The relationship between attitude toward physical activity and weight gain in children and young adolescence.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between attitudes toward physical activity and weight gain among children and young adolescents with an additional focus on the impact of gender on these attitudes. Methods: Employing a descriptive survey method, data were systematically gathered via purposive sampling from 11 specific cities in Türkiye, ensuring representation from all seven regions. A total of 3,138 students, aged between 9 and 14 years, participated in this study, with a distribution of 46% girls and 54% boys. To assess the attitudes of children and young adolescents toward physical activity, the Youth Physical Activity Attitude Scale was utilized. Height and body weight measurements were taken to determine the body mass index of participants. SPSS 26.0 software facilitated the statistical analyses, including Pearson correlation analysis to explore relationships between variables. Multivariate Analysis of Variance was employed to evaluate the impact of age, BMI, and gender on attitudes toward physical activity. Results: Participants classified as normal weight exhibited a more positive attitude towards physical activity compared to their obese and overweight counterparts. Moreover, a significant gender difference emerged, with boys demonstrating significantly higher positive attitudes toward physical activity than girls. However, no significant difference was observed in negative attitudes based on gender. The study also revealed that an escalation in negative attitudes towards physical activity correlated with students being categorized as underweight, overweight, or obese, as opposed to having a normal weight status. Additionally, a statistically significant divergence in both positive and negative attitudes towards physical activity was found based on age. Specifically, the results indicated that students aged 9 and 14 exhibited lower levels of positive attitude when contrasted with their counterparts of different age groups. Conversely, in the domain of negative attitudes, students at the age of 9 scored higher than their peers in other age categories. Discussion: Attitudes towards physical activity can serve as a convenient indicator and guide for assessing the effectiveness of various practices or interventions aimed at promoting physical activity, with recognition of the significant gender difference in positive attitudes among children and young adolescents.

Coincidence-anticipation timing requirements are different in racket sports.

The aim of this study was to compare the coincidence-anticipation timing accuracy of athletes of different racket sports with various stimulus velocity requirements. Ninety players (15 girls, 15 boys for each sport) from tennis (M age = 12.4 yr., SD = 1.4), badminton (M age = 12.5 yr., SD = 1.4), and table tennis (M age = 12.4 yr., SD = 1.2) participated in this study. Three different stimulus velocities, low, moderate, and high, were used to simulate the velocity requirements of these racket sports. Tennis players had higher accuracy when they performed under the low stimulus velocity compared to badminton and table tennis players. Badminton players performed better under the moderate speed comparing to tennis and table tennis players. Table tennis players had better performance than tennis and badminton players under the high stimulus velocity. Therefore, visual and motor systems of players from different racket sports may adapt to a stimulus velocity in coincidence-anticipation timing, which is specific to each type of racket sports.