Purpose.: The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of moderate physical exercise throughout pregnancy on the duration of labor stages. Design.: Study was a randomized controlled trial. Setting.: The study took place at Hospital Puerta de Hierro and Hospital Severo Ochoa in Madrid, Spain. Subjects.: We examined 166 pregnant women (31.6 ± 3.8 years), and all had uncomplicated and singleton gestation. Of these 83 were allocated to the exercise group (EG) and 83 to the control group (CG). Intervention.: Women from the EG participated in a physical conditioning program throughout pregnancy, which included 55- to 60-minute sessions, 3 days per week. Measures.: Pregnancy outcomes were measured: duration of labor stages, gestational age, weight gain, type of delivery, birth weight, birth size, head circumference, Apgar score, pH of umbilical cord. Analysis.: Student's unpaired t-tests and χ ² tests were used; p values of < .05 indicated statistical significance. Cohen's d was used to determine the effect size. Results.: Significant differences were found in the duration of the first stage of labor (EG = 389.6 ± 347.64 minutes vs. CG = 515.72 ± 353.36 minutes; p = .02, effect size Cohen's d = .36). The second and third stages did not differ between the study groups. Conclusion.: A physical exercise program during pregnancy is associated with a shorter first stage of labor. These results may have important relevance to public health.

The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of an intervention to support the basic psychological needs on the satisfaction of these needs, intrinsic motivation, intention to be physically active and some enjoyment-related outcomes in Physical Education. The present study incorporated strategies presented by Standage and Ryan (2012) in a previous study. A quasi-experimental study was conducted with two groups (n_experimental = 30; n_control = 23) of 2nd year Secondary Education students aged between 13 and 15 (M = 13.35, SD = .62) by delivering 24 physical education classes. The teacher in the experimental group underwent prior and continual training. The results revealed that the students from the experimental group showed a significant increase in the perception of autonomy and competence. Furthermore, the experimental group showed a greater perception than the control group in the enjoyment related to learning and contents. These results provide information about the efficacy of an intervention programme based on the strategies presented by Standage and Ryan (2012) to foster satisfaction of basic psychological needs and facilitate support for basic psychological needs to promote the development of positive learning-related outcomes.

Teachers’ behaviors can affect students’ engagement in the Physical Education (PE) setting. According to self-determination theory, teachers can rely on either a need-supportive or a controlling teaching behavior, and these behaviors will differently affect students’ outcomes. The main objective of this research was to analyse how teaching behaviors and some contextual variables influence students’ engagement in PE classes. The present study adds to the existing literature through an observation-based design in which real-life examples of need-supportive and thwarting teaching behaviors, as well as students’ engagement behaviors, have been identified. Thirty-seven different PE lessons were coded for 5-min intervals to assess the occurrence of 36 teaching behaviors and five students’ behaviors. Stepwise regression revealed that both structure during activity and relatedness support could predict student engagement in a positive way. Surprisingly, cold teaching also emerged as a direct predictor in the last step of the analysis. On the other hand, controlling and structure before activity behaviors inversely predicted students’ engagement. These four variables explained 39% of the variance in student engagement, whereas autonomy support did not correlate with student engagement. These new findings in the field not only confirm the known relevance of teaching behavior for students’ outcomes but also suggest an unexpected lack of influence of autonomy support on students’ engagement as well as an association between cold teaching and students’ engagement. Results are discussed in the light of new approaches, and some practical implications are provided.

The present study investigated how challenge-based learning (CBL) in physical education (PE) may affect students’ basic psychological needs (BPNs), motivational regulations, engagement, and learning in comparison with a traditional teaching (TT) methodology. A quasiexperimental study with experimental and control groups was carried out. In total, 50 participants (16 boys and 34 girls) between 13 and 15 years old (M_age = 13.35, SD = 0.62) were involved in the experience for 6 weeks (n_control = 24; n_experimental = 26). Validated questionnaires were administered both before and after the intervention in both groups. Furthermore, theoretical knowledge and badminton-specific motor skill tests were carried out in both groups after the intervention. An analysis showed that after the intervention, students in the CBL condition improved their autonomy (M_before = 3.15 vs. M_after = 3.39; ES = 0.26 *), competence (M_before = 4.01 vs. M_after = 4.18; ES = 0.33 *), and relatedness satisfaction (M_before = 3.86 vs. M_after = 4.06; ES = 0.32 *). As for behavioural engagement measures, students in the CBL condition exhibited higher scores after than those from before (M_before = 4.12 vs. M_after = 4.36; ES = 0.35 *). No significant changes were observed for motivational regulations or agentic engagement. On learning outcomes, students in the experimental group achieved higher scores in both theoretical knowledge (M_contol = 6.48 vs. M_experimental = 6.79) and badminton-specific motor skills (M_contol = 6.85 vs. M_experimental = 7.65) than the control group did. The present study findings highlight that CBL might be a valid and effective methodological approach for students in PE to achieve adaptive motivational, behavioural, and learning outcomes.