Experiential or behavioral processes: which one is prominent in physical activity? Examining the processes of change 1 year after an intervention of therapeutic education among adults with obesity.

OBJECTIVE: Although physical activity (PA) is essential, most obese people will not engage in its practice. The transtheoretical model (TTM) and its processes of change (POC) contribute to the understanding of behavior change regarding PA. The present study aimed to test how POC are associated with a progression through the stages of change (SOC) and whether they predict BMI change. METHODS: Interventional study. A total of 134 subjects participated in an education program, were called at 1 year and 62 of them provided follow-up data. Participants completed the SOC and POC questionnaires at baseline, at 1 year and were classified according to their SOC progression. RESULTS: Participants who progressed through SOC lost more weight (p<0.001). Significant interactions were found for three out of five POC (p<0.05). Progression through SOC was associated with an increased use of POC. Weight loss was predicted by two behavioral POC. CONCLUSION: Results support the previous cross-sectional studies showing that physically active people use more frequently POC. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The present findings support the development of TTM-grounded behavioral interventions targeted to obese patients. Identifying methods to promote POC use to improve adherence to weight guidelines may lead to improved clinical outcomes and quality of life.

Health-related quality of life and stages of behavioural change for exercise in overweight/obese individuals.

BACKGROUND: Stages of change in exercise behaviour have been shown to be associated with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in overweight/obese adults. However, studies examining this relationship have not used questionnaires specifically designed for such a population. The present study assessed the impact of stages of change (SOC) for exercise, using the transtheoretical model, on the HRQoL, using the quality of life, obesity and dietetics (QOLOD) scale, an obesity-specific QoL questionnaire. Our hypothesis was that the more people are in the advanced stages of behavioural change, the better their HRQoL. METHODS: A total of 214 consecutive obese individuals (148 women/66 men, mean age 47.4 ± 14.0 years, BMI 37.2 ± 8.4 kg/m2) were included in the cross-sectional study, and all completed SOC and QOLOD questionnaires. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) established significant effects on the overall composite of the five dimensions of the QOLOD (P < 0.001). Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) further determined the significant effect of SOC in terms of physical impact (P < 0.001) and psychosocial impact (P < 0.01), with marginally significant effects on sex life (P = 0.07), but no impact on comfort with food (P = 0.13) or on the dieting experience (P = 0.13), two dimensions evaluating attitudes toward food. CONCLUSION: In obese/overweight individuals, the HRQoL varies with the SOC, with those in the more advanced behavioural stages reporting better HRQoL. However, dimensions related to food showed no differences according to SOC, confirming the complexity of the relationship between exercise and nutrition, and the need for further studies to acquire a more complete understanding of their underlying mechanisms.

[Development and factorial validity of a moral disengagement in Sport Short Scale]. / Développement et validation d'une échelle courte mesurant le désengagement moral en sport (ECDMS).

BACKGROUND: According to Bandura, individuals are able to violate their personal standards, without self-sanction, by using the psychological operations of moral disengagement. For Bandura et al., moral disengagement is characterized by eight mechanisms belonging to one of the following four groups: (a) reconstructing conduct; (b) reconsideration of negative effects; (c) disqualification of the victim; and (d) obscuring of personal causal agency. Other researchers have measured moral disengagement in various contexts of everyday life using Bandura et al.'s scale and suggested that moral disengagement mechanisms would fall into two or three groups according to context. One context in which moral issues have a major role is sport. METHODS: Three complementary studies were carried out on a total of 1305 young French adult athletes to develop and validate a Short French Questionnaire of Moral Disengagement in Sport (SFQMDS) and to test its invariance according to gender. STUDY 1: With reference to the existing literature, an initial French version of the SFQDMS was developed. French university students (n=220) then voluntarily completed the questionnaire. The validity of this preliminary version and the clarity of the items were examined and ascertained, and factorial analyses identified 10 items that loaded onto two factors (i.e., projecting fault onto others or sharing of responsibility; minimization of transgression and their consequences). Each factor displayed good internal consistency. STUDY 2: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted using AMOS 7.0 software. The sample included 1021 French university students (M(age)=21.52; SD=2.34). The first analysis of the data from 298 French students suggested that four items should be eliminated. The six-item model was then tested with a CFA of the data from 723 other participants (M(age)=21.51; SD=2.34) and exhibited acceptable fit indices: (χ² [8, 723]=1.54; p>0.09; GFI=0.97; TLI=0.97; CFI=0.97; RMSEA=0.03; RMSEA LO/HI=0.01/0.05). These results confirmed the bifactorial structure of the instrument, as well as its partial invariance across genders at the most complex level (i.e., strict) of its factorial structure. These statistical analyses demonstrated the excellent internal consistency and very good construct validity of the SFQDMS. STUDY 3: The third study examined the temporal stability of the SFQDMS and its theoretical validity with a sample of 221 French students (M(age)=21.00; SD=2.05). Our results were found to be stable over time. From a theoretical standpoint, the SFQDMS was related to existing instruments that measure individuals' affective self-regulatory efficacy and prosocial behavior. These results demonstrated the external validity of the instrument. CONCLUSION: The overall results presented in these studies confirmed the good psychometric properties of the SFQDMS. This questionnaire consists of two subscales of three items measuring two groups of moral disengagement. The first involves projecting the fault for one's own transgressions onto others or sharing of responsibility (e.g., "It's not my fault if I behave badly [cheating or aggression] because it's my opponent who started it"). The second subscale involves the minimization of transgressions and their consequences (e.g., "It's not serious if I behave badly [cheating or aggression] because I do it to keep the advantage"). This instrument is a reliable tool that could be fruitfully used in future research addressing the moral disengagement of French adolescents or adults in sport. A deeper understanding of the processes involved in moral disengagement would facilitate the development of strategies to prevent or remediate transgressive behavior in the sport domain.

Personal and contextual determinants of elite young athletes' persistence or dropping out over time.

Two studies were conducted among elite young judokas to examine (a) whether those who persisted in national training centers (n=52) were different from dropouts (n=52) in their perceptions of coach-, parent-, and peer-induced motivational climates, goal orientations, self-perceptions, perceived competence, and intention of dropping out, and (b) whether these variables varied during the persisting athletes' (n=82) first 2 years in these centers. Compared with persisting athletes, dropouts perceived the roles of coaches, parents, and peers as less task-involving, were less task-oriented, and intended more to drop. The association of peer-, coach-, and parent-induced task-involving climates predicted athletes' persistence. During the 2 years, persisting athletes' perceptions of coach-, parent-, and peer-induced task-involving climates decreased, while perceptions of a coach-induced ego-involving climate and the intention of dropping out increased in spite of more positive self-perceptions. Gender differences favoring males were observed for self-perceptions only. These results stress the importance for all the agents of the athletes' social environment to promote task-involving climates, because such climates appear to be naturally prone to degradation in the context of elite competition. The results also shed light on some high-level athletes' characteristics regarding motivational dispositions and self-concept.

Effects of uncontrollability and failure on the development of learned helplessness in perceptual-motor tasks.

The aim of this study was to distinguish between the roles of uncontrollability and failure on learned helplessness in a perceptual-motor task. Forty-eight junior high school students were randomly assigned in a 2 x 2 (Controllability: Contingent vs. Yoked Noncontingent Feedback x Type of Outcome: Success vs. Failure) factorial design to complete a gun-shooting task on a moving target using a computer screen. Twelve other participants (control group) simply read a passage. After filling out causal attribution and self-efficacy expectations questionnaires, all participants carried out another gun-shooting task (test task). Results showed that contingency led to higher performances than noncontingency. Success conditions elicited higher self-efficacy expectations than failure conditions. Failure entailed less persistence than success did for participants who had been assigned to the contingency condition. Internalization of failure was negatively correlated with persistence. Comparisons with the control group showed that expectations and performance deficits of learned helplessness were provoked by failure in noncontingent situations; persistence deficits were due to failure in contingent situations. These results reveal that both uncontrollability and failure can be responsible for different forms of learned helplessness.

Learned helplessness: a survey of cognitive, motivational and perceptual-motor consequences in motor tasks.

The aim of this study was to observe the effects of demonstration and controllability on causal attributions, self-efficacy expectations, number of attempts and performances on a pistol shooting task. Video demonstrations were used to induce different social comparisons bound to personal or universal helplessness. Students were randomly assigned in a 3 x 3 (demonstration x controllability) factorial design. The demonstration conditions were: watching a video designed to have participants believe the task was very easy (1), or very difficult (2), or not being exposed to a demonstration (3). The controllability conditions were: a controllable shooting task at a moving target on the computer screen (1), an uncontrollable task at a moving target on the computer screen (2), and a control condition in which participants were given a reading task (3). Finally, a different shooting task was used as a test measure. Analyses of variance showed that different demonstration conditions did not distinguish between personal and universal helplessness. Participants in the controllable condition demonstrated the best performances. Participants confronted with the uncontrollable condition were the least persistent. These findings in part support the general literature on learned helplessness and warrant further research into motor skills.

[Artificial insemination with the sperm of the husband (author's transl)]. / Insémination artificielle avec sperme du conjoint.

--128 women underwent artificial insemination with husband's semen (A I H) after an over 3 years period of sterility. --The most frequently recorded indication was low sperm density and/or reduced sperm motility. To increase sperm concentration and motility split ejaculates were most often utilised but also different other methods. --The pregnancy rate was 31 p. 100 and the success rate per cycle was 5 p. 100.