About the project
Municipalities in Motion (MiM) is a research and development project led by the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (NIH) that focuses on how Norwegian municipalities can enhance their environments to better support youth development. The project's overarching goal is to promote physical, mental, and social health, particularly among young people who are disengaged from traditional youth sports. Drawing on insights into the needs, interests, and everyday experiences of youth representing a sample of municipalities in Norway, MiM-researchers will collaborate with local adults—from both public and private sectors—as well as a diverse group of adolescents to co-create new, inclusive, and meaningful movement opportunities. The project will involve the development, implementation, and testing of innovative activity contexts aimed at fostering positive youth development.
Why this project?
Today’s youth are growing up in a complex world shaped by digitalization, insecurity, and increased social and emotional vulnerability. Too many young people report disengagement and reduced social belonging, increased loneliness and marginalization, more cyber bullying, reduced social training and reduced physical activity. In addition, Norway, has over the past few years experienced a disturbing development in youth crime, showing an increasing number of young offenders, more serious crime and an increase in hate crime. All in all, research shows vulnerable development processes and reduced mental health in youth.
However, contemporary theories of human development1 approach extra-curricular youth programs and youth organizations as providing contextual “developmental assets”2 designed to scaffold inter-individual development, pro-social behavior and health among youth3. Studies show that access to such developmental assets outside home and school is of significant importance for all youth and for vulnerable groups of youth in particular4. Above all, research shows that assets targeting multiple relational developmental systems (biological, mental, cognitive and social) in humans, underpinning positive developmental processes have shown positive effects. Social contexts based on bodily movement and movement interaction have shown to be such contexts5.
The aim of MiM is therefore 1) to make municipalities more qualified and prepared to meet a diversity of needs and interests among young people living in the municipality, 2) through such preparations enrich municipal developmental environments and support developmental processes for every youth living in the municipality, and 3) to test the effects of the enrichment.
See footnotes
1 Lerner, 2018
2 Benson, 2007
3 Benson et al., 2010; Enjolras et al., 2024; Säfvenbom et al., 2014; Säfvenbom et al., 2023
4 Säfvenbom et al., 2023
5 Agans et al., 2013; Steinsbekk et al., 2025
Methods
The project is divided into three Work Packages (WP1, WP2 and WP3).
WP1: A cross-sectional study on todays’ youth (13 - 18 years)
In WP1, MiM will conduct a cross-sectional study, exploring how youth (N=8000) living in a representative sample of 60 municipalities live and grow:
- how they feel and behave,
- in what way they attend central movement contexts offered by the municipality, and how they experience these,
- how they assess promotion of municipal movement contexts in general,
- and how they will describe needs, wishes and dreams if new offers should be made.
WP2: Developing new movement opportunities through local and democratic action research groups
Local action research groups of MiM-researchers, local youth and adults will work together to design new movement opportunities based on knowledge from the cross-sectional study (WP1) performed in each municipality. In these groups, participants will look at the resources the municipality already has—such as nature, facilities, adult resources, organizations, schools, and businesses—and match them with the needs and interests of local young people.
WP3: Studying effects: Implementation and a longitudinal study
In WP3, the municipalities will provide the variety of activities and programs developed in WP2 and a three-year longitudinal follow-up study will measure the impact of these new offers on youth behavior, health, participation, belonging, life satisfaction and other variables that underpin positive youth development.
Theoretical framework
MiM is built on three well-established perspectives on human growth and well-being. Together, they help us understand how to create environments where all young people can thrive
Relational Developmental Systems Theory
RDS sees human development as the result of a constant interaction between the individual and their environment. This means that young people’s experiences, abilities, and needs are closely linked to the opportunities and support available in their surroundings. When there’s a “good match” between what a young person needs and what their environment offers, they are more likely to grow, learn, and flourish. If that match is poor, development can be hindered.
Positive Youth Development (PYD)
The PYD approach focuses on young people’s strengths rather than their deficiencies and problems. It recognises that every young person has skills, talents, and positive qualities that can be nurtured. PYD research shows that when youth feel confident, capable, connected to others, have good values, and show care for those around them, they are more likely to make positive contributions to their communities.
Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction (BPNS)
BPNS comes from Self-Determination Theory and states that all humans have three basic needs: Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness. When these needs are met, people are more motivated, happier, and more engaged. When they are not met, well-being and motivation often suffer.
Applying RDS, PYD and BPN perspectives allow researchers and others to begin to discuss the unique lived experiences that make up human lives and point to the importance of identifying person ←→ context exchanges that promote health and positive development. According to the framework promotion of positive youth development across different youth contexts requires a diverse movement culture and promotion of multiple activity contexts anchored in a variety of values and logics to enable each young person to find a context with good ‘fit’. If optimization of developmental processes is the ultimate goal, developmental assets must be designed to be flexible to the needs of their participants
