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Background: Promoting good sportsmanship is a common goal of school physical education and many youth sport organizations. Teachers and coaches play a key role in accomplishing this goal. Thus, it is important to gather teachers’ and coaches’ reports of how they teach sportsmanship as well as youths’ perceptions of those behaviors to understand if and how this goal is being fulfilled. Purpose: To clarify the degree of alignment between leader and youth perceptions of sportsmanship by comparing: (a) physical education teachers’ self-reported sportsmanship teaching behaviors with their students’ perceptions of their teacher’s behavior and (b) youth sport coaches’ self-reported sportsmanship coaching behaviors with their athletes’ perceptions of their coach’s behaviors. Method: The physical education sample included 27 teachers and 837 boys and girls aged 11–15 years. The sport sample included 32 coaches and 246 boys and girls aged 10–15 years. Youth completed a survey about their leader’s behaviors related to sportsmanship. Leaders completed a parallel survey about their own behaviors. Results: Teachers rated themselves as significantly more often reinforcing and modeling good sportsmanship and punishing poor sportsmanship than students reported. Coaches rated themselves as significantly more often reinforcing and teaching good sportsmanship than perceived by their athletes. Conclusions: Misalignment between leaders’ and youths’ perceptions of several sportsmanship behaviors speaks to the importance of leaders engaging in strategies to accurately assess their own behaviors.

We used achievement goal theory to examine students’ physical activity (PA) motivation and physical education (PE) enjoyment. Purposes included: 1) determine whether schools with different pedagogical approaches varied in student perceptions of mastery and performance climate dimensions, enjoyment, and PA; 2) examine gender and grade differences in enjoyment and PA; and 3) determine if dimensions of motivational climate predicted enjoyment and PA levels in PE, controlling for gender and grade. Youth (n = 290, 150 girls) from three southeast United States middle schools wore a pedometer and completed a motivational climate and enjoyment questionnaire. Boys were more active and enjoyed PE more than girls, and 7th/8th grade students were more active than 6th grade students. Enjoyment was positively predicted by teacher’s emphasis on two mastery climate dimensions, controlling for gender. PE activity time was predicted by two performance climate dimensions, controlling for gender and grade. Implications for practice are discussed.

Purpose: Girls participating in aesthetic sports may be at risk for disordered eating and low self-esteem. Informed by self-determination theory, the authors examined motivational climate profiles to understand how climate dimensions differentially relate to psychological needs satisfaction, self-esteem, and disordered eating. Methods: Female gymnasts, divers, and figure skaters (N = 183; mean age = 13.5) completed a survey to assess perceptions of the motivational climate, perceived sport competence, autonomy, relatedness, self-esteem, and dieting. Pubertal status was assessed to control for developmental differences. Results: Three profiles emerged: High Important Role/Low Performance, High Effort and Cooperation/High Rivalry, and Low Mastery/High Unequal Recognition and Punishment. A 3 × 2 multivariate analysis of variance revealed profile groups significantly differed on perceived autonomy, coach relatedness, and teammate relatedness. In addition, perceived competence, self-esteem, and dieting significantly differed by pubertal status. For autonomy, the High Important Role/Low Performance group reported the highest scores. For coach and teammate relatedness, the Low Mastery/High Unequal Recognition and Punishment group reported significantly lower scores than the other 2 groups. Postpubertal girls reported lower sport ability and self-esteem and greater dieting. Conclusion: Physical maturity and social context were important in explaining girls’ psychological needs satisfaction and well-being. Results add to the authors’ understanding of the complex nature and influence of the motivational climate.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of an existing physical fitness program (CHAMPIONS) implemented during physical education on health-related indices (BMI percentile, waist circumference, cardiorespiratory endurance), self-perceptions, academic performance, and behavioral conduct over a school year. Students in 3 intervention (n = 331) and 3 control (n = 745) middle schools participated in the study that included assessments at pre, mid, and postintervention. Multivariate repeated measures analyses indicated that boys and girls in CHAMPIONS compared favorably (p < .0125) to Controls at postintervention on cardiorespiratory endurance, and boys significantly improved on BMI percentile from pre- to mid- and postintervention (p < .0125). Students in CHAMPIONS maintained healthy BMI percentile and waist circumference values over the year. Findings provide preliminary evidence that CHAMPIONS is effective in improving or maintaining physical health indices among middle school youth.

Purpose: Girls on the Run (GOTR), a physical activity-based positive youth development program, uses running as a platform to teach life skills and promote healthy behaviors. In this companion paper of our comprehensive project, the authors evaluated program impact on positive youth development by comparing GOTR participants to youth in other organized activities (Sport and physical education [PE]) on life skills transfer and social processes. Qualitative methods complemented quantitative data through interviews with GOTR stakeholders. Method: The participants included 215 girls in GOTR and 692 girls in the same grades and schools who did not participate in GOTR (Sport = 485; PE = 207). They completed self-report measures of life skills transfer, peer and coach relatedness, and coach autonomy support at the season’s end. GOTR subsamples of girls, coaches, caregivers, and school personnel participated in focus groups. Results: Girls in GOTR compared favorably to the Sport and PE girls on all life skills—managing emotions, resolving conflicts, helping others, and making intentional decisions—and to the PE girls for all 3 social processes. The GOTR and Sport girls did not differ on coach relatedness and autonomy support, but the Sport girls rated teammate relatedness higher. The GOTR girls’ scores on life skills transfer remained stable at a 3-month follow-up assessment. Stakeholders in the focus groups shared corroborating evidence that, through participating in GOTR, girls learn skills that generalize to school and home contexts. Conclusion: Using comparison groups, a retention assessment, and mixed methods, the findings provide evidence that GOTR is effective in teaching skills and strategies that generalize to broader life domains. The processes that explain group differences on life skills transfer include GOTR’s intentional curriculum of skill-building activities delivered by coaches within a caring and autonomy-supportive climate.