This study examines young athletes from an urban sport organization, looking at their overall perceptions of their coaches, perceptions of the best and worst coaching actions, behaviors, and attitudes, and how these varied between practice and game environments. Twenty-three athletes (10 males, 13 females) between the ages of 10 and 18 years participated in semi-structured, qualitative interviews. Content analysis of the interviews indicated that these young athletes preferred a positive coaching orientation with a mastery-oriented environment, while the coaches identified as the worst generally fostered an outcome-oriented environment with a negative coaching orientation. These findings suggest that coaching educators should feel confident about using the guidelines provided by Smith, Smoll, and colleagues (Smith, Smoll, & Curtis, 1979; Smith, Smoll, & Barnett, 1995; Smoll, Smith, Barnett, & Everett, 1993) when working in underserved settings with children and youth. The need for future research in this area is discussed, along with future research directions on the link between youth developmental outcomes, perceptions of coaching behaviors, and observed coaching behaviors.
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Meredith Whitley, Eric Bean, and Daniel Gould
Zan Gao and Ping Xiang
Background:
Exergaming has been considered a fun solution to promoting a physically active lifestyle. This study examined the impact of an exergaming-based program on urban children’s physical activity participation, body composition and perceptions of the program.
Methods:
A sample of 185 children’s physical activity was measured in August 2009 (pretest), and percent body fat was used as index of body composition. Fourth graders were assigned to intervention group engaging in 30 minutes exergaming-based activities 3 times per week, while third and fifth graders were in comparison group. Measurements were repeated 9 months later (posttest). Interviews were conducted among 12 intervention children.
Results:
ANCOVA with repeated measures revealed a significant main effect for intervention, F(1, 179) = 10.69, P < .01. Specifically, intervention children had significantly greater increased physical activity levels than comparison children. Logistic regression for body composition indicated intervention children did not differ significantly in percent body fat change from comparison children, Chi square = 5.42, P = .14. Children interviewed reported positive attitudes toward the intervention.
Conclusions:
The implementation of exergaming-based program could have a significantly positive effect on children’s physical activity participation and attitudes. Meanwhile, long-term effect of the program on children’s body composition deserves further investigation.
Kara C. Hamilton, Mark T. Richardson, Shanda McGraw, Teirdre Owens, and John C. Higginbotham
to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) most days of the week, 3 but, nationwide, only 47% of children meet this guideline; and, in Alabama, only 43% of children meet it. 4 Moreover, studies have shown that underserved children who are of low socioeconomic status (SES) are even less physically active
Tom Martinek and Michael A. Hemphill
swimming, aquatic fitness, and lifeguard training the students learn to transfer the skills learned to other parts of their lives ( Beale, 2016 ). Tom’s Project Effort program provides underserved children and youth an opportunity to participate in an after-school values-based physical activity program
Daniel Balderson and Tom Sharpe
This study examined the effects of personal accountability and personal responsibility instructional treatments on elementary-age, urban, at-risk physical education students. A multiple treatment ABAD, ACAD, ADA, control behavior analysis design was implemented across four distinct matched class settings to determine the separate and combined treatment effects of each instructional treatment on the number of occurrences and percentage of class time for the following: teacher management, student leadership, passive and disruptive student off-task, positive social behavior, and student conflict and conflict resolution behaviors. Study participants included fourth- and fifth-grade students from four elementary classes in an inner-city charter-school setting. Results indicated that both personal accountability and personal responsibility treatments were effective in the primary treatment setting for changing all managerial, off-task, and positive social measures in desirable directions. Recommendations include analysis of the potential long-range and generalized effects of social-skill instruction for underserved children and youth conducted in the context of physical education classes.
Christine Galvan, Karen Meaney, and Virginia Gray
Physical Education , which included 20 service-learning hours. The course provides PETE preservice teachers with experiences in the pedagogy of service-learning, curriculum design, program implementation, assessment, reflection, and evaluation of a physical activity program for underserved children
Daniela M. Susnara, Matthew Curtner-Smith, and Stefanie A. Wind
; WHO, 2018 ). Several personal, structural, institutional, and cultural factors have contributed to putting underserved children at risk for drowning in the United States. Personal factors include parents’ lack of finances to pay for swimming lessons and time to take their children to pools ( Ross
Michael A. Hemphill and Tom Martinek
’s ( 2014 ) Project Coach program for at-risk youths in an urban setting used sport experiences to provide leadership opportunities for underserved children. The First Tee golf program ( Petitpas, Cornelius, & Van Raalte, 2008 ) recruited high school and college students to teach sports and life skills to
Tyler Prochnow, Haley Delgado, Megan S. Patterson, and M. Renée Umstattd Meyer
“underserved.” Children living in rural, low socioeconomic status, and/or communities of color are at greater risk of not meeting PA guidelines, 70 , 71 – 74 and therefore would benefit greatly from interventions and strategies to improve PA. Taylor et al 75 found many significant differences in how various
Robin J. Dunn
to construct knowledge through the shared experiences of the participants. Therefore, it was essential for the researcher to situate herself not only as the researcher in this study but also as an individual who had the capacity and desire to listen to the narratives of underserved children often
