The Influence of an Enriched Sport Program on Children's Sport Motivation in the School Context: The ESA PROGRAM.

PURPOSE: Besides the evident positive effect on body development, physical activity has proven to boost executive functions, especially if the exercises are enriched with cognitive stimuli. Previous studies have shown that introducing challenging exercises in the physical activity routine can also enhance motivation. Therefore, enriching a physical education program with cognitively challenging exercises may also foster children's motivation during physical education classes, where the motivation is high at the beginning of the school year and low at the end of it. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to test if a sport program enriched by cognitive stimuli may improve kids' motivation or take them out from a state of amotivation along the school year. METHODS: A sample of 342 school children (203 boys, 139 girls) took part in the study. Participants were asked to complete a battery of motivation and perceived social support questionnaires before and after they completed the ESA Program, a sport program enriched with cognitive stimuli. Moreover, parents of these children attended four seminars about the importance of supporting children for the practice of regular physical activity (PA). A control group consisting of children that attended the ordinary physical education school class was also included. RESULTS: A repeated measures MANOVA model showed that the ESA Program was able to improve children's general motivation, in particular the intrinsic motivation. The program was not effective in social support, but, independently from the group, the family social support in sports activities decreased for females. CONCLUSION: Apart from cognitive improvement, the ESA Program can have beneficial effects on children's sports motivation in physical education, but not on perceived social support.

Effects of school-based interventions on motivation towards physical activity in children and adolescents: protocol for a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have observed low levels of physical activity in children and adolescents worldwide. Physical activity interventions are increasingly carried out to counteract this development. The school environment is an ideal setting for such interventions to take place as large numbers of children and adolescents can be addressed. With the assumption that motivation is the key to initiate and sustain beneficial health behaviors, theory-based intervention studies apply motivational strategies to increase students' participation in physical activity. The main objective of this systematic review will be to analyze the effects of school-based physical activity interventions on a variety of motivational outcomes towards physical activity in school-aged children and adolescents. METHODS: Comprehensive literature searches will be conducted in multiple electronic databases, including MEDLINE, Scopus, PsycINFO, ERIC, PSYNDEX, Physical Education Index, and SPORTDiscus. We will include randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental studies examining the effects of school-based physical activity interventions (e.g., physical activity components during school lessons including physical education, or during morning, lunch and afternoon breaks). Primarily extracurricular physical activity interventions will not be considered. The primary outcomes will be students' motivation, basic psychological needs, goal orientation, enjoyment, and motivational teaching climate in physical education. Secondary outcomes will be the students' physical activity behaviors in-class, during school, and in leisure time. Only peer-reviewed articles published in English will be considered. Three reviewers will independently screen all citations and full-text articles, and two reviewers will abstract data. The quality of the included studies will be assessed with the Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing risk of bias for RCTs and the GRADE methodology will be used to assess the certainty of the body of retreived evidence. DISCUSSION: In order to increase and maintain physical activity levels in children and adolescents, motivation towards physical activity should be sustained. It is anticipated that the results of this systematic review will provide information as to which strategies implemented in the school setting are effective in increasing students' motivation towards physical activity, and hence increase their physical activity during school and after-school hours. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42018110306.

Motivational Climate Sport Youth Scale: Measurement Invariance Across Gender and Five Different Sports.

The aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Motivational Climate Sport Youth Scale (MCSYSp) and invariance across gender and different sports (swimming, soccer, handball, basketball, futsal). A total of 4,569 athletes (3,053 males, 1,516 females) from soccer (1,098), swimming (1,049), basketball (1,754), futsal (340), and handball (328) participated in this study, with ages between 10 and 20 years (M = 15.13; SD = 1.95). The results show that the original model (two factors/12 items) did not adjust to the data in a satisfactory way; therefore, it was necessary to change the model by removing four items (two from each factor). Subsequently, the model adjusted to the data in a satisfactory way (χ2 = 499.84; df = 19; χ2/df = 26.30; p < .001; SRMR = .037; TLI = .923; CFI = .948; RMSEA = .074; IC90% .069-.080) and was invariant by gender and team sports (soccer, handball, basketball, futsal) (ΔCFK≤.01); however, it was not invariant between swimming and team sports (soccer, handball, basketball, futsal) (ΔCFI ≥ .01). In conclusion, the MCSYSp (two factors/eight items) is a valid and reliable choice that is transversal not only to gender, but also to the different studied team sports to measure the perception of the motivational climate in athletes. Future studies can research more deeply the invariance analysis between individual sports to better understand the invariance of the model between individual and team sports.

Relationship between group cohesion and anxiety in soccer.

Group cohesion in sport is a widely spread theme today. Research has found cohesion to be influenced by several individual and group components. Among the cognitive variables that relate to cohesion we found competitive anxiety. The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between task cohesion (ATG-T, and GI-T) and competitive state anxiety (A-state), and also if there would be a relation between cohesion and self-confidence. Participants were 366 football players of both genders male and female, aged between 15 to 23 years old, from Portugal's championships. Cohesion was measured using the Portuguese version of the Group Environment Questionnaire, and to assess competitive anxiety, we used the Portuguese version of the Competition State Anxiety Inventory 2. Our results show that female athletes report experiencing more cognitive anxiety and less self-confidence than male athletes. Only cognitive anxiety relates in a significantly negative way with the perception of cohesion (GI-T e ATG-T) in the total number of participants and in male athletes. Relatively to the somatic anxiety, it only relates negatively with the perception of the integration of the group in the total number of participants and in the male gender.

Análise factorial confirmatória do group environment questionnaire com atletas portugueses / Confirmatory factor analysis of the group environment questionnaire portuguese version

O objetivo do estudo foi determinar a validade da aplicação do Group Environment Questionnaire, (GEQ) que na versão portuguesa adopta a designação de Questionário de Ambiente de Grupo (QAG), como medida para avaliar a coesão de grupo em desportos de equipas, no contexto competitivo em Portugal e verificar a sua adequação ao modelo teórico desenvolvido por Carron et al. (1985), através da análise factorial confirmatória (AFC). Participaram no estudo 467 atletas federados de diferentes modalidades com idades compreendidas entre os 14 e 21 anos (M= 16,5. DP= 1,7). Os resultados da análise da fiabilidade da solução final do Questionário de Ambiente de Grupo, constituido por 13 itens revelou valores de consistência interna entre .70 para a dimensão IG-T e .86 para dimensão AIG-S, excedendo o valor mímimo α= .70, recomendado por Nunnaly (1978). De uma forma geral os valores dos indicadores globais de ajustamento do modelo inspeccionado para o QAG resultantes da análise factorial confirmatória: S-Bχ 2= 119.34, g1.= 55, p ≤ .001; GF1=.96; Robust CFI= .97; TLI/NNFI= .96; SRMR= .034; RMSEA (90%CI)= .094(.039 - .058), expressam a sua qualidade. Assim podemos concluir que a avaliação da coesão de grupo em desportos de equipas portuguesas, através do questionário se manifesta adequada.

The purpose of this study was to validate the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ), in Portuguese as adopt de name of Questionário de Ambiente de Grupo (QAG), as a measure to evaluate the group cohesion in Portuguese sports teams, in a competitive context, and is support by the conceptual model developed by Carron et al. (1985), through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Participated in the study , four hundred sixty-seven (467) athletes of different sports, with aged between 14 and 21 years (M= 16.5, SD= 1.7). The reliability results of the of the final the Portuguese version of the GEQ, consisting of 13 items, revealed good internal reliability coefficients with values range from .70 for IG-T dimension to .86 in AIG-S dimension. All coefficients exceeded the recommented minimum value of α = .70 recommented by Nunnaly (1978). The gobal indicators resulting from AFC revealed good fit indices for the GEQ: S-Bχ2 = 119.34, gl.=55, p ≤ .001, GFI= .96; RobustCFI = .97, TLI / NNFI = .96, SRMR = .034, RMSEA (90% CI) = .049 (.039 - . 058), expressing is quality. Therefore, this study point out that evaluation of group cohesion in sports teams of Portugal, with GEQ, are valid and reliable.