The Roles of Perceived Physical Education Competence, Enjoyment, and Persistence on Middle School Students' Physical Activity Engagement.

We examined gender and grade differences in the relationship between students' perceived competence, their enjoyment of physical education (PE), and their PA persistence on the frequency of their physical activity (PA). We also used structural equation modeling to assess the direct, indirect, and total effects of perceived competence and PE enjoyment on PA frequency through the mediator of PA persistence. Participants were 223 middle school students (115 boys, 108 girls) in grades 7 and 8. We found that, regardless of grade level, girls had lower perceived competence and PE enjoyment than boys. Both perceived competence and PE enjoyment had significant direct and positive connections to persistence, but they had no significant indirect effects on PA frequency through the mediator of persistence. These findings highlight the need for physical educators to be aware of gender differences in perceived competence and PE enjoyment, and the important roles these factors have in enhancing students' PA participation.

Age and Gender Differences in Achievement Goal Orientations in Relation to Physical Activity.

Our aim in the study was to examine age and gender differences in achievement goal orientations and their impact on self-reported persistence toward physical activities of middle school, high school, and college students. A total of 1254 students from four middle schools, two high schools, and one university participated in this study. Multiple regression analyses revealed that age, as a continuous variable, had a significant and positive effect on students' mastery-approach goals, performance-approach goals, mastery-avoidance goals, and their persistence toward physical activities. In contrast, the endorsement of performance-avoidance goals was negatively related to students' age. However, no significant gender differences or age-by-gender interactions were found for the four achievement goals. These findings suggest that future investigators should consider age (vs. grade) when examining maturational differences in young people's achievement goal orientation in physical activity settings.

Cross-validation and modifications of the perceived mattering questionnaire-Physical education in Chinese inservice physical education teachers.

This study aimed to provide evidence of validity and reliability for the Perceived Mattering Questionnaire-Physical Education (PMQ-PE) developed by Richards et al. (2017) for the Chinese physical education (PE) teachers. The PMQ-PE consisted of two factors (i.e., PE matters and PE teacher matters) with four items in each, measuring four dimensions (attention, importance, dependence, and ego-extension). PMQ-PE in Chinese (PMQ-PEC) was validated among 1,278 elementary and secondary school PE teachers in China, of whom 59.0% were secondary PE teachers and 70.2% were males. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with the entire sample found a poor model fit. Then exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using half of the sample indicated there was only one factor in PMQ-PEC. CFA of the other half of the sample suggested a one-factor model with the elimination of three unfitted items showed a better fitness to the data. Cronbach's alpha value was also acceptable. The final version of PMQ-PEC included five items with one factor that demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability and was deemed acceptable among Chinese PE teachers after the above modifications were made.

Longitudinal changes in Chinese minority college students' health-related fitness: A multilevel latent growth curve modeling approach.

PURPOSE: The study aimed to test the overall changes of health-related fitness (HRF) in minority Chinese college students and to examine HRF differences in gender, race, and year in college. Method: Participants (n = 1320) were minority college students with more than two-thirds females (ie 76.1%), and Hui, Tibetan, and Mongolia consisted of 13.8%, 13.8%, and 11.2%, respectively. Student HRF was tracked for four years. Data were analyzed using multilevel latent growth curve modeling. Results: Muscular strength and endurance were the weakest component in minority college students' HRF, while body mass index was within the category of "excellent". Males outperformed female on all components of HRF. Conclusions: It is suggested that interventions concerning minority females' HRF and muscular strength and endurance for both genders be constructed and tested.

Revalidation of preservice physical education teacher's teacher identity scale in Chinese physical education student teachers.

Introduction: Teacher identity (TI) is a crucial aspect to pre-service physical education teachers (PPETs) to becoming high quality teachers and plays an important role in their career choice. Thus, a deep understanding of their TI may help improve the quality of future PE teachers. This study aimed to provide further evidence of reliability and validity for Preservice Physical Education Teacher's Teacher Identity Scale (PPET-TI scale). Methods: The study went through a three-stage development process: (a) examining the content validity of original scale; (b) data collection using a sample of student teachers in physical education; (c) re-test the reliability and validity of the scale developed by Zhang. Results and Discussion: After having re-examined the content validity, the domain of affects was deleted. The modified scale then consisted of the three domains (i.e., value and expectation, perceived confidence of teaching PE, and professional growth). A total of 944 physical education student teachers in China participated in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to investigate the construct validity, the results suggested the data did not fit the original model. After the unfitted item was excluded. All CFA fit indices were within the acceptable range. Reliability of the scale was then examined by calculating G-C alphas. The alpha values were within the acceptable range. The modified model was reliable and valid. The revalidation of the scale provided more us with a scale that could produce reliable and valid score measuring PPETs' TI.