Perceived motor competence and self-efficacy in children: Competitive sports vs sedentary lifestyle

Abstract

Background: the study of physical self-perception is fundamental to understand how children perceive their movement skills, identify their level of perception of physical self-efficacy as well as their opinion on their motor skills. It can provide useful key information to give appropriate feedback and to plan some programmes aimed to develop fundamental movement skills. Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the perceived competences and physical selfefficacy in a sample of young, sedentary subjects and athletes, through a fact-finding survey. The core of the investigation was to verify whether there were substantial differences between subjects who practice sports at a competitive way and in sedentary one. Methods: The study was carried out from 100 young people aged between 8 and 14 years. 75 athletes (38 F 38 M) were recruited in three small sport associations the same district in southern Italy and 25 students who do not participate organized sports (13 F, 12 M), were recruited in a secondary school in the same district. Written consent was obtained in through a formal letter to parents explaining the study's goals, procedures, and methods. The selection of the investigation tools ware carried out by identifying two tests validated in the literature. Two tests were used: the Perceived Motor Competence Questionnaire in Childhood (PMC-C) (Dreiskaemper, 2018) and the Self-efficacy scale (Colella, 2008). The data were analysed by SPSS statistical software. The two observations were analysed separately; for each item and groups (sedentary subjects, swimmers, soccer players and gymnasts), were calculated mean value, standard deviation and level of significance. These values have been highlighted in the descriptive tables and in the histogram graphs. The differences between gender and between groups (sedentary subjects and athletes) have been calculated with the Mann-Whitney test. Results: the data shows significant differences in both tests highlighting a strong relationship between sport activity and self-related aspects. The comparison of means between sedentary subjects and athletes confirms a significant difference between the two groups with p < .01 both in Self-Efficacy Test and Perception of Motor Competence test.

Qualitative analysis from the social referents perspective of the multidimensional construct of schoolchildren’s motor competence

“…If schoolchildren acquire a positive self-concept, it allows them to feel sure in confidence terms about safely carrying out motor tasks, which positively influences their own performance while doing them [ 45 ]. This aspect has also been evidenced by authors like Estevan and Barnett [ 10 ], who understand that if schoolchildren acquire lived positive motor experiences, it will allow a better image of themselves to be created in relation to the efficiency with which they perform motor gestures.…”

Physical activities traditional games and javanese culture of particularly Wayang Kulit

“…Many attempts have been made to recreate traditional games as a result of this phenomena. Cultural festivals, traditional games, children's games and other activities are among them [47]. Why is it crucial to try to preserve culture?…”

Neuromotricidad como recurso interdisciplinar. Justificación teórico-práctica a través del método BAPNE (Neuromotricity as an interdisciplinary resource. Theoretical-practical justification through the BAPNE method)

“…En pleno siglo XXI, las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación restan tiempo de movimiento e interacción social, provocando el sedentarismo en la vida del ser humano (además de una baja estimulación cognitiva). Por esta razón, la actividad física se convierte en la solución para los problemas de salud, en todas las dimensiones del término (D'Anna et al, 2021;Kirschenbaum, 2013). La relación entre actividad física y funciones cerebrales es una de las líneas de investigación que más han desarrollado en las últimas décadas.…”