Enhancing social mobility within marginalized youth: the accumulation of positive psychological capital through engagement with community sports clubs

Recent government policy in the United Kingdom has encouraged marginalized youth to acquire human and social capital in order to enhance their social mobility prospects. While literature observes how community-based organisations, such as sports clubs, hold potential to facilitate the accumulation of such capital, other scholarship has advocated that the acquisition of positive psychological capital—comprising of self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience—is equally necessary to actualise social mobility. However, few studies have explored how participation in community-based interventions may facilitate this form of capital. Utilizing data collected from youth participants and club coaches who engaged with a sport-based project delivered in London (UK), this article will focus on two main concerns. First, it will highlight how opportunities offered within community-based organisations may enable the development of positive psychological capital, and second, offer tentative insights into the conditions that are necessary to enhance elements of positive psychological capital through sport.