Students’ Emotional Experience in Physical Education—A Qualitative Study for New Theoretical Insights

Abstract

Physical education (PE) can be the starting point for many students to be physically active throughout their lives. Positive emotional experiences in PE are discussed as beneficial for long-term physical activity, however, triggers of students’ emotions are still unclear. The purpose of this study is to explore, from a student’s perspective, emotions and their triggers, which occur in PE classes. N = 12 students (male: six, female: six, ø-age: 15.6 ± 1.2 years) have been interviewed using a focused semi-structured interview to identify their emotions in PE and to explore the situations in which they occurred. An inductive approach with elements of the Grounded Theory Method was implemented to analyze the data. Students reported a wide range of positive and negative emotions. Furthermore, four crucial triggers were identified: (I) Attractiveness of the task, (II) social belonging, (III) competence and (IV) autonomy. Parallels to existing theories, especially the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), will be discussed. These results can be used to improve teachers’ knowledge about students’ emotions in PE in order to build a basis for lifelong physical activity.

Influence of Physical Education Teachers on Motivation, Embarrassment and the Intention of Being Physically Active During Adolescence

“…Finally, embarrassment negatively predicted self-determined motivation. This result is in consonance with a recent study carried out by Leisterer and Jekauc [50] in the context of PE. This qualitative study showed how the embarrassment is very present among PE students when they are doing different exercises and motor tasks.…”

Testing the Weiss-Harter-Model: Physical Activity, Self-Esteem, Enjoyment, and Social Support in Children and Adolescents

“…In a meta-analysis examining physical self-concept and PA in youth, perceived competence was most strongly related to PA, followed by perceived fitness (Babic et al, 2014). Beyond this, higher perceived competence in school physical education showed a moderate relationship with physical education enjoyment (Carroll and Loumidis, 2001; Gao, 2008; Cairney et al, 2012; Leisterer and Jekauc, 2019b). Physical self-esteem has also been associated with higher levels of PA in children and adolescents (Crocker et al, 2000; Inchley et al, 2011), showing a small relationship with MVPA (Raudsepp et al, 2002).…”

“…The relationships of the models’ components with PA have been reported. Perceived competence describes youth’s perception about their own abilities to master certain tasks (Harter, 1985; Wienke and Jekauc, 2016), and it has been positively associated with higher levels of PA in children and adolescents (Carroll and Loumidis, 2001; Gao, 2008; Haugen et al, 2011; Inchley et al, 2011; Leisterer and Jekauc, 2019b). Additionally, perceived sports competence and perceived physical condition have been found to account for 27% variance in overall PA level (Crocker et al, 2000).…”

Interventions to Promote Positive Affect and Physical Activity in Children, Adolescents and Young Adults—A Systematic Review

“…Further, autonomy [21] and relatedness [24] can predict PA enjoyment in adolescents. Leisterer and Jekauc [25] identified emotional triggers during PE lessons, three of which match the basic psychological needs. In another experimental study, they tested whether the manipulation of competence and social integration influenced affective judgements in the context of PE.…”