The Influence of an Enriched Sport Program on Children's Sport Motivation in the School Context: The ESA PROGRAM.

PURPOSE: Besides the evident positive effect on body development, physical activity has proven to boost executive functions, especially if the exercises are enriched with cognitive stimuli. Previous studies have shown that introducing challenging exercises in the physical activity routine can also enhance motivation. Therefore, enriching a physical education program with cognitively challenging exercises may also foster children's motivation during physical education classes, where the motivation is high at the beginning of the school year and low at the end of it. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to test if a sport program enriched by cognitive stimuli may improve kids' motivation or take them out from a state of amotivation along the school year. METHODS: A sample of 342 school children (203 boys, 139 girls) took part in the study. Participants were asked to complete a battery of motivation and perceived social support questionnaires before and after they completed the ESA Program, a sport program enriched with cognitive stimuli. Moreover, parents of these children attended four seminars about the importance of supporting children for the practice of regular physical activity (PA). A control group consisting of children that attended the ordinary physical education school class was also included. RESULTS: A repeated measures MANOVA model showed that the ESA Program was able to improve children's general motivation, in particular the intrinsic motivation. The program was not effective in social support, but, independently from the group, the family social support in sports activities decreased for females. CONCLUSION: Apart from cognitive improvement, the ESA Program can have beneficial effects on children's sports motivation in physical education, but not on perceived social support.

A Longitudinal Examination of the Relations Between Moral Disengagement and Antisocial Behavior in Sport.

Moral disengagement (MD) has been positively associated with antisocial behavior (AB) in sport. However, the longitudinal associations between MD and AB are unexamined to date. Adopting a three-wave cross-lagged panel design, the authors examined the reciprocal relations between MD and two forms of AB (i.e., toward opponents and teammates) across a competitive season with a sample of 407 team-sport athletes (Mage = 15.7 years) from Canada. Using structural equation modeling, the authors found strong positive autoregressive effects for MD and both forms of AB across both time periods. They also identified strong positive synchronous correlations between MD and both types of AB at each time point. Finally, cross-lagged effects were only found between MD and AB toward opponents; effects from MD to AB toward opponents were stronger than the reciprocal effects. These findings contribute important knowledge on the regulation of AB in sport.

Sport Intervention Programs (SIPs) to Improve Health and Social Inclusion in People with Intellectual Disabilities: A Systematic Review.

Inactivity is a major issue that causes physical and psychological health problems, especially in people with intellectual disability (ID). This review discusses the beneficial effects of sport intervention programs (SIPs) in people with ID, and aims to provide an overview of the scientific literature in order to identify the main factors influencing the participation of people with ID in SIPs. Twelve papers were analyzed and compared. The results show a large variety in examined SIPs, concerning participants' age and disability, intervention characteristics and context, as well as measures and findings. The main factors essential for people with ID partaking in SIPs appeared to be suitable places for the SIP development, adequate implementation of physical activity (PA) programs in school and extra-school contexts, education, and the training of teachers and instructors. The literature review highlights the relevance of using SIPs in order to improve physical and psychological health, as well as increase social inclusion in populations with ID. SIPs should be included in multifactor intervention programs. Nevertheless, the need is recognized for stakeholders to adopt specific practice and policy in promoting social inclusion in order to organize intervention strategies which are able to provide quality experiences in sport and physical activity for people with ID.

Linking Narcissism, Motivation, and Doping Attitudes in Sport: A Multilevel Investigation Involving Coaches and Athletes.

Research on coaching (Bartholomew, Ntoumanis, & Thøgersen-Ntoumani, 2009) has shown that coaches can display controlling behaviors that have detrimental effects on athletes' basic psychological needs and quality of sport experiences. The current study extends this literature by considering coach narcissism as a potential antecedent of coaches' controlling behaviors. Further, the study tests a model linking coaches' (n = 59) own reports of narcissistic tendencies with athletes' (n = 493) perceptions of coach controlling behaviors, experiences of need frustration, and attitudes toward doping. Multilevel path analysis revealed that coach narcissism was directly and positively associated with athletes' perceptions of controlling behaviors and was indirectly and positively associated with athletes' reports of needs frustration. In addition, athletes' perceptions of coach behaviors were positively associated-directly and indirectly-with attitudes toward doping. The findings advance understanding of controlling coach behaviors, their potential antecedents, and their associations with athletes' attitudes toward doping.