Parent Motivational Climate, Sport Enrollment Motives, and Young Athlete Commitment and Enjoyment in Year-Round Swimming

International Journal of Exercise Science 15(5): 358-372, 2022. Parents are known to influence the athlete sport experience through motivational climates. Athletes’ perception of motivational climates and their own motives for sport participation influence enjoyment and long-term sport commitment. It is unknown, however, the extent parent motives for initially enrolling their child in a year-round sports program associate with children’s sport participation enjoyment and commitment. The purposes of this study were to (a) determine parent motives for enrolling their child (5-8 years) in year-round swimming and (b) explore the relationships of parent motives and motivational climates with child enjoyment and commitment. Parents (n = 40) completed questionnaires on enrollment motives and motivational climate, while children (n = 40) answered questions on enjoyment and commitment. Of the seven motives measured, parents enrolled children in swimming primarily for fitness benefits (M = 4.5, SD = .45) followed by skill mastery (M = 4.31, SD = .48) and fun (M = 4.10, SD = .51) reasons. Findings revealed the fitness motive was moderately, negatively correlated with the success-without-effort facet of a performance climate (r = -.50, p \u3c .01). The fun motive was moderately, positively associated with commitment (r = .43, p \u3c .01). Parent motives for enrolling their child in sport may impact the young child sport experience and long-term sport continuation via motivational climates, enjoyment, and commitment

Health-Related Quality of Life and Psychological Outcomes in Participants with Symptomatic and Non-Symptomatic Knees after ACL Reconstruction

# Background Individuals who sustain an ACL injury and undergo reconstruction (ACLR) are at risk for the development of osteoarthritis. Recent investigations have applied the Englund criteria to categorize people with a history of ACLR as someone with a symptomatic or asymptomatic knee. # Purpose/Hypothesis The purpose of this study was to examine differences in health-related quality of life (HRQL) and psychological outcomes in people with a history of ACLR who were categorized as symptomatic or non-symptomatic by application of the Englund criteria. The authors’ hypothesized participants classified as symptomatic would have lower HRQL, increased fear-avoidance beliefs, and decreased resilience compared to participants classified as non-symptomatic. # Study design Cross-sectional, survey # Methods Participants at least one-year after ACLR were recruited for the study and completed the Tegner Activity Scale, the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), the modified Disablement in the Physically Active Scale (mDPA), and the Fear-Avoidance Belief Questionnaire (FABQ) at one time-point. Descriptive statistics were summarized using median $$interquartile range$$ and differences between groups were examined using separate Mann-Whitney U tests. # Results Participants with symptomatic knees had a significantly higher BMI (24.8 $$6.4$$) than the non-symptomatic group (21.2 $$4.3$$, p=0.013). Participants in the symptomatic group had worse HRQL on the physical subscale (12.5 $$16.3$$ vs. 0.0 $$2.5$$, p<0.001) and mental subscale (2.0 $$1$$ vs. 0.0 $$1$$, p=0.031), higher scores on the FABQ-Sport (14.5 $$11$$ vs. 0.0 $$6$$, p<0.001) and FABQ-Physical Activity (20 $$24$$ vs. 1 $$4$$, p<0.001) and less resilience (3.7$$0.42$$ vs. 4.0 $$0.83$$, p=0.028) compared to those participants in the non-symptomatic group. There were no differences in current physical activity (p=0.285) or change in physical activity (p=0.124) levels between the two groups. # Conclusions This series of differences may represent a cascade of events that can continue to negatively impact health outcomes across the lifespan for individuals with a history of ACLR. Future research should consider longitudinal investigations of these outcomes after injury and throughout the post-surgical and post-rehabilitation timeframe. # Level of Evidence Level 3