Motivational climate interventions in physical education: A meta-analysis

Objective

The purpose of this study was to synthesize findings from motivational climate interventions employing [Ames, 1992a] and [Ames, 1992b] and [Epstein, 1988] and [Epstein, 1989] TARGET framework within school-based physical education contexts.

Design

The present study employed a quantitative research synthesis design. Meta-analysis uses empirical studies to summarize past research by drawing overall conclusions from separate investigations. This research design highlights important and unsolved issues related to motivational climate interventions within physical education.

Methods

Standard meta-analytic procedures incorporating inclusion and exclusion criteria, literature search, coding procedures, and statistical methods were used to identify and synthesize 22 studies with 24 independent samples. Cohen’s (1988) criteria for effect sizes were used to interpret and evaluate results.

Results

There was an overall small positive treatment effect (g = 0.103) for groups exposed to mastery motivational climates. Outcome analyses identified the most consistent and largest overall treatment effects for behavioral outcomes (g = 0.39–0.49) followed by affective outcomes (g = −0.27 to 0.59) and cognitive outcomes (g = −0.25 to 0.32). Moderator analyses were directed by study heterogeneity and identified several trends in intervention features and study features with the most substantial trend for participant features as elementary students had the largest overall treatment effect (g = 0.41).

Conclusions

Outcome and moderator analyses identified several trends in methodological features, participant features, and study features that should be addressed in future physical education motivational climate interventions.     

The concept of voluntary consent

Our primary focus is on analysis of the concept of voluntariness, with a secondary focus on the implications of our analysis for the concept and the requirements of voluntary informed consent. We propose that two necessary and jointly sufficient conditions must be satisfied for an action to be voluntary: intentionality, and substantial freedom from controlling influences. We reject authenticity as a necessary condition of voluntary action, and we note that constraining situations may or may not undermine voluntariness, depending on the circumstances and the psychological capacities of agents. We compare and evaluate several accounts of voluntariness and argue that our view, unlike other treatments in bioethics, is not a value-laden theory. We also discuss the empirical assessment of individuals' perceptions of the degrees of noncontrol and self-control. We propose use of a particular Decision Making Control Instrument. Empirical research using this instrument can provide data that will help establish appropriate policies and procedures for obtaining voluntary consent to research.     

Adolescents' family obligation and activities in rural and urban Vietnam: Implications for social change

This study examined how urbanisation may modify adolescents' values and activities concerning family obligation by surveying 572 adolescents (M_age = 15.75, SD = .73) in rural and urban Vietnam. Compared with their rural peers, urban adolescents reported a stronger sense of family obligation but spent less time actually engaging in family assistance, findings that were partly explained by urban households' less financial hardship and higher parental education levels. As expected, stronger family obligation values were associated with greater family assistance activities across rural and urban Vietnam. However, stronger family obligation values were associated with more study hours only in urban Vietnam, indicating that urbanisation may broaden the meaning of family obligation to encompass the academic domain. Additionally, weaker family obligation values were associated with more employment hours only in rural Vietnam, suggesting that rural adolescents with little attachment to the traditional value of family obligation may pursue autonomy through employment outside the home. In traditionally familistic societies undergoing urbanisation, family obligation may take on different meaning depending on adolescents' ecological settings that construct cultural values and behavioural norms.     

Mental Health Identification Practices of Jails: The Unmet Needs of the “Silent” Population

The overrepresentation of individuals with mental illness in the criminal/legal system is well documented. While professional associations urge diversion towards treatment, little is known about the practices these institutions use to identify this population. One understudied space in the criminal/legal continuum is jails. This exploratory study compares two types of mental health identification at jail booking to assess jail‐ and community‐based service outcomes by identification type (N = 2956): (a) staff observation and (b) a standardized screening instrument. Individuals identified through staff observation were significantly more likely to receive jail‐ and community‐based services, even though current symptomology and substance misuse were both significantly higher for individuals identified only by the screening instrument. These findings point to the importance of jails in providing stabilizing services during incarceration, but further, show the impact that identification practices have on individuals as they transition to the community. Community context showed varied rates of jail staff observations of mental illness, showing greater risks for individuals in rural communities. Implications include a need for system‐level changes by instituting evidence‐based identification practices in jails, and improving professional collaboration practices between mental health and criminal/legal practitioners as individuals enter and exit jails.     

Risks and Benefits of Pediatric Bone Marrow Donation: A Critical Need for Research

Healthcare providers assume that there are minimal risks and potential psychosocial benefits for children who undergo a bone marrow harvest for the benefit of their critically ill siblings. Ethical justifications for the use of children as donors rely on there being minimal risks since donors receive no direct medical benefits from the intervention. There is little empirical research regarding psychosocial consequences. This article reviews relevant research in three contexts: a) psychosocial outcomes for adults and children who donate tissue and organs; b) psychosocial impacts on a sibling of a pediatric cancer patient; and c) children's decision-making regarding medical decisions. The relevant research literature supports the belief that the psychosocial impact on a child bone marrow donor will be influenced by the survival of the recipient, the age of the donor, and the donor's participation in the decision to donate. In order to empirically validate the actual psychosocial risks (and benefits) for donors, it is argued that direct research is needed so that a donor's well-being can be protected.     

The natural course of anxiety symptoms in early adolescence: factors related to persistence

Background and objectives: Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problems during childhood and adolescence. This study examined the course of anxiety symptoms in early adolescents from the general population over three phases.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Methods: Two hundred and forty-two participants (mean-age of 13.52) from a baseline sample of 1514 (mean-age of 10.23) were followed up three times. Of the 1514 children, those with emotional risk and controls without risk constituted the second-phase sample (n?=?562; mean-age of 11.25). The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders-SCARED was administered in all three phases.

Results: Fifty-six percent and 32% of respondents showed total scores above the SCARED cutoff point at one and three years follow-up, respectively. Eight percent showed fluctuating symptoms. Fifty-five percent of respondents showed high scores for any subtype of anxiety over three years. Social phobia and generalized anxiety symptoms were the most prevalent and persistent. Participants with persistent separation anxiety showed the highest co-occurrence with symptoms of other psychopathological disorders. Participants with persistent anxiety showed lower academic performance. Being male was a protective factor against persistence.

Conclusions: The data support anxiety maintenance during early adolescence. Early adolescence is a critical period which may involve other serious academic, social, and family problems.     

Disconnection, Depression, and Spirituality: A Study of the Role of Spirituality and Meaning in the Lives of Individuals with Severe Depression

This qualitative study explores the role of spirituality and meaning among 15 participants suffering from severe depression. During the time of this study, all the participants were in treatment at Loma Linda University Behavioral Medicine Center. The emerging themes are: (1) depression creates a sense of spiritual disconnection. Participants indicated feeling disconnected from God, the community, and oneself; (2) spirituality plays an important role in coping with the pain of depression; (3) there exists a deep yearning for a sense of meaning and a struggle to make sense of one’s pain; and (4) coming to terms with one’s circumstances and one’s depression at some level assists in the healing process.     

Cognitive structure of emotion terms in Indonesia and The Netherlands

The rapid detection of facial expressions of anger or threat has obvious adaptive value. In this study, we examined the efficiency of facial processing by means of a visual search task. Participants searched displays of schematic faces and were required to determine whether the faces displayed were all the same or whether one was different. Four main results were found: (1) When displays contained the faces, people were slower in detecting the absence of a discrepant face when the faces displayed angry (or sad/angry) rather than happy expressions. (2) When displays contained a discrepant face people were faster in detecting this when the discrepant face displayed an angry rather than a happy expression. (3) Neither of these patterns for same and different displays was apparent when face displays were inverted, or when just the mouth was presented in isolation. (4) The search slopes for angry targets were significantly lower than for happy targets. These results suggest that detection of angry facial expressions is fast and efficient, although does not “pop-out” in the traditional sense.