Relative Age Effect in Elite Sports: Methodological Bias or Real Discrimination?

Sport sciences researchers talk about a relative age effect when they observe a biased distribution of elite athletes' birthdates, with an over-representation of those born at the beginning of the competitive year and an under-representation of those born at the end. Using the whole sample of the French male licensed soccer players (n = 1,831,524), our study suggests that there could be an important bias in the statistical test of this effect. This bias could in turn lead to falsely conclude to a systemic discrimination in the recruitment of professional players. Our findings question the accuracy of past results concerning the existence of this effect at the elite level

The effects of an experimental programme to support students’ autonomy on the overt behaviours of physical education teachers

Although the benefits of autonomy supportive behaviours are now well established in the literature, very few studies have attempted to train teachers to offer a greater autonomy support to their students. In fact, none of these studies has been carried out in physical education (PE). The purpose of this study is to test the effects of an autonomy-supportive training on overt behaviours of teaching among PE teachers. The experimental group included two PE teachers who were first educated on the benefits of an autonomy supportive style and then followed an individualised guidance programme during the 8 lessons of a teaching cycle. Their behaviours were observed and rated along 3 categories (i.e., autonomy supportive, neutral and controlling) and were subsequently compared to those of three teachers who formed the control condition. The results showed that teachers in the experimental group used more autonomy supportive and neutral behaviours than those in the control group, but no difference emerged in relation to controlling behaviours. We discuss the implications for schools of our findings

Stéréotypes liés au sexe, motivation et réussite des élèves: Le regard de la psychologie sociale

International audienc

Psychological characteristics and their relation to performance in professional golfers

International audienc

Etude du climat instauré par les pères et les mères dans la pratique sportive des adolescents: une étude transversale basée sur le modèle d‟Eccles

International audienc

The adoption of physical activity and eating behaviors among persons with obesity and in the general population: the role of implicit attitudes within the Theory of Planned Behavior

Obesity can be prevented by the combined adoption of a regular physical activity (PA) and healthy eating behaviors (EB). Researchers mainly focused on socio-cognitive models, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), to identify the psychological antecedents of these behaviors. However, few studies were interested in testing the potential contribution of automatic processes in the prediction of PA and EB. Thus, the main objective of this study was to explore the specific role of implicit attitudes in the pattern of prediction of self-reported PA and EB in the TPB framework, among persons with obesity and in adults from the general population. One hundred and fifty-three adults participated to this cross-sectional study among which 59 obese persons (74% women, age: 50.6 \textpm 12.3 years, BMI: 36.8 \textpm 4.03 kg m\textendash\texttwosuperior) and 94 people from the general population (51% women; age: 34.7 \textpm 8.9 years). Implicit attitudes toward PA and EB were estimated through two Implicit Association Tests. TPB variables, PA and EB were assessed by questionnaire. Regarding to the prediction of PA, a significant contribution of implicit attitudes emerged in obese people, β = .25; 95%[CI: .01, .50]; P = .044, beyond the TPB variables, contrary to participants from the general population. The present study suggests that implicit attitudes play a specific role among persons with obesity regarding PA. Other studies are needed to examine which kind of psychological processes are specifically associated with PA and EB among obese people

Corrigendum to “Measuring implicit attitudes toward physical activity and sedentary behaviors: Test-retest reliability of three scoring algorithms of the Implicit Association Test and Single Category-Implicit Association Test” (Psychol. Sport Exerc. (2017) 31 (70–78) (S1469029216302102) (10.1016/j.psychsport.2017.04.007))

© 2017 The aim of this correction would be to add a missing information regarding the computation of some scores crucial to the article, and by this way promote the reuse of our findings. There is missing information in the article about the treatment of errors used for both the D-Score and DW-Score. To facilitate proper use of our findings, we would like to more explicitly report the options selected to compute our scores with the open source package IAT.Score provided by Richetin, Costantini, Perugini, & Schönbrodt (2015). For the D-Score, according to the recommendations of Greenwald, Nosek, & Banaji (2003), each error latency was replaced with block mean reaction time + a 600 ms penalty. Moreover a distinction was made between practice and test critical blocks (i.e., score computed separately for practice and test critical trials). For the DW-Score, according to the recommendations of Richetin et al. (2015), error latencies were ignored (i.e., no distinction between correct and error latencies was made). No distinction was made between practice and test critical blocks (i.e., score computed on practice and test critical trials together). Below the options used with the software R (R Development Core Team, 2013) and the package IAT.Score (Richetin et al., 2015) to compute the two scores: D-Score: Parameter 1, option 2 (fixed values trimming); Parameter 2, option 5 (recode); Parameter 3, option 1 (D); Parameter 4, option 2 (distinction). DW-Score: Parameter 1, option 5 (10% winsorizing), Parameter 2, option 1 (ignore); Parameter 3, option 1 (D); Parameter 4, option 1 (no distinction)