Self-Determined Motivation and Competitive Anxiety in Athletes/Students: A Probabilistic Study Using Bayesian Networks

Influence of parental involvement and parenting styles in children's active lifestyle: a systematic review

Background

Parents influence their children's lifestyles through modeling and support, which modifies how children approach physical activity. As such, this systematic review aims to know the influence of parental involvement in children's active lifestyles and the influence of parenting styles on children's practice and motivation towards physical activity.

Methodology

PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, ResearchGate, and Web of Science databases were searched from 15 July 2022 to 30 August 2022. The publication date of the included manuscripts was between November 2012 and January 2021. The methodological quality of the studies was analyzed using the Scale for Evaluating Scientific Articles in Social and Human Science. Furthermore, it was utilized the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 2020.

Results

The sample of the 10 included studies (in which different self-report measures were administered) was 1,957 children and their parents. In one study, parental involvement across limits decreased sedentary behaviours. In another, parent-child co-participation in physical activity improved participation in it. In one study, democratic parents predicted moderate-vigorous physical activity. In another, authoritarian styles were associated with sports practice. In another, permissive styles were associated with the worst physical activity practice. In one study, permissive parents were not significantly related to physical activity. In another, negligent parents were negatively associated with sports practice. In two studies, parenting styles were not associated with physical activity. In a study, the autonomy support of permissive parents and the structure of democratic parents is related to autonomous motivations. The coercive control of authoritarian parents and the lack of structure of negligent parents are related to non-self-determined motivations or amotivation.

Conclusions

Parental involvement contributes to children's participation in physical activity. There is no unanimity in the results obtained in parenting styles and the practice of physical activity. Democratic and permissive styles are associated with self-determined motivations, as opposed to negligent and authoritarian ones. The results obtained have been extracted from studies where different self-report measures are administered, so it would be advisable to continue researching this subject.

Sports psychiatry: a desideratum on sports arena!

The emerging field of sports psychiatry has been developing steadily in recent years. This is not just a health concern but is likely to impact sporting performance and achievement significantly. An overview of sports psychiatry is provided. Psychiatric disorders of all varieties can and do present in sporting populations. Sports psychiatry keeps evolving to drive forward the importance of good mental health in sport as in life.

Psychometric Parameters of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory Adapted to Physical Education in a Sample of Active Adults from Austria

Introduction. Intrinsic motivation is essential for establishing life-long positive behaviors. In Physical Education (PE), this variable may have a significant impact on students’ choice of adhering to an active lifestyle both in the short and long term. Many tools have been developed for the assessment of intrinsic motivation, among which the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) was built based on the Self-Determination Theory. The aim of this study is to examine a version of the IMI adapted to PE (IMI-PE). Methods. A total of 660 customers of a Sports Service Center responded to the IMI-PE and 39 individuals carried out a test–retest of the tool within two weeks. Results. The initial model including the original pool of items showed low indexes of goodness of fit. However, the removal of item 6, 8, 13, and 14 led to excellent parameters for the four-factor model (CFI = 0.96, and SRMR = 0.0420). Internal consistency and reliability analyses confirmed the robustness of such model. The final IMI-PE, comprising 14 items distributed into four factors, represents a robust assessment tool for the analysis of intrinsic motivation in PE.

Can we speak of a negative psychological tetrad in sports? A probabilistic Bayesian study on competitive sailing

Introduction

Researchers display an interest in studying aspects like the mental health of high-performance athletes; the dark side of sport, or the earliest attempts to study the so-called dark triad of personality in both initiation and high-performance athletes. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to determine the possible existence and magnitude of negative psychological aspects within a population of competition sailors and from a probabilistic point of view, using Bayesian Network analysis.

Methods

The study was carried out on 235 semi-professional sailors of the 49er Class, aged between 16 and 52 years (M = 24.66; SD = 8.03).

Results

The results show the existence of a Negative Tetrad—formed by achievement burnout, anxiety due to concentration disruption, amotivation and importance given to error—as a probabilistic product of the psychological variables studied: motivation, anxiety, burnout and fear of error.

Conclusion

These results, supported by Bayesian networks, show holistically the influence of the social context on the psychological and emotional well-being of the athlete during competition at sea.

The Athlete’s Paradox: Adaptable Depression

We proposed that an athlete’s depressive symptoms may be different from the general population in etiology if considered from the context of a depressive disorder. By shifting focus from a limited notion of symptoms onto a comprehensive model of depression, the full scope of the phenomenon becomes clearer. This paper investigated the relationship between neurotransmitters and allostatic load to explain the incidence of depression among elite athletes. This literature review extensively analyzed exercise-induced neurohormonal imbalance resulting in depressive states among athletes. The research revealed that 5-HTTLPR polymorphism, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), extensive psychological demands, social stigma, and overtraining syndrome (OTS) may all contribute to a unique version of depression. The research revealed that the biological standards of athletes differ from those of non-athletes, to the point that the new model may be useful, thereby introducing the new term “Adaptable Depression (AD)” to the literature. This framework suggests a new direction for future research to precisely measure the neurotransmitter-related brain changes that result in “Adaptable Depression” in athletes and to establish a better understanding of the depressive tipping point.

It Is Not Just Stress: A Bayesian Approach to the Shape of the Negative Psychological Features Associated with Sport Injuries

The main objective of this study is to extend the stress and injury model of Andersen and Williams to other "negative" psychological variables, such as anxiety and depression, encompassed in the conceptual model of Olmedilla and García-Mas. The relationship is studied of this psychological macro-variable with two other variables related to sports injuries: the search for social support and the search for connections between risk and the environment of athletes. A combination of classic methods and probabilistic approaches through Bayesian networks is used. The study samples comprised 455 traditional and indoor football players (323 male and 132 female) of an average age of 21.66 years (±4.46). An ad hoc questionnaire was used for the corresponding sociodemographic data and data relating to injuries. The variables measured were the emotional states of: stress, depression and anxiety, the attitude towards risk-taking in different areas, and the evaluation of the perception of social support. The results indicate that the probabilistic analysis conducted gives a boost to the classic model focused on stress, as well as the conceptual planning derived from the Global Model of Sports Injuries (GMSI), supporting the possibility of extending the stress model to other variables, such as anxiety and depression ("negative" triad).

The Influence of Social Support and Ability Perception on Coping Strategies for Competitive Stress in Soccer Players: The Mediating Role of Cognitive Assessment

Objectives: To explore the effect of social support and ability perception on stress coping strategies for competitive stress, and to reveal the mediating effects of primary and secondary evaluation, so as to further improve the theoretical model of stress coping in soccer players.

Methods: A total of 331 male athletes from 22 teams in the Chengdu Middle School Campus Football League were taken as survey samples, and surveys were conducted on their stress experience, social support, ability perception, cognitive assessment, and coping strategies for competition stress. SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 statistical analysis software were used. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to process the obtained data.

Results: (1) Positive primary assessment acted as a full mediator in the relationship between social support and secondary assessments, and negative primary assessment acted as a partial mediator in the relationship between competence perception and secondary assessments; (2) Secondary assessment played a partial mediating role between positive primary assessment and positive coping strategies, and a full mediating role between negative primary assessment and positive coping strategies; (3) Secondary assessments played the mediator neither between social support and a coping strategy for stress nor competence perception and a coping strategy for stress; (4) Positive primary assessment, positive negative assessment, and secondary assessment all had significant positive benefits for positive coping. Still, the impact of positive primary assessment on positive coping was significantly better than negative primary assessment and secondary assessment.

Conclusion: The coping strategy for the competitive stress model proposed by this study has a very good fit for the causal model. It can be used to explain the observed data from soccer players in middle schools. The primary and secondary assessments play different roles in the model. The combination of problem focuses and emotional focus on the positive stress coping strategy is suitable in the field of competitive sports. Still, the relevant research results need to be further explored and verified in the future.

Competitive Anxiety, and Guilt and Shame Proneness From Perspective Type D and Non-type D Football Players

The precompetitive, competitive, and postcompetitive mental states of athletes are currently not sufficiently researched. Long-term exposure to stressors contributes to the formation of mental blocks and leads to various health problems. One of the factors that can explain the variability of athletes' reactions to stress is their personality. This study is the first to examine competitive anxiety, and guilt and shame proneness in the context of the reaction of football players to distress in sports. The study consists of 112 male football players aged 16–24 (21.00 ± 1.90) who were divided into type D and non-type D football players according to scoring on the Denollet Scale (DS14). Football players also filled out the Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS-2) and the Guilt and Shame Proneness Scale (GASP). The taxonomic approach was conducted to test and to examine differences in stressor intensity as a function of type D personality. A correlation, multivariate analysis of variance, and regression analysis were performed in the study. We found that type D football players were more afraid of failures in sports (worry), felt more often autonomous excitement concentrated in the stomach and muscles (somatic anxiety), and showed more frequent concentration disruption than did non-type D football players. We also found that although type D football players were more likely to rate their behavior as negative and inappropriate, they showed a much greater effort to correct it than did non-type D football players. Negative affectivity and social inhibition of type D football players were positively correlated with competitive anxiety. In addition, we noted lower levels of somatic anxiety and lower concentration disruption for football players who used escape strategies to manage stress. The shame proneness subscale monitoring negative self-evaluation was also closely related to the concentration disruption of football players. We found that the examination of athletes by type D personality is necessary due to the fact that negative affectivity and social inhibition are significant predictors of competitive anxiety of football players, which explains their worries at 24.0%, somatic anxiety at 8.2%, and concentration disruption at 10.6%.

The Influence of the Trainer's Social Behaviors on the Resilience, Anxiety, Stress, Depression and Eating Habits of Athletes

During their sporting lives, athletes must face multiple difficulties that can have consequences for their mental health and changes in their eating patterns. Therefore, the present study aims to analyze how social skills of the trainer influence the coping capacity, psychological well-being, and eating habits of the athlete, elements that are key to achieving success during competition. This study involved 1547 athletes and 127 trainer. In order to achieve the objective, the mean, standard deviation, bivariate correlations, reliability analysis and a structural equation model were analysed. The results showed that prosocial behaviours were positively related to resilience, while antisocial behaviours were negatively related. Resilience was negatively related to anxiety, stress and depression. Finally, anxiety, stress and depression were negatively related to healthy eating and positively related to unhealthy eating. These results highlight the importance of creating a positive social climate to develop coping strategies that promote mental health and healthy eating habits of athletes.