method Conduct a systematic search in EBSCO, Scopus and Web of Science databases. Search for relevant studies with a quantitative, qualitative and mixed design that met previously established eligibility criteria. Quality was assessed and data were extracted from a previously elaborated template.Results The systematic review followed the PRISMA protocol and included 30 studies with quantitative (n = 14), qualitative (n = 12) and mixed (n = 4) designs. A wide variety of sports and two fundamental settings – physical education (PE) and extracurricular activities – in and out of school – were found, most of them framed in structured activities or intervention programmes. Results suggest that the practice of sports, especially when combining different sports and contexts, or including non-sport activities, seems to favour psychosocial development and the transfer of competences and values to other areas of life, ‘outside’ sports. This evidence appears to depend on several individual and contextual factors, such as psychological and physical security, presence and action of adults and mentors, positive social interactions, having a voice and participation in decision-making, leadership roles, opportunities for skills built in a meaningful activity and deliberately structured activities, but also on the interaction between individual and contextual factors.Conclusions The results suggest the importance of sports practice as a mechanism and a favourable context for the developmental outcomes of children and young people attending school. That relationship, however, seems contingent. Developmental outcomes might be related to multiple individual and contextual factors and to the interaction among them. Different activities afford different opportunities for children and young people to engage in adaptive relations with their ecology and positive development. The combination of different types of sports, in or out of school, especially when combined with non-sport activities, seems to bring greater benefits. Several factors were referenced as beneficial to PYD promotion in sport programmes, in and out of school.
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