BACKGROUND Sport participation makes an important contribution to children's overall physical activity. Understanding influences on sports participation is important and the family environment is considered key, however few studies have explored the mechanisms by which the family environment influences children's sport participation. The purpose of this study was to examine whether attitude, pe...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to estimate body image perception in undergraduate students, and to investigate its associations with weight status, abdominal obesity, muscularity, gender and sport. METHODS The sample consisted of 231 Italian students (174 males and 57 females); anthropometric measurements, taken by trained technicians, were: height, weight, arm-circumference, waist and ...

Exercise behavior, cardiorespiratory fitness, and obesity are strongly influenced by genetic factors. By studying young adult twins, we examined to what extent these interrelated traits have shared genetic and environmental etiologies. We studied 304 twin individuals selected from the population-based FinnTwin16 study. Physical activity was assessed with the Baecke questionnaire, yielding three...

INTRODUCTION Many children fail to meet international guideline recommendations for health-related activity (≥60 minutes/day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity [MVPA]), and intervention studies to date have reported negligible effects. OBJECTIVE Explore the associations of organized leisure-time sport participation with overall physical activity levels and health-related physical activ...

Digital games can be used not only for fun and entertainment. The term ‘serious games’ denotes digital games serving serious purposes like education, training, advertising, research, and health. In the contribution the chances and challenges of serious games for computer science in sport will be discussed. Serious games, particularly adventure and shooter games, already play an important role i...

Grounded in self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) and the self-concordance model (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999), this study examined the motivational processes underlying goal striving in sport as well as the role of perceived coach autonomy support in the goal process. Structural equation modeling with a sample of 210 British athletes showed that autonomous goal motives positively predicted ...

Objectives: Two studies employed the trans-contextual model (TCM) to understand the relationships between sport motivation, treatment motivation, and autonomy support. Study 1 tested TCM among recreational athletes, while Study 2 examined the effects of causality orientations and autonomy support from coaches in the TCM among professional athletes. Methods: In Study 1, recreational athletes (N ...

Squash is a racquet sport played in a similar style room as racquetball. In a squash match there are 2 players that alternate hitting a small, black, rubber ball. A complete match is played as best of 5 games, where each game is played to 11 points. Points are scored when a player fails to return a shot made by the opponent. The sport of squash is played in over 190 countries by millions of peo...

Today, the sport of ice hockey in North America is dominated by its premier circuit, the National Hockey League (N.H.L.). However, at the beginning of this century, the sport had only begun its transformation into a commercially driven spectacle, which, according to Gruneau and Whitson, now sells everything from beer to national identity. Emerging during a period of rapid urbanization and indus...

The prevalence of smoking among Croatian adolescents is alarmingly high, but no previous study has prospectively examined the sport- and academic-factors associated with smoking and smoking initiation. This study aimed to prospectively examine the associations between scholastic (educational) achievement and sport factors and smoking in 16- to 18-year-old adolescents. This two-year prospective ...