Multilateral teaching in physical education improves resilience and self-efficacy in adolescents and could help reduce bullying behaviors

Motor self-efficacy and physical education in school bullying

In recent years, there has been a notable increase in bullying rates in school. Bullying is characterized as a repeated set of malicious actions by an individual or group toward another individual in an imbalanced power dynamic, resulting in physical, psychological, social, or material harm to the victim, with the intention of causing social exclusion. The scientific literature has investigated the factors that influence this type of behavior, environmental factors, such as school location and student age, as well as other factors, such as gender and level of physical fitness, also play an important role. This study examined the correlation between motor self-efficacy and bullying, considering that physical activity acts as a regulator in these cases. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was employed to assess the normality of the data distribution, and Spearman's Rho test was used to analyze the relationship between each dimension of the EBIPQ and E-AEM scores. The Cronbach's alpha was used to evaluate the reliability of each instrument. The results indicated a significant inverse correlation between the EBIP-Q and E-AEM in the variables of sex, educational stage and school environment. In conclusion, an inverse correlation was observed between motor self-efficacy and bullying, indicating that higher levels of motor self-efficacy are related to lower levels of bullying victimization. Motor self-efficacy could be used as a tool to reduce bullying situations at school. It would be important for government policies to encourage the practice of physical activity in all areas of life in order to improve motor self-efficacy and end bullying.

Impact of motor self-efficacy on cyberbullying in adolescents and pre-adolescents in physical education

Introduction

In recent years, cyberbullying rates have increased, especially among adolescents in the school environment. According to the literature, the factors that influence this type of behavior are access to technologies, physical activity and BMI, among others.

Aim

The aim is to find correlations between motor self-efficacy and cyberbullying.

Methods

The ECIP-Q and E-AEM questionnaire was applied to 1,232 students from Spanish schools and institutes (8-18 years old) in a cross-sectional study.

Results

Significant inverse correlations were found between the ECIP-Q and the E-AEM on the variables of gender, educational stage, daily physical activity, BMI, telephone ownership and hours spent on the Internet.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be understood that the higher the level of self-efficacy, the lower the level of abuse and victimization. Therefore, physical activity could be considered to act as a regulator of cyberbullying. And it would be interesting for public administrations to increase the number of hours of physical education, to expand out-of-school physical activities and to promote an active lifestyle in order to eradicate this type of abusive school behavior.

Correlates of Bullying Behavior Among Children and Adolescents in Physical Education: A Systematic Review

Background and Objective

Bullying is notably prevalent among children and adolescents, especially within the context of physical education (PE) environments. Understanding the underlying factors that trigger bullying behavior is essential in designing strategies to prevent bullying and formulating more effective interventions in PE. There is a lack of integrated findings regarding the wide range of correlates of bullying behavior among children and adolescents within the PE context. Therefore, this systematic review aimed to synthesize the correlates of bullying behavior among children and adolescents within the context of PE.

Methods

We conducted a systematic search across four databases (EBSCOhost, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science) for relevant studies published before August 2023. Two reviewers independently examined the articles, assessed their methodological quality, and performed data extraction.

Results

A total of 23 articles met the inclusion criteria. It is found that demographic, physical movement, physical appearance, psycho-cognitive, teacher-related, and contextual factors emerged as six prominent influential factors affecting adolescent bullying behavior. Specifically, demographic factors mainly encompassed age and gender; physical movement factors primarily include physical activity, sedentary behavior, physical exercise, and sports competence; physical appearance factors primarily include being overweight, too thin, too tall, or too short; psycho-cognitive factors chiefly involved cognitive empathy, motivation, enjoyment of physical activity; teacher-related factors primarily comprised activity choices, teachers competence, controlling style, autonomy support; and contextual factors primarily cover desolate climate, perceived caring climate, strong sense of competition and winning setting.

Conclusion

The results indicate that bullying is a complex and multifaced behavior primarily determined by demographic, physical movement, physical appearance, psycho-cognitive, teacher-related, and contextual factors. Future studies need to enhance the diversity of research samples and comparative studies on the factors influencing bullying behavior among children and adolescents in different countries. Additionally, a more extensive range of intervention studies addressing bullying behavior among children and adolescents is warranted.

Thinking styles and their relationship with self-efficacy among deaf and hard-of-hearing adolescent students

This study aimed to identify the most common thinking styles of deaf/hard-of-hearing (DHH) and hearing adolescent students, and to examine the extent to which thinking styles predict self-efficacy. It also explored gender-based differences in the thinking styles and self-efficacy of DHH students. Data were collected from 145 DHH and 160 hearing adolescent students in Saudi Arabia (Mage = 17.8 years; SDage = 3.57 years) using the Thinking Styles Inventory-Revised II (TSI-R2) and Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C). Findings revealed that the executive, local, conservative, and chaotic thinking styles were more prevalent among DHH students, while the legislative, universal, liberal, and critical thinking styles were more prevalent among hearing students. Those with Type I thinking styles had higher levels of self-efficacy, while those with Type II thinking styles had lower levels of self-efficacy. There were gender-based differences in the self-efficacy of DHH and hearing students, with higher scores observed among females. Further, for DHH students, the Legislative, Liberal, and Internal thinking styles were more prevalent among males rather than females, while the Executive, Hierarchical, Conservative, External, Judicial, and Local thinking styles were more prevalent among females rather than males. For hearing students, males were more likely to exhibit the Liberal, External, and Oligarchic styles, while females were more likely to exhibit the Global, Executive, Conservative, Local, and Hierarchical styles. Together, these findings suggest the need to train DHH students to use positive thinking styles by implementing courses in their school curricula that enable them to reflect on their self-efficacy.