Negative life stress and maternal inhibitory control are both critical ingredients involved in the shaping and maintaining of the quality of parenting behaviors. This study explored both how the experience of stressful life events and inhibitory control relate to two particular types of parenting behaviors: harsh/controlling and autonomy-supportive. Given that these two types of parenting have broad implications for children’s developmental trajectories, it is important to further enhance our understanding of the etiological factors that both shape and maintain parenting practices. Utilizing a high-risk sample (i.e. low SES, high presence of documented child maltreatment) of mothers with pre-school aged children, this study did not support the relationship between the experience of stressful life events, maternal inhibitory control and quality of parenting. However, post hoc analyses of life stress using a measure of objective SES did yield a significant link between stress and the presence of autonomy-supportive parenting. This study expands the current understanding of how stress and inhibitory control relate to parenting behaviors. Implications of this study for practice and research are discussed.

Many U.S. adolescents struggle with obesity and a lack of motivation to be healthy and physically active, which affects individual as well as public health. The purpose of this mixed-method study was to evaluate students' motivation to participate in physical education class and better understand the teaching strategies currently used by physical education teachers who participated in an interview and 2 observations. Self-determination theory framed the research questions, which focused on students' intrinsic motivation to participate in physical education class and physical education teachers' use of autonomy supportive teaching strategies. Learning Climate and Basic Need surveys were administered to 6th-8th grade students (n = 261). Analysis of descriptive statistics revealed students felt the strongest fulfillment of relatedness from their teacher (M = 5.6) and autonomy support to be the least (M = 4.6). Overall inferential statistics revealed similar results when teachers were compared. Analysis of variance resulted in no significant differences between the teachers as related to competence, relatedness, autonomy, and perceptions. Qualitative data was coded and revealed similar themes; all data revealed relatedness scores were the highest for all the teachers, and autonomy support was the lowest for all the teachers. Positive social change provides an updated 9-week curriculum plan with new units that have been designed to enhance their motivation and create awareness of lifelong physical activities; autonomy supportive teaching strategies have been incorporated in the curriculum.

Researchers of student motivation have often explained students’ desire to engage in various activities in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Babad, 1993; Legutki, 2010; McPherson, 2000; O’Neill, 1999). However, there is a perpetuating absence of a unifying and theory-based understanding of motivation in music education that illustrates the need for the current study. Using self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 2000) as the theoretical framework, I examined (a) the association between fulfillment of psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) experienced by high school orchestra students and their perceived level of autonomy-supportive learning, and (b) the connection between different qualities of self-determined motivation (i.e., external, introjected, identified, and intrinsic regulation) and students’ intentions to engage in music learning in the future. This cross-sectional quantitative study incorporated an author-designed instrument, which was an adaptation of Basic Psychological Needs Scale (Deci & Ryan, 2000) and Self-Regulation Questionnaire-Learning version (Black & Deci, 2000). I surveyed 706 high school orchestra students in the Midwest, and the response rate was 99.7%. The findings indicate that autonomy (β = .37), competence (β = .17), and relatedness (β = .14) positively predicted music students’ overall outlook on their autonomy-supportive learning. Identified regulation and intrinsic regulation positively predicted music students’ short- (β = .23, β = .34), medium- (β = .15, β = .29), and long-term intentions (β = .25, β = .25) of music engagement, indicating that there is a connection between autonomous regulation in music students and their future engagement intentions. External regulation (β = -.10) negatively predicted short-term intention only, indicating that there is a connection between extrinsic motivation and low intentions to continue must learning. This study provides evidence to support self-determination theory as a viable approach for understanding student motivation in the field of music education. Future research recommendations and implications for teaching are also provided.

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / The first year of university studies is usually accompanied by many new experiences, often stressful, and family members fulfil a significant role in helping to reduce students' stress and facilitate their adjustment. Research has indicated that the overall first year experience sets the tone for the subsequent well-being of students both academically and personally, and if this is negative then the university dropout rates are likely to remain high. This study seeks to determine the effects of family structure and parental autonomy-support on students' adjustment during the first year of university. The study employed a quantitative, cross-sectional correlational research design. Participants were selected by means of convenient sampling, and only consisted of first year university students between the ages of 18 and 25 years who were registered at the University of the Western Cape. Data was collected via an online survey consisting of three self-reported questionnaires, namely the perceived parental autonomy-support scale, the college adaptation questionnaire, and also demographic information. Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Participants' right to privacy, confidentiality and anonymity was observed throughout the study. The results suggest that students from two-parent families are better adjusted than students from one-parent families. Furthermore, results of the total sample suggest a significant relationship between good adjustment and autonomy-supportive parenting, while a significant negative relationship exists between poor adjustment and autonomy-supportive parenting. When determining the separate results for two-parent families and one-parent families, it was established from the regression analysis that good adjustment was only predicted by mother autonomy-support in two-parent families, accounting for 7% of the variance. Poor adjustment in two-parent families was negatively predicted by mother and father autonomy-support, and was accounted for by 11% of variance. In one-parent families, neither good nor poor adjustment was predicted by parenting behaviours.

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No description available.

A positive psychosocial intervention comprised of high autonomy support, task-involvement, and caring was implemented in physical activity classes to examine its effects on college women’s basic psychological needs (i.e. autonomy, competence, relatedness), exercise regulations (i.e. external, introjected, identified, integrated, intrinsic) and social physique anxiety (SPA). We hypothesized that at the end of the semester, participants in the intervention group (N = 73) would report greater need satisfaction, more self-determined regulations and less SPA than participants in the non-intervention group (N = 60). At T1 and T2, both the intervention and non-intervention participants reported “agreeing” with experiencing an autonomy supportive, task-involving, and caring environment. Furthermore, both groups at T1 and T2 reported moderate SPA. No significant group differences were found at T1. At T2, significant group differences were observed in the intervention and non-intervention groups’ report of external regulation and intrinsic regulation. The results suggests that group exercise instructors are capable of creating a positive psychosocial environment to enhance students’ intrinsic motivation.

The present experimental study aimed to investigate the effect of a controlling leadership style, in contrast to an autonomy supportive leadership style on performance and state anxiety in student football players. The sample consisted of 35 participants, 25 men and 10 women, between 16 to 20 years. The experiment had an interventional effect with pre and post measurements. There were two intervention groups and one control group. The intervention groups consisted of a controlling leadership group and an autonomy supportive leadership group. Pre- and post-test performance was measured by means of four different football skill exercises with binary outcomes. There were four exercises and three measured trials which gave a maximum points total of 12 points in the exercises. State anxiety was measured by means of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 Revised. CSAI-2R is a self-report scale which aims to explore three dimensions of anxiety: Cognitive anxiety (CA), somatic anxiety (SA), self- confidence (SC). Each participant filled in this scale after they completed the four football exercises. No statistically significant pre- to post-test changes in CA, SA, SC or football performance, as an effect of leadership style, was found. However, players in the controlling leadership condition showed significantly higher levels of SA and lower levels of SC in comparison to the control group at post-test

This thesis examined the relationships of the conceptions of sport ability, achievement goals, and intrinsic motivation in Physical Education. Studies 1 and 2 investigated the psychometric properties of the Conceptions of the Nature of Athletic Ability Questionnaire (CNAAQ), a measure of sport ability beliefs. Results showed that the revised version of the scale possesses sound psychometric properties in assessing sport ability beliefs among children and youth. In addition, the relationships between ability beliefs, goal orientations, perceived competence, and behavioural indicators (intentions and amotivation) were also examined in the first two studies. An incremental belief predicted task orientation, whereas an entity belief predicted ego orientation. Intentions to be physically active were predicted by goal orientations indirectly through perceived competence, and directly by task orientation. In addition, amotivation was predicted directly and indirectly by ability beliefs and directly by achievement goals. Specifically, entity beliefs directly predicted amotivation, task orientation negatively predicted amotivation. Study 3 examined the interrelationships between ability beliefs, achievement goals, perceived competence, behavioural regulation, and arnotivation using cluster analysis. Five distinct clusters were identified based on these motivational constructs and these profiles were found to be related to perceived physical self-worth and levels of sport participation. Study 4 experimentally manipulated sport ability beliefs and examined their causal influence on achievement goals and motivation patterns when faced with failure. The causal link between ability beliefs and goals was supported. Ability attributions for failure were stronger for entity theorists compared to incremental theorists. However, hypotheses predicting differences on effort attributions, affective reactions, and behavioural markers were not supported. Study 5 examined the effects of goal involvement on enjoyment and intrinsic motivation under positive feedback. The results suggested that task-involved and ego-involved participants did not differ in self-reported enjoyment and free-choice behaviour measure. However, the free-choice behaviour of the ego-involved participants may not be fully intrinsically motivated. In addition, autonomous communication increased the positive effects of task and ego involvement on intrinsic motivation and enjoyment, whereas controlling communication had an undermining effect. Overall, results show that high incremental beliefs and high task orientation facilitate adaptive motivational patterns. Autonomy-supportive contexts also enhanced students' task motivation compared to controlling contexts.

Introduktion: Pandemin slog hårt mot samhället och idrottsrörelsen då restriktionerna hindrade idrottare från att träna som tidigare. Studier har visat att pandemin har påverkat många idrottare emotionellt och psykiskt. Enligt självbestämmandeteorin är det viktigt att möta de tre psykologiska behoven av kompetens, autonomi och samhörighet för att öka motivation. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur ledare upplevt restriktionernas påverkan på lagets motivation samt vilka strategier tränarna har använt för att stödja motivation. Metod: Detta är en kvalitativ studie med både induktiv och deduktiv ansats. Semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med fem ledare med olika utbildning och erfarenhet. Analysen av intervjuerna utfördes genom kvalitativ innehållsanalys.  Resultat: Utifrån intervjuerna identifierades temat Pandemin har utmanat ledarnas arbete och vidgat deras användande av motiverande strategier samt kategorierna Idrottarna har påverkats negativt av pandemin, Viktigt att stärka idrottarnas kompetens, Uppmuntra självbestämmande för att behålla motivation, Samhörigheten påverkar motivation och Utbildade ledare främjar motivation.  Slutsats:  Strategier som ledarna använde för att stödja motivation var bland annat att sätta individuella mål, låta idrottarna få påverka sin träning, teambuilding och utveckla baskunskap. Det finns behov av vidareutbildning i motivationsstrategier för ledare där fysioterapeuter skulle kunna ha en viktig roll. Vi ser ett behov av vidare forskning för att öka kunskapen kring hur motivation påverkas av en pandemi och hur ledare kan hantera liknande situationer i framtiden.