García-Ceberino, J.M.; Feu, S.; Gamero, M.G.; Ibáñez, S.J. Structural Relationship between Psychological Needs and Sport Adherence for Students Participating in Physical Education Class. Sustainability2023, 15, 9686.
García-Ceberino, J.M.; Feu, S.; Gamero, M.G.; Ibáñez, S.J. Structural Relationship between Psychological Needs and Sport Adherence for Students Participating in Physical Education Class. Sustainability 2023, 15, 9686.
García-Ceberino, J.M.; Feu, S.; Gamero, M.G.; Ibáñez, S.J. Structural Relationship between Psychological Needs and Sport Adherence for Students Participating in Physical Education Class. Sustainability2023, 15, 9686.
García-Ceberino, J.M.; Feu, S.; Gamero, M.G.; Ibáñez, S.J. Structural Relationship between Psychological Needs and Sport Adherence for Students Participating in Physical Education Class. Sustainability 2023, 15, 9686.
Abstract
The satisfaction of basic psychological needs leads students to engage in a sport modality on their own initiative. In the Spanish public educational system, mixed and heterogeneous, the gender and sport experience of students influence the teaching and motivation of invasion sports. This study investigated whether students' gender and sport experience, and method influence the psychological variables (basic psychological needs and sport adherence) when teaching school soccer and basketball. Furthermore, correlations were calculated between these psychological variables. The study involved 165 fifth and sixth grade students (age, 11.27 ± 0.68 years old) from several Spanish state schools in the same autonomous community. A non-random convenience sample was used. The needs for autonomy, perceived competence and social relationships were measured using the Basic Psychological Needs in Physical Exercise Scale. Sport adherence was measured using the Measure of Intentionality to be Physically Active. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Cronbach's alpha were used to analyze the psychometric properties of the scales. Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed with the Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H tests. There were significant differences in the needs for autonomy and perceived competence according to the students’ gender (boys > girls). Attending to sport adherence, there were also significant differences according to the students’ gender (boys > girls) and sport experience (experienced students > inexperienced students). Likewise, a regression analysis (structural equation model) revealed that the autonomy need showed low association with sport adherence. Higher perceived competence (β = 0.52) and social relationships (β = 0.36) were associated with greater adherence to sport (R2 = 0.65). Increased sport adherence will have health benefits.
Keywords
invasion sport; gender; primary school; sport experience; structural equation
Subject
Social Sciences, Education
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
