Impact of Coaching on Young People: An Imperfect Evaluation Report

Supporting young people through targeted coaching interventions is essential for their personal development, wellbeing, future success and ability to flourish in life.

This report outlines the specific needs young people bring to coaching, how these interventions help them on an individual basis, and the measurable impact of this support.

It draws on extensive data* collected from our coaching sessions, providing a clear and evidence-based overview of the challenges young people face and the transformative power of targeted coaching. Finally, we explore how you can build capacity within your own setting to deliver these life-changing results.

This report isn't perfect (collecting data from young people can be a challenge!) but it provides helpful insights into what coaching can offer to young people as a targeted early intervention.

How This Report Was Compiled

To ensure our findings were robust and insightful, this report was based on a comprehensive analysis of data collected from over 60 young people who participated in hundreds of coaching sessions and different coaching programmes between 2014 and 2017.

Coaching programmes included

• Coaching Outreach funded by Charnwood and NW Leicestershire Council
• Go-Getta early crime prevention and ASB prevention coaching
• Coaching in schools (in-house school coaching)

Here’s a look at our methodology:

• Initial Engagement: We started with detailed initial assessments to understand the specific needs and challenges of each young person and engage them in a voluntary coaching intervention.
• Session Data: Our coaches logged progress and key discussion points from every session, capturing the key topics covered in the coaching programme, along with engagement. Coaching interventions range from 4-10 coaching sessions with a personal coach who would work with the young person at school, a community setting or home to support them to re-engage in school or other support services
• Wellbeing Measurement Tools and Feedback: We gathered direct feedback from young people using wellbeing measurement tools such as the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7), alongside our own qualitative and quantitative surveys. These instruments allowed us to measure their perceived progress and satisfaction, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of their journey.

This data-driven approach allowed us to identify clear patterns and measure the tangible impact of our coaching interventions, ensuring the information you find here is both reliable and inspiring.

Types of Needs Identified in Young People

Young people who accessed coaching presented with a wide variety of emotional and behavioural challenges. When we assessed the initial needs of these individuals, several core themes emerged:

• Emotional Distress: High levels of anxiety, stress, and worry were incredibly common. Many young people struggled with intrusive thoughts, overreacting to situations, and focusing heavily on negative outcomes.
• Behavioural Challenges: We frequently identified issues surrounding anger management, hyperactivity, and verbal confrontations.
• Mental Health Concerns: A concerning number of young people reported suicidal feelings, self-harm, or had a history of suicide attempts before beginning their sessions. Many of them at the time of intervention, were waiting for CAMHS appointments due to these needs.
• Social and Academic Struggles: Many individuals lacked confidence, struggled with low self-esteem, and experienced difficulties maintaining trust in relationships or engaging positively with their schoolwork.

I trust professionals more, teachers and my closest friends and got rid of the bad ones.

How Coaching Helps Young People on an Individual Basis

Coaching empowers young people to take control of their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. On an individual level, the process provides them with a safe space and a supportive, trusted adult, to develop practical, positive coping strategies while developing resilience and wellbeing.

Through targeted coaching, young people learn to challenge unhelpful, automatic negative thoughts and replace them with constructive alternatives. We see them develop techniques to manage their anger and think carefully before acting or lashing out at others. The sessions help individuals understand how their reactions affect those around them, which improves their communication skills and helps them build trust with teachers, friends, and family.

Rather than simply dwelling on problems, coaching focuses on recognising personal strengths. Young people learn distraction techniques, relaxation methods, and breathing exercises. They discover how to be kind to themselves, calm down during moments of high stress, and ultimately pull themselves together when facing adversity.

"I learned different coping strategies like planning, lists, noticing things, how to communicate my feelings, visualising things, how to set goals, how to motivate myself"

"Learnt more about my feelings, learnt to be myself. Put myself in the other persons shoes. Talking about my feelings, remember positive things."

The Impact of Coaching

The effectiveness of coaching young people was evident across both statistical measures and personal feedback. By combining positive psychology with practical tools, we saw remarkable transformations.

Quantitative Data

• Reduced Depression and Anxiety: Participants regularly recorded massive reductions in depression, anxiety, and stress scores. In some programmes, depression scores reduced by an average of 69%, while anxiety dropped by 71% and stress by 61%.
• Improved Behaviour: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) results showed significant decreases in emotional problems, conduct problems, and hyperactivity. In many cohorts, over 90% of participants recorded improved total difficulty scores.
• Positive Thinking: Following their programmes, up to 100% of young people reported higher levels of self-understanding, and massive majorities reported greater use of positive communications and helpful thinking.
• Confidence: The vast majority of participants showed measurable increases in self-confidence, feelings about themselves, and their ability to apply positive coping strategies.

Qualitative Data

• Academic and School Engagement: Teachers notice that students who receive coaching return to the classroom calmer, more focused, and better equipped to manage issues. This often leads to improved attendance and better academic success.
• Personal Wellbeing: Young people consistently tell us that coaching improves their mental health. They report feeling happier, sleeping better, and feeling much less angry.
• Relationship Building: Participants highlight that coaching helps them understand other people's perspectives. They feel more able to access support networks both inside and outside of school.
• Early Prevention: By building resilience, young people are better equipped to deal with challenging situations and setbacks. This can help prevent more serious issues from developing in the future.

Don't feel as scared to come to school, know that I have people to help

To wake up in the mornings, get to school on time, to stay at school.

I like myself a lot more. I am more confident, it has made me enjoy school.

Qualitative Data Evaluation Themes

These themes provide a comprehensive snapshot of the key areas where coaching has positively impacted young people, highlighting its role in fostering resilience, wellbeing, and personal growth.

1. Increased Self-Awareness and Self-Reflection

Coaching supported young people in gaining a deeper understanding of their emotions, behaviours, and personal strengths. Participants reported learning how to reflect on their thoughts, recognise positive traits, and understand how their reactions influence their daily experiences and relationships.

2. Improved Emotional Regulation and Coping Strategies

Young people developed effective strategies to manage anxiety, anger, and negative thinking. Techniques included positive thinking approaches, relaxation, distraction activities, and reflective practices such as writing down positives or identifying helpful thoughts.

3. Increased Confidence and Positive Self-Belief

Participants described a notable increase in their confidence, particularly when it came to expressing their opinions, communicating feelings, and believing in their abilities. Many reported feeling happier, thinking more positively about themselves, and identifying their strengths.

4. Stronger Relationships and Trust

Coaching provided an opportunity for young people to strengthen relationships by improving communication and trust with peers, family members, teachers, and other professionals. They highlighted building healthier friendships, feeling safe to share their feelings, and identifying supportive individuals in their lives.

5. Greater Engagement with Education

Students reported notable improvements in school attendance, motivation, and their overall engagement in learning. The coaching process helped reduce school-related anxieties and fostered a stronger belief in their ability to succeed academically.

6. Improved Wellbeing and Access to Support

Participants shared that they felt calmer, happier, and more in control of their lives as a result of the coaching sessions. Additionally, they reported greater openness to seeking support when needed, whether from trusted adults or external services.

Through practical strategies and meaningful support, coaching is helping to lay a foundation for long-term success in both personal and educational contexts.

Recommendation: Building Capacity Through Coach Training

Positive psychology coaching clearly transforms young lives. While you can work with external agencies that provide coaching for young people, this can end up being expensive and difficult to arrange the logistics.

We reomend to build internal capacity across your organisation and truly supporting young people, you need to increase your capacity to offer more coaching interventions directly.

We recommend training your staff to become accredited youth coaches. This provides exceptional professional development and ensures you have a sustainable, in-house team ready to empower young people when they need it most.

Our accredited Coach Training course provides the knowledge, skills, and tools to positively impact youth outcomes. With flexible learning and ongoing support, you'll learn to integrate positive psychology techniques into your practice.

Cavieats

*Rigour of evaluation data

We understand that the data in this report isn't perfect, nor is it from a peer-reviewed journal article. It is a quick and simple summary of several coaching programmes we ran in the community between 2014 and 2017. Some of the data is patchy, as not every young person completed the pre or post-evaluations. We also changed and evolved our evaluation processes during this time, and in some cases, the scores went down, which can be due to a range of reasons. Despite all that, we know coaching helps young people—they tell us time and time again and show us through their behaviour and changes to their demeanour, which you can see with your own eyes.

**Working with Mental Health Issues.

You may be wondering how coaching supports young people experiencing mental health problems. We see coaching as a versatile tool that can be used in several ways:

• Preventative Intervention: To build wellbeing and resilience before problems escalate.
• Step-Up Support: To help a young person engage with more clinical services.
• Step-Down Support: To aid recovery after a young person has received clinical treatment.

While coaching is not a clinical therapy, it effectively increases a young person's coping strategies and promotes wellbeing. Many of the individuals we've coached were either waiting for or had already accessed clinical mental health services. Our approach provides valuable support during these transitional periods.

With the demand for youth mental health services growing, there simply isn't enough support available. We believe coaching offers a proactive and protective intervention that fills a crucial gap, helping young people build the resilience they need to thrive.

Train to Coach Young People

Through our Worth-it Coach Training course, we equip educators with the skills to effectively support young people in building resilience and achieving their full potential. Our program is accredited by leading bodies such as ACCPH and the Association for Coaching, giving you recognised certification and adding credibility to your professional profile. Learn more by downloading our Coach Training prospectus.

If you are interested in find out more about how coaching can help the young people you work with access our Free Introduction to Coaching Young People course