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The main objectives of this study were to determine the percentage of teachers applying the Sport Education (SE) model in a central region of Spain and to identify the features these teachers perceived they were using when applying it. As a secondary objective, an attempt was made to respond to the differences in the application of the model depending on the educational stage and gender, and to determine any differences between the curriculum features of teachers applying SE and those who follow other methodologies. One hundred and ninety-nine physical education (PE) teachers participated in this study and a survey research design was used. The results reinforce the notion that PE teachers apply SE in a contextualised and pragmatic way. A significant percentage of teachers (64.8%) reported using SE in their curriculums, which demonstrates the success in expanding this instructional model in this region. Teachers also perceived that they applied a high percentage of the SE elements, although there was low fidelity to most of those elements that were considered to be central to the model such as extended units and permanent teams. Results are discussed based on literature about which goals are achieved and which ones are not based on the degree of fidelity to the central elements of the model. Implications for teacher training and future research are provided.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate coaches' perceptions of using sport education (SE) for the first time with socially vulnerable children in order to explore its suitability for equipping young people living in precarity with the skills they need to take positive action to challenge their socially vulnerable backgrounds. In doing so, we want to explore what experiences of learning to use SE these coaches had and what their perspectives of the children's learning were. Settings and participants: The study developed in a community-based program in three economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods with high rates of delinquency in a city in Central Spain. The programme is run by a non-governmental organization and is funded by several public institutions and private donations. The study included three youth workers who acted as coaches and 31 nine- to eleven-year-olds from different ethnic groups. Programme: The SE season comprised 36 one-hour sessions which included an introduction to SE and the activity called ringo (two lessons), a pre-season (14 lessons), a season (18 lessons) and culminating event preparation and celebration (two lessons). Ringo is a net game, which was chosen to improve participation. Data collection/analysis: Four focus groups were conducted with the coaches and an open analysis format was followed, using open-ended questions. The first author also kept a diary of his experience as a participant observer, including field notes and participation in focus groups. The data were transcribed verbatim and analysed through thematic analysis. Findings: Three major results were found. First, although coaches perceived that sport had a great potential for children to get several benefits, the quality of the pedagogical strategies they used to implement before the study did not allow them to reach those benefits. Second, SE gave the coaches the possibility to enact an ethic of care with participant children; emotional labour played a key role in that process, allowing coaches to care both for children and for themselves. Third, coaches appreciated how SE features, especially competition, teams, festivity, and the culminating event, favoured motivation and engagement, what improved behaviour and the assumption of roles responsibilities. Conclusions: Sport per se is not enough to teach ethical conduct. However, a quality programme which exposes young people to the stimuli they need, and efficient physical educators who can develop the programme properly and with a coherent attitude are necessary. Pre-service education for any future professional working with youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds (teachers, coaches, youth workers) should consider the need of teaching pedagogies of affect like SE as well as the development of an ethic of care and emotional labour.

Anxiety has been suggested to be a key contributing factor for compulsive exercise, however, existing literature has demonstrated contradictory relationships between anxiety and compulsive exercise among adolescents. According to the Emotional Cascade Model (ECM), factors such as rumination and emotional suppression may mediate the association between affect and exercise. The current study therefore aimed to investigate whether rumination and emotional suppression mediate the relationship between anxiety and compulsive exercise in predicting ED symptoms in adolescents. Questionnaires assessing compulsive exercise, anxiety, depressive rumination, emotional suppression, and ED symptoms were completed by 212 adolescent males (Mage = 13.39, SD = 1.22) and 189 adolescent females (Mage = 13.64, SD = 1.29). The structural equation model showed indirect effects between anxiety and compulsive exercise through rumination and emotional suppression in males but not in females. Moreover, anxiety had an indirect effect on eating disorder symptoms through rumination, emotional suppression and compulsive exercise in both males and females. In line with ECM, the results suggest that rumination and emotional suppression may have a key role in the association between anxiety, compulsive exercise and eating disorder symptoms in adolescents. These findings suggest that compulsive exercise may be used as a dysfunctional coping mechanism to escape from a negative emotional cascade generated by the interaction of anxiety, rumination and emotional suppression. Future longitudinal studies to test the role of compulsive exercise as a dysfunctional behaviour in the ECM are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundPurposeContext and participantsData collection and analysisFindings and conclusionsThe Activist Approach is a pedagogical approach that includes a wide range of possibilities to understand girls’ needs during their physical activity practice. However, the teachers or coaches who implement this approach must be aware that in the process they will face multiple challenges, such as managing the uncertainty generated by the transfer of power to the participants or the critical reflection on their own beliefs and practices. To date, many studies have focused on negotiating with girls the barriers that limit their participation in Physical Education or other physical activity contexts. However, few studies have examined the challenges of implementing this approach in sporting contexts where gender issues are particularly relevant, such as in traditionally male-dominated sports.Drawing on a poststructuralist feminist lens, this study analyses the process of transformation and learning undergone by the first author (Lucía) in overcoming the challenges of her first experience with the Activist Approach in a football club, a competitive sporting context where gender issues play an important role.The study was carried out with a female football team and the participants were 31 girls aged 12–14, their three coaches, and Lucía and her three critical friends (co-authors).The study was conducted over two sport seasons and a total of 34 sessions were delivered (February 2021-June 2022), following the two phases of the approach: the building the foundation phase and the activist phase. The data collection included the recordings of the sessions conducted with the girls (34), the peer-debriefings (24), the artefacts created by the girls, Lucía’s field journal, the interviews with coaches (4) and the focus groups with the girls (2). A reflective thematic analysis of the data was carried out (Braun and Clarke 2021), providing this with credibility and reflexivity throughout the entire process.Lucía actively negotiated two main challenges in implementing her activist programme with the girls’ football team. The first was finding a balance between her position as a researcher and sharing power in the work sessions with the diversity of femininities. Lucía constructed a good relationship with all the girls but had difficulties getting them to perceive this environment as a learning context. The second challenge was finding a way to support all the girls’ voices and managing the male-dominated and oppressive elements of the competitive masculine culture at the football club, which constrained the development of the educational programme. Although frustration and uncertainty were feelings that the activist researcher experienced throughout her transformative journey, these were part of her learning and personal growth process. This journey allowed her to discover the potential of this approach and her own agency to advocate for social change, addressing the gender inequalities that are still pervasive in football clubs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]