No More Bricks in the Wall: Adopting Healthy Lifestyles through Physical Education Classes.

Despite the multiple benefits associated with practicing physical activity regularly, less than 20% of the population do it on a daily basis. Physical education classes could contribute, during childhood and adolescence, to consolidating adherence to healthy lifestyle habits. The present study involved 606 secondary school students between the ages of 13 and 19. We analysed the relationships between the perception of psychological control and support for autonomy, the satisfaction and frustration of psychological needs, mind-wandering and mindfulness, positive and negative emotions, motivation towards physical education classes, physical activity and the intention to be physically active-all through a structural equation model, which presented acceptable goodness-of-fit indices. The results showed that students who feel more autonomous see that their psychological needs are met and feel emotionally positive; this will result in the development of autonomous motivation towards physical education classes and physical activity that, in turn, could lead to a greater intention to be physically active.

Effectiveness of a stress management pilot program aimed at reducing the incidence of sports injuries in young football (soccer) players.

OBJECTIVES: Several attempts to reduce the incidence of sport injuries using psychosocial interventions produced fruitful, although inconclusive results. This paper presents the effectiveness and implementation issues of a pilot 3-month stress-management and muscle relaxation program aimed at reducing sport injury incidence. DESIGN: Pre-post treatment-non treatment group comparison. PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION: The program was administered by a trained psychologist on a once-a-week, 1-h session basis. PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-four male soccer players from four National Youth league teams voluntarily participated. Teams were randomly assigned to either treatment/non-treatment group. MEASURES: Injury protocol, Self-monitoring cards, Athletes' satisfaction and commitment survey, Coaches' interview. RESULTS: Group main effect and Time-Group interaction effect were both statistically significant, F(1,60) = 8.30, p = 0.005, η2p = 0.121, with the average number of injuries larger in the post-treatment phase of non-treatment group (p = 0.005, η2p = 0.077). There was a significant decrease in the average number of injuries for the intervention group before and after implementing the program (p < 0.001, η2p = 0.309). CONCLUSIONS: A controlled implementation of a psychosocial program was effective in reducing youth soccer sport injuries, with a high level of satisfaction and commitment from the athletes, as well as high acceptance from the coaches.