The purpose of this study was to test a partnered, self-determination theory–informed mobile health intervention called SCI Step Together, using an 8-week randomized controlled trial design. The aim of SCI Step Together is to increase the quantity and quality of physical activity (PA) among adults with spinal cord injury (SCI) who walk. The SCI Step Together program provides PA modules and PA self-monitoring tools and facilitates peer and health coach support. Process, resource, management, and scientific feasibility were assessed, and participants completed questionnaires at baseline, mid-, and postintervention to assess determinants and outcomes of PA. Interviews were conducted to evaluate acceptability. Results suggest that the program demonstrated good feasibility, acceptability, and engagement. The intervention group (n = 11) had greater fulfillment of basic psychological needs and knowledge (p = .05) than the control group (n = 9). There were no significant interaction effects for other outcomes. The SCI Step Together program is feasible and acceptable and efficacious for improving some psychosocial variables. Results may inform SCI mobile health programs.
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Evaluating the Feasibility, Acceptability, and Engagement of an mHealth Physical Activity Intervention for Adults With Spinal Cord Injury Who Walk: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Sarah V.C. Lawrason and Kathleen A. Martin Ginis
Digest
Kim Gammage, Jeff Caron, Alyson Crozier, Alison Ede, Matt Hoffman, Christopher Hill, Sascha Leisterer, Sean Locke, Desi McEwan, Kathleen Mellano, Eva Pila, and Matthew Stork
Volume 45 (2023): Issue 1 (Feb 2023)
Evaluating the “Optimal Competition Parenting Workshop” Using the RE-AIM Framework: A 4-Year Organizational-Level Intervention in British Junior Tennis
Sam N. Thrower, Christopher M. Spray, and Chris G. Harwood
The purpose of the current study was to utilize the RE-AIM (i.e., reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance) framework to evaluate the national-level scale-out of the Lawn Tennis Association’s “Optimal Competition Parenting Workshop” (OCPW) across a 4-year period. During 2018, 65 workshops were run across the United Kingdom, 1,043 parents registered, and 933 parents attended. Adopting a quasi-experimental design, multilevel analyses revealed significant increases in parents’ (n = 130) task goal orientation and competition tennis parenting efficacy, as well as significant decreases in ego goal orientation and unpleasant emotions. Children’s perceptions of both mother- and father-initiated ego-involving motivational climate and their own ego goal orientation significantly decreased across time. From 2019 to 2021, a further 64 workshops were delivered to 1,110 parents with no significant differences in parents’ satisfaction, enjoyment, instructor evaluation, or transfer intention over time when compared against workshop evaluations in 2018. Overall, the OCPW represents a well-received, practical, and effective brief intervention for enhancing parental involvement in junior tennis.
Student Athletes’ Causal Attributions for Sport and School Achievement in Relation to Sport Dropout and Grade Point Average
Milla Saarinen, Raymond Bertram, Kaisa Aunola, Julia Pankkonen, and Tatiana V. Ryba
The present study longitudinally examined stability and change in the attributional profiles of Finnish student athletes (n = 391) in upper secondary sport schools. Moreover, it examined the extent to which these profiles, and changes in them, were associated with athletes’ level of sport competition and school achievements and dropouts at the end of upper secondary sport school. Using latent profile analysis, five different and highly stable attributional profiles were identified for student athletes: (a) depressive (6.9%), (b) athletic self-serving (23.0%), (c) average (16.4%), (d) learned helplessness (30.9%), and (e) responsible (22.8%). The results further showed that over the 3-year study period, the responsible attributional style, wherein individuals take responsibility for successes and failures, predicted student athletes’ subsequent high grade point average and low sport dropout rates even after controlling for the impacts of their earlier grade point average, gender, and type of sport.
Digest
Kim Gammage, Jeff Caron, Alyson Crozier, Alison Ede, Matt Hoffman, Christopher Hill, Sean Locke, Desi McEwan, Kathleen Mellano, Eva Pila, Matthew Stork, and Svenja Wolf
Autonomy-Supportive Teaching Enhances Prosocial and Reduces Antisocial Behavior via Classroom Climate and Psychological Needs: A Multilevel Randomized Control Intervention
Sung Hyeon Cheon, Johnmarshall Reeve, and Herbert W. Marsh
Autonomy-supportive teaching increases prosocial and decreases antisocial behavior. Previous research showed that these effects occur because autonomy-supportive teaching improves students’ need states (a student-level process). However, the present study investigated whether these effects also occur because autonomy-supportive teaching improves the classroom climate (a classroom-level process). Teachers from 80 physical education classrooms were randomly assigned to participate (or not) in an autonomy-supportive teaching intervention, while their 2,227 secondary-grade students reported their need satisfaction and frustration, supportive and hierarchical classroom climates, and prosocial and antisocial behaviors at the beginning, middle, and end of an academic year. A doubly latent, multilevel structural equation model showed that teacher participation in the intervention (experimental condition) increased class-wide need satisfaction, a supportive climate, and prosocial behavior and decreased class-wide need frustration, a hierarchical climate, and antisocial behavior. Together, greater collective need satisfaction and a more supportive climate combined to explain increased prosocial behavior, while lesser need frustration and a less hierarchical climate combined to explain decreased antisocial behavior. These classroom climate effects have been overlooked, yet they are essential to explain why autonomy-supportive teaching improves students’ social functioning.
The Effect of Immediacy of Expected Goal Feedback on Persistence in a Physical Task
Christopher P. Gunn, Chris Englert, Fabienne Ennigkeit, and Ian M. Taylor
Minimizing the temporal gap between behavior and reward enhances persistence, but the effect of other outcomes is unknown. Two concurrently run studies aimed to investigate whether persistence on a physical task would be influenced according to whether participants expected immediate versus delayed goal feedback. Furthermore, whether this effect occurs via intrinsic motivation (Studies 1 and 2) or delaying the desire–goal conflict (Study 2) was examined. Using a counterbalanced within-person design, 34 participants in each study (Study 1: 16 males, 18 females; Study 2: 15 males, 19 females) completed two wall-sit persistence tasks, one with immediate feedback expected (regarding the participant’s position on a leader board) and the other with feedback expected to be provided 1 week later. A two-way mixed analysis of variance found no significant differences in persistence between conditions in either study. Furthermore, no indirect effects were found via intrinsic motivation or delayed desire–goal conflict. Study findings did not support the hypothesis that the timing of expected feedback enhances persistence.
Volume 44 (2022): Issue 6 (Dec 2022)
Lifetime Stressor Exposure and Psychophysiological Reactivity and Habituation to Repeated Acute Social Stressors
Ella McLoughlin, Rachel Arnold, Paul Freeman, James E. Turner, Gareth A. Roberts, David Fletcher, George M. Slavich, and Lee J. Moore
This study addressed whether lifetime stressor exposure was associated with psychophysiological reactivity and habituation to a novel laboratory-based stressor. Eighty-six participants (M age = 23.31 years, SD = 4.94) reported their exposure to lifetime non-sport and sport-specific stressors before completing two consecutive trials of the Trier Social Stress Test, while cardiovascular (i.e., heart rate) and endocrine (i.e., salivary cortisol) data were recorded. Exposure to a moderate number of lifetime non-sport and sport-specific stressors was associated with adaptive cardiovascular reactivity, whereas very low or very high stressor exposure was related to maladaptive reactivity. Moreover, experiencing a very low number of lifetime non-sport (but not sport-specific) stressors was associated with poorer habituation. In contrast, lifetime stressor severity was unrelated to cardiovascular reactivity. Finally, greater lifetime non-sport and sport-specific stressor counts were associated with blunted cortisol reactivity and poorer habituation. These results suggest that lifetime stressor exposure may influence sport performers’ acute stress responses.