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The purpose of this study, grounded in the Achievement Goal Perspective Theory (AGPT) and a Caring framework, was to effectively adapt previously validated measures of caring, task-involving (CTI), and ego-involving (EI) climates for college exercise classes to the college biology laboratory setting. The items' measurement quality was assessed over two studies. Students (NStudy1 = 249, female 73%; NStudy2 = 199, female 78%) enrolled in biology laboratory courses were invited to complete a survey during the last two weeks of their laboratory course. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed overall good fit; however, two EI items had low loadings, so their wording was revised for Study 2. CFA results of Study 2 provided reliability and validity support for the use of these relatively brief and easy to administer measures in the college laboratory setting. This research provides additional support for creating CTI climates in the college laboratory setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Zuni Youth Enrichment Project (ZYEP) is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for children living in the Pueblo of Zuni, a rural Indigenous community. Sport and exercise psychology scholars have highlighted the need for greater diversity in applied sport psychology research, arguing specifically for greater exposure to applied work with populations from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. This paper describes a collaboration between an Indigenous youth program and a sport psychology lab that included the development of a coaching workshop for a sport-based positive youth development program. Collaborative efforts and the coaching workshop activities are shared, along with lessons learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of motivational climate on physiological responses to psychological stress remains largely unknown. The purpose of this experimental investigation was to examine the psychological and physiological stress and motivational responses of college students (N = 57, Mage = 20.34) during a 30-minute instructional juggling session that was either caring, task-involving (C/TI) or ego-involving (EI). Cortisol and inflammation were assessed at six time points over the 2-hr study, and participants completed pre- and post-questionnaires. As hypothesised, the EI climate elicited concerning responses including greater psychosocial and state cognitive stress, negative affect, and cortisol, while the C/TI climate yielded adaptive responses including what may be a multifaceted physiologically protective mechanism to performance-related stress. Specifically, the C/TI climate yielded greater sTNFαRII, performance and social self-esteem, positive affect, and coping appraisals. Results suggest C/TI climates procure psychological and physiological responses that facilitate performance and well-being and foster a greater interest in physical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

College athletes' lives have been upended due to the sudden impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In spring 2020, athletes lost their competition seasons, face-to-face contact with their coaches and teammates, access to their training facilities and equipment, and faced additional struggles specific to the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., financial, health concerns). The purpose of this paper is to outline strategies coaches can employ to create a caring and task-involving climate on their teams to help athletes thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic. The strategies came from a research study conducted to assess the responses of coaches and teammates that athletes perceived to be supportive during the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a mutually beneficial partnership between faculty and students in the Sport and Exercise Psychology Lab at the University of Kansas (KUSEP Lab) and the Women?s Intersport Network (WIN for KC) located in Kansas City, MO. WIN for KC is a nonprofit organization that ignites girls and women through advocating and promoting the lifetime value of sports and fitness, while providing opportunities for participation and leadership development. One major activity of WIN for KC each year is to host summer camps for girls. The camps include 6–12 year-old girls who, in a span of four days, are introduced to 16 different sports and activities. Campers are also introduced to a curriculum that promotes core values into the camp and emphasizes the transferability of these skills (i.e., respect, dream big, never give up). High school and junior high school girls are selected to be team captains and junior team captains for the campers. The energy and dedication from the team captains and WIN for KC staff has helped their camp grow quickly over the last few years to now include over 600 girls each summer. The KUSEP Lab is housed on a college campus and includes faculty and students (undergraduate and graduate) who engage in research and service activities in sport and exercise psychology. A major mission of the lab is to help sport coaches and physical activity leaders utilize theory and research in sport psychology to optimize participants? experiences. The framework used most often focuses on helping individuals understand the benefits of creating a caring and task-involving climate and developing the skills to create such a climate. This framework will be described in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals experiencing a highly caring, task-involving, and low ego-involving exercise climate have reported greater ownership in exercise class and empowerment to exercise in general.Purpose: This study examined the relationship between ownership and empowerment in exercise, with 2 context-specific outcomes, satisfaction with physical education (PE) and physical activity, respectively. Given the mission of PE to foster individuals' lifelong physical activity habit, the perceptions of high school students were collected for this study. Ownership in exercise was hypothesized to be significantly, positively correlated with students reporting satisfaction in PE more than their satisfaction in physical activity, whereas empowerment in exercise was hypothesized to be more strongly, positively correlated with students' physical activity satisfaction. A second purpose of this study was to test the measurement quality of the updated Empowerment in Exercise Scale (EES; now 13 items).Method: High school students (N = 502, 43% female) in a Midwestern U.S. school district completed a survey.Results: Confirmatory factor analysis supported the internal measurement structure of the EES (λ = .62-.91; McDonald's omega = .89) across student gender (strong invariance). Additionally, the structural equation modeling analysis revealed only 1 parameter moderated by the students' gender (latent mean of ownership). The hypotheses were supported, such that ownership in exercise was more strongly correlated with PE satisfaction (r = .87) and empowerment in exercise had a stronger correlation with physical activity satisfaction (r = .92).Conclusion: These results support the beneficial effect a satisfying experience in PE can have on students' satisfaction with physical activity outside of school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between athletes’ perceptions of the motivational climate (caring, task-, and ego-involving) to their levels of compassion, self-compassion, pride, and shame in a recreational sport setting. Athletes (N = 164) in a competitive Wiffle Ball tournament completed a survey. A canonical correlation analysis revealed one significant function indicating that athletes’ perceptions of a caring and task-involving motivational climate were associated with higher levels of authentic pride and lower levels of hubristic pride. Results suggest adult recreational sport participants may benefit from experiencing a positive and supportive team climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to develop an abbreviated version of the Perceived Motivational Climate in Exercise Questionnaire (PMCEQ-A) to provide a more practical instrument for use in applied exercise settings. In the calibration step, two shortened versions’ measurement and latent model values were compared to each other and the original PMCEQ using a three-group CFA invariance testing approach with previously collected exercise setting data (N = 5,427). Based on the model fit and reliability values, the 12-item version performed better than the 17-item version. The resultant 12-item PMCEQ-A’s CFA model estimates were then compared to the PMCEQ’s model values for two different, previously conducted studies of exercise settings (N = 414 and 770). The more parsimonious 12-item PMCEQ-A can be used by exercise psychology researchers to gain insight into members’ perspectives on the motivational climate and may lead to developing effective strategies to enhance members’ experiences and commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose:The purpose of this study was to examine the association between members' perceptions of staff's behaviors, motivational climate, their own behaviors, commitment to future exercise, and life satisfaction in a group-fitness setting. The theory-driven hypothesized mediating role of perceptions of the climate was also tested.Method:Members (N = 5,541) of a national group-fitness studio franchise completed a survey regarding their class experiences. The survey included questions that measured participants' perceptions of the motivational climate (caring, task-involving, ego-involving), perceptions of staff's behaviors, their own behaviors, commitment to exercise, and life satisfaction. Structural equation modeling was used to assess both the association between variables and the theoretically driven predictive relationships.Results:The participants perceived the environment as highly caring and task-involving and low ego-involving. They reported high exercise commitment and moderately high life satisfaction and perceived that the staff's and their own behaviors reflected caring, task-involving characteristics. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that those who perceived a higher caring, task-involving climate and lower ego-involving climate were more likely to report more task-involving, caring behaviors among the staff and themselves as well as greater commitment to exercise. In addition, a theory-driven mediational model suggested that staff behaviors may be an antecedent to members' exercise experiences by impacting their perceptions of the climate.Conclusions:The results of this study give direction to specific behaviors in which staff of group-fitness programs might engage to positively influence members' exercise experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between female college students’ perceptions of the motivational climate in their aerobics classes to their adaptive exercise responses. Data were collected from university group exercise classes in spring 2008. The participants (N = 213) responded to a questionnaire measuring perceptions of the climate (i.e., caring, task-, and ego-involving), correlates of intrinsic motivation (i.e., interest/enjoyment, perceived competence, effort/importance, and tension/pressure), commitment to exercise, and reasons for exercising. Canonical correlation analyses revealed that participants who perceived a predominately caring, task-involving climate reported higher interest/enjoyment, perceived competence, effort/importance, and commitment to exercise, as well as lower tension/pressure. Further, those who perceived a high caring, task-involving, and low ego-involving climate were also more likely to report more health-related reasons for exercise versus appearance-focused reasons. Results suggested that important motivational benefits might exist when women perceive caring, task-involving climates in their aerobics class settings. Aerobics class instructors who intentionally create caring, task-involving climates may promote more adaptive motivational responses among their female participants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this research was to examine how high and low trait sport confident track and field athletes differed in their imagery content and imagery ability. NCAA Division I track and field athletes ( M age = 20.5 +/- 1.61 years; M = 7.15 +/- 3.3 years experience; N = 111, 44 males and 67 females) completed the following measures: Trait Sport Confidence Inventory (TSCI), Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ), and Movement Imagery Questionnaire - Revised (MIQ-R). Profile analyses revealed that high trait sport confident athletes utilized each category of imagery (Motivational General - Mastery, Motivational General - Arousal, Motivational Specific, Cognitive General, and Cognitive Specific) significantly more than low trait sport confident athletes. No significant differences emerged between the groups on the two imagery ability scales. The results suggest that the high confident athletes used more imagery, but they did not have higher imagery skills than low confident athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study was to examine children's understanding of task difficulty in the physical domain using the developmental component of Nicholls’ theory of achievement motivation as a framework. Children (N = 144; 8 boys and 8 girls at each age from 5–13 years) enrolled in public schools in a Southern city were participants. They were shown one normative and two objective arrays with structured interview questions following each array. A Piagetian structural analysis of the children's responses revealed the same three levels of understanding of task difficulty that Nicholls’ previously identified: egocentric, objective, and normative. Further, a nonparametric test of association between ordinal variables showed a significant positive relationship between children's age and their levels of understanding of task difficulty. No significant gender differences emerged for children's understanding of task difficulty. Children's personal preferences for task difficulty levels (i.e., easy, moderate, difficult) were assessed for those who were identified as possessing a mature conception of task difficulty (i.e., rated at Level 3). Qualitative analysis revealed that approximately 30% of the children indicated that if given a choice they would prefer to play an easy game that did not provide an optimal challenge. These results provide partial evidence to support Nicholls’ (1989) claim that as children develop a mature understanding of ability some will be at risk of displaying maladaptive motivational patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Provides a study of children's level of understanding of physical and academic domains. Reference to Nicholl's theory; Indepth look at the tests in which students participated; Information on the outcomes of a videotaped shown to the students.

Presents information on a symposium which will focus on students' motivational perspectives and cognitive development in physical education. Symposium's examination of the developmental component of Nicholls' theory of achivements motivation; Two goal perspectives that were proposed by Nicholls (1989); Factors that children are able to distinguish at 12 years.