This study investigated the effects of physical activity intervention combining a new sport and mindfulness yoga on psychological characteristics in adolescents. The study employed a pre- and post-test with the two-group longitudinal design. A total of 46 primary school students voluntarily participated in the 8-week intervention (male: 25, female: 21; M_age = 10.98, SD = 0.39). Self-esteem, resilience, and happiness were measured at the pre- and post-intervention. The intervention included new sport and mindful yoga associated with psychological attributes. Specifically, new sports consisted of various sport activities including kinball and the mindful yoga programme included proper breathing and Hatha yoga 1 and 2. Results indicated that in the experimental group, the study participants’ self-esteem (F = 3.47, p = .049), resilience (F = 9.72, p = .003), and happiness (F = 31.61, p = .001) were significantly changed over the 8-week intervention. This study suggests that both physical activity and mindfulness yoga influence psychological attributes when planning and implementing physical activity promotion.

Background: The current study investigated the effects of an intervention incorporating physical activity and psychological modification strategy on physical fitness, physical activity levels, and psychological variables related to physical activity in female adolescents. Methods: Sixty female adolescents were recruited from H Middle School. Among them, 30 females (Mage = 14.35 years) were randomly assigned to the experimental group and the rest of 30 to the control group (Mage = 14.47 years) and voluntarily participated in the 12-week intervention. Results: The results indicated that the physical activity stage of female adolescents in the experimental group significantly increased over the 12-week intervention. The results revealed that all of psychological variables in the experimental group significantly improved over the intervention, while participants in the experimental group showed significantly higher scores on most of psychological variables, except cons, than those in the control group after the intervention. Moreover, most of physical fitness components in the experimental group significantly increased over the intervention. Conclusions: The current study confirmed that the physical activity-related psychological intervention was feasible for improving physical and psychological health among female adolescents.

Objective This study aims to determine the effects of online mindful somatic psychoeducation program (o-MSP) on mental health in female university students during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19).Methods Thirty-eight female university students were randomly assigned to an intervention group (IG, n=19) or a control group (CG, n=19). IG received o-MSP for 2-hours per session, twice weekly for 4-weeks; CG maintained their usual daily routine for 4-weeks. Measurements were performed pre- and post-intervention to assess stress, anxiety, and social connectedness using Perceived Stress Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Social Connectedness Scale. A qualitative analysis of changes in soma and social connectedness, subjectification of the soma, and mind–body integration was conducted through online interviews.Results Regarding stress and social connectedness, there were no significant difference between the groups (p>0.05). However, significant differences were observed in the main effect of time of measurement and time×group interaction, with IG showing significant improvement post-intervention, unlike CG (p<0.05). Regarding anxiety, there were significant differences in the main effect of time of measurement, time×group interaction, and group factor (p<0.05). Post-intervention, CG did not show a significant change, while IG showed a significant decrease (p<0.05). Qualitative analysis revealed that participants experienced “changes in soma and social connectedness,” “subjectification of soma–body,” and “embodiment of mind–body integration,” and reported improved mental health.Conclusion The o-MSP effectively reduced stress and anxiety in female university students and improved social connectedness. This suggests that o-MSP can be used to manage the mental health of university students in various settings.

In the current study, we investigated the effects of gender and regular physical activity (PA) on PA decision-making and speed of information processing. We enrolled 110 university students ( Mage = 20.91, SD =2.28 years) in an experiment involving two tasks and a questionnaire. One of the two tasks assessed how much participants agreed with presented PA words and phrases and the other task predicted behavior and responses to future situations. We collected and measured the participants’ choices and the time they took to make them. The questionnaire, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), consisted of exercise self-schema and PA questions. We conducted a 2 (gender: male or female) ×2 (regular PA or not) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and found statistically significant differences between variables as a function of participants’ gender (λ = .66, p < .001) and regular PA engagement (λ = .51, p < .001). In a regression analysis, we also found gender differences [males showed relationships between agreement with PA information and information processing speed for decisions on future behavior ( R ² = .31, F = 12.50); females showed relationships between their exercise self-schema ( R ² = .26, F = 18.18) and regular PA such that, in the non-regular PA group, exercise self-schema was related to reaction time in making decisions on future behavior ( R ² = .29, F = 11.23), and in the regular PA group, agreement with PA information was related to reaction time for PA-related words, and agreement with non-PA information ( R ² = .29, F = 8.91)]. These results highlight the need to consider participant characteristics when designing exercise interventions, and we present supplementary data regarding exercise self-schemas, decision-making, and the speed of processing PA information.

Although studies have shown that an imbalance between effort and reward in the workplace negatively affects an individual’s physiological and mental health, few have looked at how this imbalance may affect the mental state of athletes. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the importance of the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) in athletes by examining whether psychological variables would differ depending on the ERI. To accomplish this, 795 registered collegiate athletes were recruited. Of them, 227 and 230 responses with the ERI in the bottom and in the top 30% of the ERI scale were selected to compare groups with a high and a low ERI. Athletes completed a self-reported 64-item questionnaire (general characteristics: 5; effort: 14; rewards: 14; grit: 12; burnout: 15; and continuous exercise intention: 4 items). Data analysis included reliability and validity using the Jamovi and SPSS/AMOS software. The results showed no significant differences in effort, reward, grit, burnout, and intention to continue to exercise based on gender, weekly training frequency, and hours of training per day. There were differences in effort, reward, grit, burnout, and intention to continue exercising based on the presence of a professional league. Additionally, differences were found in effort, reward, grit, burnout, and intention to continue exercising between the low and high ERI groups. There was a clear difference between the mental state of those who were satisfied with their effort and reward, and those who were not. However, given that the two groups spent approximately the same amount of time exercising each week, the difference may have been more a function of the psychology of athletes than an actual difference in effort and reward. As our findings confirmed that the level of the ERI in athletes is related to their mental state, further research is necessary to identify and control factors that affect the ERI in athletes.

OBJECTIVES The current study examined the cognitive and psychological factors of Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy-2 (CAPL-2) using a cross-sectional design. Also, this study assessed the measurement and structural invariance of the CAPL-2.METHODS The survey was conducted on 539 elementary school students in Seoul, Korea. Among the collected data, 274 datasets were used for confirmatory factor analysis, and 25 datasets for test-retest reliability analysis and 240 datasets for differences by group. Confirmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis, and criterion-related validity analysis were carried out by using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0.RESULTS Results indicated that the Korean physical literacy scale consists of four factors (interest, motivation, competence, and understanding with 15 items). In addition, the findings revealed that all factors in physical literacy differed by the stage of physical activity (λ= .723, F=5.59, p<.001).CONCLUSIONS This study was the first to validate the CAPL-2 into the Korean children. The Korean physical literacy scale offers the possibility of assessing physical literacy to researchers and practitioners and Korean children’s physical activity enhancement could be easily tracked in school and community settings.