Meredith Rocchi

The role of motivation and the regulation of eating on the physical and psychological health of patients with cardiovascular disease

This study tested a longitudinal motivation model for healthy eating in patients with cardiovascular disease, using self-determination and social-cognitive theories. A total of 513 patients completed measures of eating habits, global motivation, motivation for eating, self-efficacy for eating and life satisfaction, immediately after a major cardiac incident and at three times during a year (e.g. 2008–2009). Physiological indicators were measured to examine how they predicted the participants’ physical health. Results found participants with self-determined motivation were more likely to develop a sense of self-efficacy towards eating and a healthy diet, which had beneficial effects on their physical health and life satisfaction.

The Validity of the Interpersonal Behaviors Questionnaire (IBQ) in Sport

ABSTRACT According to Self-Determination Theory (SDT), basic psychological needs will be influenced by other individuals’ interpersonal behaviors. The objective of the present research is to extend the validity of the Interpersonal Behaviors Questionnaire (IBQ and IBQ-Self) to the sport context. The measure was designed to assess perceptions of interpersonal behaviors of others (IBQ) or self-reports of interpersonal behaviors (IBQ-Self) in the context of SDT. This measure consists of 24 items and six subscales looking at autonomy-supportive, autonomy-thwarting (controlling), competence-supportive, competence-thwarting, relatedness-supportive, and relatedness-thwarting interpersonal behaviors. In Study 1, athletes were asked to report on their perceptions of their coaches’ interpersonal behaviors (IBQ). In Study 2, coaches were asked to report on their interpersonal behaviors when they coach their athletes (IBQ-Self). The results supported that the scale had a strong factor structure, internal consistency, and validity. Overall, the results supported the IBQ and IBQ-Self are valid measures of interpersonal behaviors in sport.

Homeostasis balance, homeostasis imbalance or distinct motivational processes? Comments on Marks (2015) ‘Homeostatic Theory of Obesity’:

In his article, ‘Homeostatic theory of obesity’, Marks suggested that imbalances in homeostatic processes could explain weight gain and obesity. He proposes that over-consumption of high-caloric, low-nutrient and low satiating foods, combined with a stressful environment, is the origin of weight gain. Once weight gain occurs, individuals may develop body dissatisfaction and negative affect, leading to continued over-consumption, which sets in motion a system of feedback loops that leads to a Circle of Discontent and further weight gain. In this article, we attempt to clarify certain problematic aspects of Marks framework and identify specific directions that researchers should pursue to address these shortcomings.

Teachers’ Motivation in the Classroom

Teachers’ motivation plays an important role in promoting a healthy teaching environment. Self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) can provide important insight into the understanding of teachers’ motivation, including the reasons they do their work, continue to teach, experience success, and enjoy what they do. The purpose of this chapter is to review the research on teachers from a motivational perspective, while taking into consideration the role that teachers’ motivation has on their behaviors with their students. More specifically, we examine how contextual factors influence teachers and how their impressions of these factors, their need satisfaction or dissatisfaction, their motivation for teaching, their general motivation, and their psychological and behavioral outcomes are related. As such, this review could inform school administrations by demonstrating why they should take care to ensure that their teachers are supported and having a psychologically sound experience. Since this review focuses on some of the key environmental factors that are relevant to teachers, it provides school administrations some key areas they can work on to promote, within their own organizations, more motivated teaching and better outcomes for both the teachers and students.

The Perspective of Undergraduate Research Participant Pool Nonparticipants

Undergraduate research participant pools play an essential role in facilitating research, and many universities rely on them for participant recruitment. There is an abundance of information about those who do elect to participate in research through these recruitment systems but very little about those who do not. The present study examines both undergraduate research pool participants and nonparticipants, and the objective is to explore how they differ in their views. A sample of 483 Canadian undergraduate students (n = 442 participants and n = 41 nonparticipants) completed measures of their impressions of participation, their perceived enjoyment, and their knowledge gained from participating in research and asked to compare this with their impressions of attending class and taking exams. Factorial analysis of variance and χ2 results found support for both similarities and differences between both groups. Overall, the results suggest that nonparticipants do not have a good understanding of what is involved in participating in research activities and view it is a potentially aversive or negative experience.

The Relationship Between Friendship Quality and Antisocial Behavior of Adolescents in Residential Substance Abuse Treatment

This exploratory study aimed to measure antisocial tendencies and friendship quality of adolescents in residential substance abuse treatment and to compare the findings to the general population for this age group. Fifty-four adolescents completed Bukowski, Hoza, and Boivins (1994) Friendship Quality Scale and their counselor completed the antisocial measures of Merrell and Caldarellas (2002) Home and Community Social Behavior Scales. As anticipated, the sample exhibited significantly more antisocial behavior; however, they also reported similar levels of positive and negative friendship quality compared with other adolescent populations. Implications for substance abuse treatment are discussed.

Recreational and developmental youth coach learning

ABSTRACT Background: Within the field of coach development, previous research has ascertained that elite coaches learn through a variety of formal, non-formal, and informal sources. Little is known, however, about how coaches from different coaching contexts such as recreational and developmental learn to coach. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate how coaches from youth recreational and developmental coach contexts access and appreciate various coach learning sources, and whether there were any differences between these two contexts. Data collection and analysis: Basketball and soccer coaches (N = 758) from the two different contexts (recreational and developmental) were recruited through their respective sport organizations to participate in an online questionnaire about their coach learning. Specifically, they were asked about which learning sources they consulted and how helpful they found each source to be. The two groups were compared using chi-square and odd ratios, independent t-tests, and factorial ANOVA analyses. Findings: Findings suggest that developmental coaches access a greater number of learning sources than do recreational coaches; however, for most sources both groups of coaches report the same level of helpfulness. Together, these findings suggest that the specific coaching context (recreational versus developmental) is an important consideration when examining coach learning.

How Does Coaches’ Reported Interpersonal Behavior Align With Athletes’ Perceptions? Consequences for Female Athletes’ Psychological Needs in Sport.

The purpose of this research was to explore the coach–athlete relationship through the lens of self-determination theory. Specifically, this study examined coaches’ (n = 53) reported supportive and thwarting interpersonal behaviors, as well as their female athletes’ (n = 250) perceptions of these behaviors. The first objective was to determine the rate at which coaches overreported (reported their own behavior more positively than their athletes), underreported (reported their own behavior more negatively than their athletes), or were in agreement with their athletes about their reported behaviors. The results suggested that approximately 30% of coaches may have overreported their behavior. The second objective was to explore how both coaches’ reports of their behaviors and athletes’ perceptions of these same behaviors affected athletes’ psychological needs in sport. Overall, the results found that when coaches and athletes were in agreement on supportive behaviors, it promoted need satisfaction, and for thwarting behaviors, it predicted need frustration. When exploring the effect of a disagreement, athletes with coaches who underreported experienced additional need satisfaction and less need frustration compared with athletes with coaches who overreported. Overall, this study was the first to explore how coaches’ reports of their behavior align with their athletes’ perceptions and determine how the dynamics of that relationship affect athletes’ psychological needs in sport.

French adaptation and validation of the Sport Motivation Scale-II (Echelle de Motivation dans les Sports-II)

We report on the development, the adaptation, the validation, and the utility of the French version of the revised Sport Motivation Scale (SMS-II), namely the EMS-II (Échelle de Motivation dans les Sports), a scale developed originally in English to measure the six motivation subtypes (intrinsic motivation, integrated, identified, introjected, and external regulation of extrinsic motivation, and amotivation) proposed by self-determination theory (SDT). Results from two studies with athletes (N = 506) from different sports indicated that the scale has good psychometric properties. Specifically, the results of the confirmatory factor analysis suggest that the scale holds an adequate structure consistent with the six types of motivation proposed by SDT, and that French and English athletes were invariant with regard to the structure of the six-factor scale. The results also indicated that the scale had sufficient discriminant and convergent validity, and Cronbach’s alpha suggests that all subscales have adequate internal consistency. Finally, correlations between the subscales suggest evidence of a simplex pattern, which support the self-determination continuum within the SDT framework. Direction for future research and conceptual implications are discussed.

A comparative analysis of physical education and non-physical education teachers who coach high school sport teams:

Although high school sport in Canada has traditionally been an extracurricular activity overseen by physical education teachers, recent findings demonstrate how the majority (n = 1677, 60%) of coaches are in fact non-physical education teachers. The purpose of the present study was to compare physical education and non-physical education teachers who coach high school sport teams. A national sample of 2890 Canadian high school teacher-coaches (males = 1967, 68%) from all 10 provinces and 3 territories responded to an online survey. Significant differences were found between physical education teacher-coaches and non-physical education teacher-coaches in terms of demographic variables, perceived teacher-coach benefits, and perceived coaching efficacy, whereby physical education teacher-coaches tended to have more favorable perceptions. Based on the results, access to coach education should be facilitated, particularly for non-physical education teacher coaches.