Athletic Identity of Students Actively Involved in Sports and Its Relationship with Induced Stress

Theexpression of the athletic identity in academic environments may become a stress-reducing and a stress-enhancing factor depending on the conditions of the environment when expressing one’s athletic identity (Chen et al., 2010).Methods. 214 students (105 females and 109 males) took part in the research. All of them were first year students of the first level of studies (i.e. BA studies) at Lithuanian Sports University. All the students were actively practicing sports. Their age ranged from 18 to 25 with the age average of 19.24 (0.76). Thestudymadeuseofquestionnaires: ReederStressAssessmentScale and Athletic Identity Questionnaire (AIQ).Conclusions. The stress levels experienced by students actively practicing sports and possessing a more prominent athletic identity yet not going for results in sports are lower than those experienced by students with a less prominent athletic identity

The effect of an enriched sport program on children’s executive functions: the ESA program

Purpose: The effects of physical exercise on executive functions (EFs) are well-documented. EFs are involved in daily activities, and their development determines the quality of people’s future life, both in terms of mental health and quality of life. The purpose of the current paper is to evaluate the effects of a physical education program, elaborated within the Enriched Sports Activity Program (ESA Program), an Erasmus + Project, on EFs, namely, visuospatial working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and task switching. Method: Data were collected on November 2017 (t1) and May 2018 (t2). At t1, a sample of 357 children from four European countries (Italy, Germany, Lithuania, and Turkey) performed a cognitive test battery made up of Digit Span Forward/Backward, Stroop Task, and Trail Making Test (TMT), whose order was randomized. From November until May, classrooms from the experimental group followed the ESA Program, while classrooms from the control continued with the ordinary physical education class. At t2, children from both experimental and control groups performed again the cognitive battery. Result: The repeated measures ANOVA showed a significant effect of the ESA Program on the TMT B and on Digit Span Backward, but no significant effects were found on Digit Span Forward and Stroop Task. Conclusion: The introduction of a sport program enriched with cognitive stimuli has beneficial effects for children working memory and cognitive flexibility

Cognitive and Motivational Monitoring during Enriched Sport Activities in a Sample of Children Living in Europe. The Esa Program

Enriched Sport Activities (ESA) Program is an Evidence-based Practice Exercise Program cofounded by the Erasmus + Programme of the European Union (Key action: Sport-579661-EPP-1-2016-2-IT-SPO-SCP) [...