Sport and physical activity across the lifespan: “Sports Trajectory Questionnaire”

Abstract

Activity and participation in sport have garnered a great deal of attention over the past few decades, due in part to growing awareness of the benefits they offer that lead to a better quality of life. This situation has opened up new lines of investigation in the sport sciences field, including the study of physical activity and sport participation according to the perspective of Lifespan Developmental Psychology, the approach that underlies this study. The aim of this research is (1) to design an instrument to collect information on individuals’ lifelong relationships with sport and physical activity (2) to implement the instrument through a pilot test to create profiles that can be compared with other variables, all in order to study the role that physical activity and sport participation play in a range of aspects throughout the lifespan. The results indicate the questionnaire was effective and capable of collecting data on the physical and sport activities of the members of the sample at different moments in the lifespan. It was also able to generate profiles that can be used to analyze the variables of participation in sport and/or physical activity in conjunction with other variable, thus offering a way to measure the impact of physical activity on human development. Keywords: Sports trajectories; lifespan; physical activity questionnaire; physical activity profiles

Leadership development across the lifespan through sport and physical activity

“…Data were gathered using semi-structured interviews. The introduction of this paper references the previous quantitative studies (Riera and Moragas, 2021;Riera et al, 2022) that lays the groundwork for the current research. Building upon this quantitative foundation, it is decided to make a transition to a qualitative approach to explore the subtle aspects of leadership development influenced by sports trajectories.…”

“…It begins the moment that direct contact is made with the world of organized physical activity, it develops during a more or less extensive period of time dedicated to the practice of one or several sports specialties and ends when the relationship with this field as a participant is abandoned. This research extends the notion of sports itinerary to encompass not only the contextual information and sporting history but also the personal conception and evolution of sport participation in an individual's life (Desroches et al, 2019;Howie et al, 2016; based on data collected in previous studies (Riera and Moragas, 2021;Riera et al, 2022) that administered the Sports Trajectory Questionnaire to general population. Recognizing the limited research exposure of the Sports Trajectory Questionnaire (SQT), this study seeks to provide a broader and more comprehensive understanding of "sports trajectory" utilizing these multidimensional aspects to analyze its impact on leadership development.…”

“…Considering the findings of previous studies (Riera and Moragas, 2021;Riera et al, 2022), it was created sport profiles in order to select a sample of managers from the more common sport profiles in the managers' sample. To create these sport profiles, it was followed the same procedure as the mentioned studies (Riera and Moragas, 2021;Riera et al, 2022), that includes the selection and codification of three variables based on the influence to the development of an individual during the lifetime. The first variable refers to the regularity of practice in sport and Physical Activity (PA) in each stage (1, Yes, if they have practiced during all stage; 2, No, if they didn't practice sports or PA during all stage).…”

“…A total of 17 managers (5 women and 12 men) aged 31 to 62 (Me 42,4 and s 9) were selected based on their sport profile from a larger sample from a previous study (Riera et al, 2022). The sample composed by 86 managers (23 women and 63 men), completed the STQ (Riera and Moragas, 2021) about their sport trajectory over a lifespan with the purpose to analyze the sport trajectory of the managers compared with general population to find common patterns.…”

“…, 2019; Howie et al. , 2016; 2019) based on data collected in previous studies (Riera and Moragas, 2021; Riera et al. , 2022) that administered the Sports Trajectory Questionnaire to general population.…”