Capturing the multidimensionality of motivation in physical education: A self-organizing maps approach to profiling students

This study aimed to capture the multidimensionality of adolescents' motivation in the physical education (PE) setting, within self-determination theory, by employing self-organizing maps (SOM) analysis. Particularly, it examined the topological relationships among students' basic psychological needs satisfaction, their perception of more or less self-determined motivation and the affective and behavioural consequences in PE lessons across several sociodemographic variables. A nationally representative sample of 3029 Spanish students (51% girls), aged 12 to 18 years, was surveyed. SOM mapped well-defined students' profiles that embraced interrelatedly a considerable number of students' motivational characteristics. Four target profiles, out of 10, were explored. The first two profiles, highly motivated to be active girls and boys, mainly experienced senses of self-determination, but also controlled reasons for participating in PE lessons, high perceived competence, relatedness and autonomy fulfilment, perceived exerted effort and satisfaction. However, the reluctance to be physically active presented two gendered motivational profiles. Barely motivated to be active girls showed the lowest levels of self-determined motivation, including introjected regulation, low perceptions of competence, autonomy, relatedness, and dissatisfaction in PE. Vaguely motivated to be active boys revealed that despite their perceptions of competence the neglect of the other two psychological needs was more likely to determine a controlled motivation and, consequently, maladaptive outcomes. SOM proved to be a more robust and accurate clustering technique than the k-means algorithm and helped to portray and visualize the complexity behind the decision to become an active person considering the motivational processes in PE. Implications are provided for practitioners. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of European Physical Education Review is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Encouraging People with Spinal Cord Injury to Take Part in Physical Activity in the COVID-19 Epidemic through the mHealth ParaSportAPP.

BACKGROUND: Although mHealth tools have great potential for health interventions, few experimental studies report on their use by people with spinal cord injuries in physical activity. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was to analyze the effect of the ParaSportAPP on different physical and psychological variables in people with paraplegia. METHODS: Fourteen of these subjects made up the final sample. All the participants performed two pre-tests (control period) and a post-test with 8 months between the evaluations (COVID-19 broke out between pre-test 2 and the post-test). The ParaSportAPP was installed on their smartphones when they performed pre-test 2. The same tests were performed in the same order in all the evaluations: (i) the questionnaires PASIPD, HADS, RS-25; SCIM III and AQoL-8D, (ii) respiratory muscle strength, (iii) spirometry and (iv) cardiopulmonary exercise test. RESULTS: The results showed no differences in any of the variables studied between the measurement times. CONCLUSIONS: Although none of the variables experienced improvements, the ParaSportAPP mobile application was able to lessen the impact of the pandemic on the variables studied.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Sport in Twitter: A Quantitative and Qualitative Content Analysis.

The spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has transformed many aspects of people's daily life, including sports. Social networks have been flooded on these issues. The present study aims to analyze the tweets produced relating to sports and COVID-19. From the end of January to the beginning of May 2020, over 4,000,000 tweets on this subject were downloaded through the Twitter search API. Once the duplicates, replicas, and retweets were removed, 119,253 original tweets were analyzed. A quantitative-qualitative content analysis was used to study the selected tweets. Posts dynamics regarding sport and exercise evolved according to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, shifting from considering sport as a healthy bastion to an activity exposed to disease like any other. Most media professional sporting events received great attention on Twitter, while grassroots and women's sport were relegated to a residual role. The analysis of the 30 topics identified focused on the social, sporting, economic and health impact of the pandemic on the sport. Sporting cancellations, leisure time and socialization disruptions, club bankruptcies, sports training and athletes' uncertain career development were the main concerns. Although general health measures appeared in the tweets analyzed, those addressed to sports practice were relatively scarce. Finally, this study shows the importance of Twitter as a means of conveying social attitudes towards sports and COVID-19 and its potential to generate alternative responses in future stages of the pandemic.

Impact of COVID-19 on the self-reported physical activity of people with complete thoracic spinal cord injury full-time manual wheelchair users.

CONTEXT: The emergence of COVID-19 caused a new public health crisis, leading to major changes in daily life routines, often including physical activity (PA) levels. The main goal of this study was to analyze the differences in self-reported physical activity of people with complete spinal cord injuries between the time prior to the COVID-19 lockdown and the lockdown period itself. METHODS: A sample of 20 participants with complete thoracic spinal cord injuries completed the Physical Activity Scale for Individuals with Physical Disabilities before and during the COVID-19 lockdown. RESULTS: The results showed differences between the pre-lockdown and lockdown measurements in total self-reported PA (z=-3.92; P<0.001; d=1.28), recreational PA (z=-3.92; P<0.001; d=1.18) and occupational PA (z=-2.03; P=0.042; d=0.55). Nevertheless, no differences were found in housework PA between the two time periods. Furthermore, the results showed differences in total minutes (z=-3.92; P<0.001; d=1.75), minutes spent on recreational activities (z=-3.82; P<0.001; d=1.56) and minutes spent on occupational activities (z=-2.032; P=0.042; d=0.55) of moderate/vigorous intensity. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with thoracic spinal cord injuries who were full-time manual wheelchair users displayed lower levels of PA during the pandemic than in the pre-pandemic period. The results suggest that the prohibition and restrictions on carrying out recreational and/or occupational activities are the main reasons for this inactivity. Physical activity promotion strategies should be implemented within this population to lessen the effects of this physical inactivity stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.