The most well-known models explaining the physical selfconcept (Fox and Corbin, 1989; Marsh et al., 1994) include physical appearance as a subdomain of physical self-concept. BI is closely related to the physical attractiveness domain, understanding the latter as one's perceptions about his/her physical appearance and his/her satisfaction and confidence with his/her self-image (Goñi et al., 2004). Therefore, BI would be a part of physical self-concept (Burns, 1990; Fernández-Bustos et al., 2015). Despite the link between BI and physical self-concept, there are only a few studies that show the relationship between them. The model presented in this study proves the large direct effect of BI on GPSC in adolescence, along with the effect on GSC, which are both very high and indirect. This supports the hierarchical and multidimensional model previously explained. In this way, many studies highlight the important relationship between BD and self-esteem in both males and females (Van den Berg et al., 2010; Fernández-Bustos et al., 2015).

Considering the lack of physical self-concept subdomains other than BI in the suggested model, PA had a positive and direct effect on GPSC, as was supported in all the previous literature, which is reinforced by the results of the meta-analysis carried out by Babic et al. (2014). Similarly, following the hierarchical model, PA indirectly influenced GPSC through its subdimension of BI, as measured by BD.

Regarding the effect of PA on BD, the three final models yielded different results. For all participants, the positive and direct effect of PA on body satisfaction was confirmed (Añez et al., 2018); this effect, however, was more relevant in females than males, which is consistent with Hausenblas and Fallon's (2006) findings. In the case of males, there was no direct effect of PA on BD, but it was mediated by BMI.

BMI was shown as a variable of especial interest in the suggested models. On the one hand, BMI proved that it plays a determining role in body satisfaction (Strauss, 2000), having a negative effect on both males and females. Indeed, high adiposity is thought to be a promoter of body dissatisfaction, as it is opposed to the aesthetic model of males and females. Therefore, the larger the deviation degree from the ideal physical shape, the greater the dissatisfaction with the resulting body (Stice and Shaw, 2002). On the other hand, BMI demonstrated negative direct and indirect effects on the perceptions of GPSC and an indirect effect on GSC. Several studies agreed that there was a relationship between obesity and lower self-esteem and worse physical perceptions (Griffiths et al., 2010; McClure et al., 2010). Altıntaş et al. (2014) considered BMI to be the best predictor of self-esteem and body satisfaction in female adolescents, being slightly less important among males. Sani et al. (2016) tried to create a model to explain the relationships between PA, BI, and self-esteem, but they only found a direct association of BMI with BI and no association with self-esteem.

Nevertheless, even though some studies associated PA with lower values of BMI (Du et al., 2013), in the present study, this was only evidenced in males, in accordance with Kantanista et al. (2015). This result can be explained in view of some evidence among females that associated a higher BMI with higher PA levels triggered by their desire to exercise to lose weight (Ingledew and Sullivan, 2002). Additionally, the possible mediating role of BMI in the relationship between PA and GSC, already hypothesized in previous studies (Reddon et al., 2017), was only supported among males, which is in line with Mak et al. (2016).

In practice, the results of this research should help to explain how the effect of PA on students' BI and self-concept is produced and to place value on the promotion of PA in educational centers. By doing that, educational policymakers will contribute to the development of not only the physical health of adolescents but also their psychological well-being at an educational stage of special difficulty, where PA tends to decrease alarmingly in comparison to early stages. These results are also relevant for Physical Education teachers to stress the importance of optimizing the time of PA during their lessons; the results can be also useful for providing a Quality Physical Education that makes students improve their physical perceptions, find pleasure in exercise, and achieve autonomous active lifestyle behaviors outside of school.

This study presents some limitations that must be taken into consideration. Among these, the assessment of a unique aspect of BI – the dissatisfaction in terms of weight loss – must be pointed out. This is particularly relevant for males, who presented an aesthetic model that tends to drive for muscularity and away from obesity. That is, BD in terms of desiring a more muscular body has been omitted, and this especially influences males. Another limitation would be the lack of more indicators of PA, in addition to the weekly minutes, as the type of activity (endurance, strength, etc.) may determine the perceptions of BI and the physical selfconcept itself.

It is necessary to continue with the study of the moderating effect of sex in the relationship between PA and BI. It is also necessary to examine the potential moderators that are exclusive to male or female samples in future research and interventions. To do so, besides taking into account the differences in the configuration of the body image in both sexes, there is a need to include variables that determine the relationship between PA and BI, such as the aesthetical reasons that lead to the practice of PA or the effect of different types of physical exercises or sports on BI.

#### CONCLUSION

To conclude, the suggested model put emphasis on how PA is associated with a more positive self-concept during adolescence, although this effect is mediated by both physical self-concept and BI. Likewise, PA is associated with a lower BD, while BMI is shown as an important external variable in the model, whose role varied by sex. The importance of body satisfaction

#### REFERENCES

and physical self-concept in the configuration of GSC in adolescents is also highlighted, especially among females.

#### DATA AVAILABILITY

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this manuscript will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation, to any qualified researcher.

#### ETHICS STATEMENT

Prior to data collection, we informed the participants and their parents about the research aims, procedures, risks, and benefits of the study, and we obtained the required consent from the corresponding educational boards, high schools administrations, and parents of the students. Participation was voluntary with the parents' consent, and the anonymity of the participants and data confidentiality were guaranteed during the whole process. The study conformed to the deontological guidelines defined by the Declaration of Helsinki (Hong-Kong revision, 1989) and followed the recommendations of the Good Clinical Practice in the European Community (1 July 1991, document 111/3976/88) and the Spanish legislation on human clinical research (Royal Decree 561/1993 on clinical trials).

### AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

JGF-B designed the study, collected the data, wrote the article, and collaborated on the data analysis. AI-P analyzed the data and collaborated on the article wording. RC collaborated on the article wording and review. ORC designed the study and collaborated on the review of the article.

systematic review and meta-analysis. *Sports Med.* 44, 1589–1601. doi: 10.1007/ s40279-014-0229-z

**Conflict of Interest Statement:** The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

*Copyright © 2019 Fernández-Bustos, Infantes-Paniagua, Cuevas and Contreras. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.*

# A Single Question of Parent-Reported Physical Activity Levels Estimates Objectively Measured Physical Fitness and Body Composition in Preschool Children: The PREFIT Project

#### Edited by:

Pedro L. Almeida, Higher Institute of Applied Psychology (ISPA), Portugal

#### Reviewed by:

Badicu Georgian, Transilvania University of Bras˛ov, Romania Alejandro Prieto-Ayuso, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain Ramón Chacón Cuberos, University of Granada, Spain

> \*Correspondence: Adrià Muntaner-Mas

<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
#### Specialty section:

This article was submitted to Movement Science and Sport Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology

> Received: 30 April 2019 Accepted: 24 June 2019 Published: 10 July 2019

#### Citation:

Palou P, Muntaner-Mas A, Cantallops J, Borràs PA, Labayen I, Jiménez-Pavón D, Dorado García C, Moliner-Urdiales D, Rodríguez Pérez MA, Rojo-Tirado MA, Cadenas-Sanchez C, Ortega FB and Vidal-Conti J (2019) A Single Question of Parent-Reported Physical Activity Levels Estimates Objectively Measured Physical Fitness and Body Composition in Preschool Children: The PREFIT Project. Front. Psychol. 10:1585. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01585 Pere Palou1 , Adrià Muntaner-Mas1,2 \*, Jaume Cantallops1 , Pere Antoni Borràs1 , Idoia Labayen3 , David Jiménez-Pavón4,5, Cecilia Dorado García6,7 , Diego Moliner-Urdiales8 , Manuel A. Rodríguez Pérez9 , Miguel A. Rojo-Tirado10 , Cristina Cadenas-Sanchez2,4,5, Francisco B. Ortega2 and Josep Vidal-Conti1

1 GICAFE "Physical Activity and Exercise Sciences Research Group", University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Spain, 2 PROFITH "PROmoting FITness and Health Through Physical Activity" Research Group, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Granada, Granada, Spain, 3 Institute for Innovation & Sustainable Development in Food Chain (IS-FOOD), Public University of Navarre, Pamplona, Spain, 4 MOVE-IT Research Group and Department of Physical Education, Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain, 5 Biomedical Research and Innovation Institute of Cádiz (INiBICA) Research Unit, Puerta del Mar University Hospital University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain, 6 Research Institute of Biomedical and Health Sciences (IUIBS), University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, 7 Department of Physical Education, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, 8 LIFE Research Group, University of Jaume I, Castellón de la Plana, Spain, 9 Faculty of Education Sciences, SPORT Research Group, CERNEP Research Center, University of Almería, Almería, Spain, 10 Laboratory of Exercise Physiology Research Group (LFE Research Group), Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences-INEF, Department of Health and Human Performance, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Physical inactivity is recognized as a determinant of low physical fitness and body composition in preschool children, which in turn, are important markers of health through the lifespan. Objective methods to assess physical activity, physical fitness and body composition in preschool children are preferable; however, they have some practical limitations in the school context. Therefore, the aim of this study was to test whether a single question regarding physical activity level of preschool children, reported by their parents, could be used as an alternative screening tool of physical fitness and body composition. The information was obtained from 10 different cities throughout Spain, gathering a total of 3179 healthy preschool children (52.8% boys and 47.2% girls) aged 3–5 years. Physical activity levels of preschool children were reported by parents using a single question with five response options (very low, low, average, high, or very high). Physical fitness and body composition were assessed with the PREFIT fitness battery. The results showed that parents' perception of their children's physical activity was positively associated with all objectively measured physical fitness components (βrange = −0.094 to 0.113; all p < 0.020); and negatively with body composition indicators as measured (βrange = −0.113 to −0.058; all p < 0.001). The results showed significant differences in all physical fitness and body composition z-scores across the parent-reported physical activity levels (all p < 0.017 and all p < 0.001, respectively), as well as, for the fitness index (p < 0.001). Our study suggests that in school settings with insufficient resources to objectively assess fitness and body composition, parentsreported physical activity level by means of a single question might provide useful information about these important health markers in preschool children.

Keywords: physical fitness, motor activity, body composition, fatness, physical activity, preschool children

#### INTRODUCTION

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Obesity is a worldwide concern that is growing among children and adolescents (Abarca-Gómez et al., 2017), and has even begun to occur in preschool children (Cadenas-Sánchez et al., 2019a). The early onset of obesity seems to be related to the occurrence of associated complications such as metabolic and cardiovascular disorders, and the risks depend partly on the age of onset and on the duration of obesity (Umer et al., 2017; Ho et al., 2019). Particularly worrying is the data coming from the World Health Organization (WHO) whose results demonstrated that in 2014 more than 41 million of children under 5 years old were classified as overweight/obese, and this fact will continue to worsen (World Health Organization, 2016). At European level, a higher prevalence of overweight/obese preschool in the south of Europe was observed, compared to those children from the north (Cadenas-Sanchez et al., 2016b). In addition, in a European cohort of 3120 children aged 2–9 years old (1016 from 2 to 6 years old) objectively measured physical activity was found an important factor to protect against clustering of CVD risk factors in young children (Jiménez-Pavón et al., 2013). At the national level, our group found that 35% of the preschoolers examined presented overweight/obesity were already 1.3% morbid obese (Cadenas-Sánchez et al., 2019a). A recent study with a population-based sample of 51,505 children found that the most rapid weight gain occurs between 2 and 6 years of age being those obese at that age also obese adolescents (Geserick et al., 2018). Despite preschool years represents an opportunity for obesity surveillance it is still challenging in the WHO European Region (Jones et al., 2017).

In addition to obesity, a low physical fitness level in childhood/adolescence has been considered a marker of poor health and a risk factor for multiple health outcomes at these ages and later in life (Ortega et al., 2008b; Ruiz et al., 2009). In this context, it has been shown that higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness during childhood are related to lower risk of becoming overweight/obese across puberty (Ortega et al., 2011). However, such information is not available in preschool children, which could be due, at least partially, to the fact that there was no information about which fitness tests should be used in preschool children. A systematic review searching for any study relating fitness in preschool age with health outcomes, found no studies in this direction (Ortega et al., 2015). Fortunately, over the last years, more evidence has been accumulated on which fitness tests are more feasible, reliable and valid to be used in preschool children, in particular the PREFIT (Assessing FITness in PREschoolers) battery, which will provide new avenues to study the role of fitness in health at these early ages and later in life (Cadenas-Sánchez et al., 2014; Ortega et al., 2015; Sanchez-Delgado et al., 2015; Cadenas-Sanchez et al., 2016a; Mora-Gonzalez et al., 2017). In this context, the PREFIT project group has recently provided for the first time the physical fitness reference standards for preschool children (Cadenas-Sánchez et al., 2019b).

Since obesity and low fitness are important markers of health through the lifespan (Ortega et al., 2018), it is of public health interest to study determinants of these two modifiable risk factors as early as possible, being preschool age a sensitive stage of life. Thus, physical inactivity is a recognized determinant of obesity and low physical fitness, and it would be interesting to explore associations of physical activity with physical fitness and body composition in preschool children. Although objective methods, such as accelerometers, to assess physical activity in young individuals are preferable (Migueles et al., 2017), they have some practical limitations and most importantly they are not feasible under certain circumstances in the school context. Alternatively, parent-reported physical activity levels of their children are an alternative method, and it is of interest to test whether a single question on parents' rated physical activity level is able for screening a set of important physical fitness and body composition markers in preschool children. If so, this method could be a very useful and economic tool to be used as a predictor of health markers in preschool, similarly to what selfreported PA of older children (10–12 years old) showed in a large epidemiological study (Jiménez-Pavón et al., 2012).

Therefore, the aim of this study is to test whether a single question regarding the physical activity of children, reported by their parents, could be used as a screening tool of objectively measured physical fitness and body composition in preschool children.

#### MATERIALS AND METHODS

#### Participants and Study Design

The present study was performed under the framework of the PREFIT project1 (Cadenas-Sánchez et al., 2014; Ortega et al., 2015; Sanchez-Delgado et al., 2015; Cadenas-Sanchez et al., 2016a; Mora-Gonzalez et al., 2017; Labayen et al., 2018). Briefly, the aim of the project was to propose a physical fitness test battery of feasible and reliable field-based tests to assess physical fitness in children aged 3–5 years and to report reference values for a better interpretation of physical fitness assessment (Cadenas-Sánchez et al., 2019a,b).

1http://profith.ugr.es/prefit

After several methodological studies to define the PREFIT fitness battery (Cadenas-Sánchez et al., 2014; Ortega et al., 2015; Sanchez-Delgado et al., 2015; Cadenas-Sanchez et al., 2016a; Mora-Gonzalez et al., 2017), we set up PREFIT-Spain, aiming to measure physical fitness in a geographically distributed sample of preschool children across Spain. The project involved data collection in 10 cities from the south, center, and north of Spain, gathering a total of 3179 (M: 4.60; SD: 0.87) healthy preschool children (52.8% boys and 47.2% girls) aged between 3 and 5 years (Cadenas-Sanchez et al., 2016a). Parents or legal guardians were informed about the purpose of the study and written informed consent was obtained from the parents of all participants. The study protocol was performed in accordance with the ethical standards and was approved by the Review Committee for Research Involving Human Subjects at the University of Granada (n◦ 845).

#### Procedure and Measures

The PREFIT battery comprises the following tests2 : the PREFIT 20-meters shuttle-run test (PREFIT 20 m SRT) to assess cardiorespiratory fitness, handgrip strength and standing long jump tests to assess muscular strength (upper and lower limbs, respectively), 4 × 10 m SRT to assess speed-agility and oneleg stance test to assess balance (Cadenas-Sanchez et al., 2016a); and weight, height, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and waist-to-height ratio to assess body composition indicators. Children were assessed individually in a school-setting by trained evaluators using the following standardized equipment and procedures. Before starting the tests, evaluators performed an example to ensure that the child understood the test correctly.

#### Physical Fitness Measures

Cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed using a modified version of the original 20 m shuttle run test (SRT): the PREFIT 20 m SRT (Cadenas-Sánchez et al., 2014; Mora-Gonzalez et al., 2017). Participants had to run back and forth between 2 lines 20 m apart with an audio signal. The test finished when the child failed to reach the end lines concurrent with the audio signal on two consecutive occasions or when the child stops because of exhaustion. The initial stage of the PREFIT 20 m SRT was 6.5 km h−1 .

The handgrip strength test measures the maximal strength of the upper limb using an analog dynamometer (TKK 5001, Grip-A, Takei, Tokyo, Japan). The test protocol is reported elsewhere (España-Romero et al., 2010). The grip spans were fixed at 4.0 cm (Sanchez-Delgado et al., 2015). The best value of the two attempts for each hand was chosen, and the average of both was registered in kilograms (kg). The standing long jump test assesses the explosive strength of the lower limbs. This test consisted of jumping as far as possible with the feet together and remaining upright. The distance was measured from the take-off line to the point where the back of the heel nearest to the take-off line lands on the ground. The better of two attempts were recorded in centimeters (cm).

The 4 × 10 m SRT was used to assess speed/agility. This test consisted of running and turning as fast as possible between two parallel lines (10 m apart). To make this test easier to understand and perform for preschool children, we did not use sponges to be exchanged when crossing the lines (4 × 10 m), as the original protocol does in older children (Ortega et al., 2008a). Instead, two evaluators were located behind each line and participants had to touch the examiner's hand and go back at maximum speed. The result was measured with a stopwatch (Tremblay, CHRO 300, Gleizé, France) to the nearest 0.1 s. The best of two attempts was recorded in seconds. A higher score indicates worse performance.

## Body Composition

Weight (kg) was measured without shoes and in light clothing using an electronic scale (SECA Model 869, Hamburg, Germany). Height (cm) was measured in the Frankfort plane without shoes using a stadiometer (SECA Model 213). BMI was calculated based on weight divided by height squared. The cut-off points used to classify weight status categories were those established by World Obesity Federation (WOF)3 , formerly International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) (Cole and Lobstein, 2012) and by the WHO (de Onis et al., 2007). Waist circumference (cm) was measured at the umbilical location with a non-elastic tape (SECA Model 200) at the end of a normal expiration without the tape compressing the skin. The waist-to-height ratio was calculated as waist circumference divided by height in centimeters. All measures were taken twice and the mean of the two measurements was used for analyses. All measurements were harmonized following a strict protocol to ensure standardization.

#### Physical Activity

As an indirect measure of the physical activity level of the children, parents were asked to answer the following question: "Your children's physical activity level excluding school time is . . .?" The response options were very low, low, average, high, or very high. The response frequency by categories of parentreported physical activity levels is shown in **Supplementary Figure S1**. For analyses, the very low and low categories were merged due to the low response frequency of the very low category.

#### Confounders

Paternal and maternal educational was assessed by self-report questionnaire and can be consulted elsewhere (Merino-De Haro et al., 2018). A variable with three categories was calculated for analyses and for each parent: low (no education or primary school education), medium (secondary school education, uppersecondary school education, or technical training), and high (university education). Only, age, gender, and maternal education level were introduced as potential confounders.

#### Statistical Analysis

Firstly, we explored which potential confounders were more strongly correlated with the study outcomes. Maternal education was more strongly associated than paternal education with

2http://profith.ugr.es/recursos-prefit?lang=en

3http://www.worldobesity.org/

#### TABLE 1 | Descriptivecharacteristics of the study population (n= 3.179).

SD, standard deviation; SRT, shuttle run test; BMI, body mass index. Values are presented as mean and standard deviation.

fpsyg-10-01585 July 8, 2019 Time: 16:8 # 4

study outcomes and, thus, it was a better predictor. Partial correlation adjusted for potential confounders were used to examine the association of parent-reported physical activity levels with physical fitness and body composition indicators.

To study the association of parent-reported physical activity levels with physical fitness (PREFIT 20 m SRT, handgrip strength test, standing long jump, 4 × 10 m SRT) and body composition outcomes (weight, BMI, waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio), we conducted linear regression analysis inserting the physical fitness and body composition outcomes as dependent variables and parent-reported physical activity levels as independent variable, adjusted for sex, age and maternal education. Additionally, physical fitness and body composition z-scores were created and explored using analysis of covariance (adjusted for confounders) with a Bonferroni adjustment according to parent-reported physical activity levels. Also, it was created a fitness index using the average of physical fitness z-scores divided by the number of fitness outcomes (PREFIT 20 m SRT, standing long jump, 4 × 10 m SRT), and explored with an analysis of covariance with a Bonferroni adjustment according to parent-reported physical activity levels. All analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 21.0, Armonk, NY) and the level of significance was set at p < 0.05. Graphics were performed using Sigmaplot version 12.5 for Windows (Systat Software, Inc., San Jose, CA, United States).

#### RESULTS

Descriptive characteristics of the physical fitness and body composition indicators of the sample stratified by sex and age groups (3, 4, and 5 years) are presented in **Table 1**, as means and standard deviation. The response frequency of parent-reported physical activity levels (for the whole sample and by sex) is illustrated in **Supplementary Figure S1**.

The results show the association of parent-reported physical activity levels between physical fitness and body composition measures after adjusting for sex, age and maternal education in preschool children. Children whose parents reported to have higher physical activity levels had a higher level of physical fitness in all indicators (βrange = −0.094 to 0.113, and p-value from 0.020 to <0.001) (**Table 2**). Otherwise, it was observed a negative association between parent-reported physical activity levels and all body composition indicators after adjusting for sex, age and maternal education (βrange = −0.058 to −0.113, all p < 0.001). The results showed similar trends for physical fitness and body composition of children with different age and sex (see **Supplementary Tables S1** and **S2**, respectively).

The results show the differences in objectively measured physical fitness z-scores (panel A) and body composition z-scores (panel B) across parent-reported physical activity levels. The results showed significant differences in all physical fitness and body composition z-scores across the parent-reported physical activity levels (all p < 0.017 and all p < 0.001, respectively) (**Figure 1**). There were pairwise significant differences in PREFIT 20 m SRT, standing long jump and the 4 × 10 m SRT between each category of the parent-reported physical activity levels after a Bonferroni adjustment (all p < 0.038). There were pairwise significant differences in each category of the parent-reported physical activity levels after a Bonferroni adjustment and all body composition z-scores between (all p < 0.036). However, these pairwise significant differences were not seen between the high and very high categories in neither physical fitness z-scores nor body composition z-scores (prange = 0.059 to 0.934 and prange = 0.128 to.355, respectively).

The results show the differences in physical fitness index across parent-reported physical activity levels, by age (**Figure 2A**) and gender (**Figure 2B**). The results showed significant differences in the fitness index across the parent-reported physical activity levels (p < 0.001). There were pairwise significant differences in the fitness index between each category of parent-reported physical activity levels after a Bonferroni adjustment (all p < 0.001). However, these pairwise significant differences were not seen between the high and very high categories (p = 0.102). No interaction effect was seen for age groups (p = 0.233) nor gender (p = 0.722).

#### DISCUSSION

This study provides evidence supporting that a single and very simple question of physical activity reported by parents can significantly estimate the physical fitness and body composition of preschool children (aged 3–5 years). More specifically, our findings support that: (1) parent-reported physical activity levels are positively associated with objectively measured physical fitness, as measured by means of the PREFIT 20 m SRT, handgrip strength, standing long jump and the 4 × 10 m SRT in children aged 3–5 years; (2) parent-reported physical activity levels are negatively related to body composition indicators, as measured by weight, BMI, waist circumference and waistto-height ratio in children aged 3–5 years; and (3) there

TABLE 2 | Associations of parents-reported physical activity levels with objectively measured physical fitness and body composition in preschool children (n = 3.179).

SRT, shuttle run test; BMI, body mass index; β, beta standardized coefficients; B, beta unstandardized coefficients; CI, confidence interval (upper, lower). Parentreported physical activity levels were considered as a predictive variable and physical fitness outcomes (PREFIT 20 m SRT, handgrip strength test, standing long jump and 4 × 10 m SRT) and body composition outcomes (weight, BMI, waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio) were considered as dependent variables. The analyses were adjusted by age, sex, and maternal education. ∗Lower values indicate better performance.

are pronounced differences in all physical fitness and body composition z-scores, as well as, in the fitness index across each category of the parent-reported physical activity levels in children aged 3–5 years.

This study shows a positive association between parentreported physical activity levels and the PREFIT 20 m SRT. These results are in agreement with previous findings in the adult population (Emaus et al., 2010; Minder et al., 2014). For instance, Murphy et al. (1988) who found that a reported physical activity single question was associated with maximal oxygen consumption, measured by a more valid and reliable technique. Likewise, Aadahl et al. (2007) showed that reported physical activity was related to objectively measured cardiorespiratory fitness. Nevertheless, in our study inconsistent associations were seen between parent-reported physical activity levels and handgrip strength (see **Supplementary Table S1**). In fact, when analyses were undertaken by age group only was seen as an association in those older preschool children. This result does not concur with those found in other population of adults where self-reported measures of physical activity were correlated with handgrip strength (Leblanc et al., 2015). In fact, a recent systematic review has found inconsistent associations between

muscular fitness and self-reported physical activity in children and adolescents (Smith et al., 2019). Otherwise, our data showed that parent-reported physical activity levels correlate strongly with lower body strength as measured by means of standing long jump. In this sense, it can be hypothesized that uncontrolled variables (fat-free mass, fat mass) in our sample might explain the discrepancies between the associations of parent-reported physical activity levels and the distinct components of the muscular strength (Artero et al., 2010).

A negative association between parent-reported physical activity levels and body composition indicators was found in this investigation. To our knowledge, there are no studies that analyze this association in preschool children, and that's why this study opens a new window in order to estimate childhood obesity based on physical activity information reported by parents. Recent studies have found that higher moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and/or vigorous physical activity of preschool children are associated with better body composition (Leppänen et al., 2016, 2017; Fang et al., 2017). In this context, a self-reported methodology to assess physical activity levels of preschool children has not been recommended (Oliver et al., 2007), however, parents might do with somewhat validity (Pate et al., 2010). Taking this evidence together, it can be suggested that parent-reported physical activity levels of preschool children might be an alternative to estimate objectively measured body composition indicators since physical activity is associated with body composition at an early age.

Our results also showed that there was a pronounced difference between children with very low/low physically active (who had worse physical fitness and body composition) and the rest of the categories with higher reported physical activity; however, the question did not discriminate so accurately between those preschool children reported by their parents as being moderate, high and very high active. This finding suggests that our question might be more useful in more extreme cases (between very low/low and high/very high active). In this context, the question proposed in this investigation could be used to perform the first screening with large samples of preschool in order to detect the most extreme cases with a marked risk of worse physical fitness and body composition. Thus, objective and direct measures could be administered only in those participants who have already been detected at higher risk. Therefore, this single question about PA levels would serve to identify children at a higher risk of low fitness and worse body composition avoiding the complications associated with direct and objectively measurement.

## Limitations and Strengths

This research has several limitations. The cross-sectional nature of the study and the use of an indirect measure of physical activity levels should be considered with caution. In addition, despite all associations of parent-reported physical activity levels between physical fitness and body composition were statistically significant the standardized regression coefficients were small. Likewise, the reliability of the single question has not been yet proved, which could be another drawback. To our knowledge, this large, population-based study on preschool children is the first that covers geographically most of the regions of Spain. Also, the use of a quick and single question able to identify vital markers of physical health at such early ages should be considered as something powerful.

## CONCLUSION

Our study suggests that a single question of parent-reported physical activity levels might provide meaningful information to identify children at a higher risk of important physical health markers such as physical fitness and body composition in preschool children. Therefore, a single question could be an alternative for a physical health screening at early ages, especially for epidemiological and intervention studies with insufficient resources or even in school settings where objective methods cannot be applied.

### DATA AVAILABILITY

fpsyg-10-01585 July 8, 2019 Time: 16:8 # 8

The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.

## ETHICS STATEMENT

The study protocol was performed in accordance with the ethical standards and was approved by the Review Committee for Research Involving Human Subjects at the University of Granada (number 845).

## AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

CC-S and FBO conceptualized and designed the study. CC-S organized the database. AM-M, CC-S, FBO, and JV-C carried out the statistical analysis. PP, AM-M, JC, PB, FBO, and JV-C wrote the first draft of the manuscript. PP, AM-M, JC, PB, FBO, and JV-C wrote the sections of the manuscript. All authors contributed to the manuscript revision, read, and approved the final version of the manuscript.

## FUNDING

FBO was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness – MINECO/FEDER DEP2016-79512-R, the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation

## REFERENCES

Programme under the grant agreement no. 667302, the University of Granada, Plan Propio de Investigación 2016, Excellence Actions: Units of Excellence, the Unit of Excellence on Exercise and Health (UCEES), the Junta de Andalucia, Consejeria de Conocimiento, Investigación y Universidades, the EXERNET Research Network on Exercise and Health in Special Populations (DEP2005-00046/ACTI), the SAMID III Network, RETICS, funded by the PN I+D+I 2017-2021 (Spain), ISCIII-Sub-Directorate General for Research Assessment and Promotion, and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (Ref. RD16/002). IL was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (DEP2016-78377- R), the "Fondos Estructurales de la Unión Europea (FEDER), Una manera de hacer Europa", the Public University of Navarra, Plan de Promoción de Grupos de Investigación, and the EXERNET Research Network on Exercise and Health in Special Populations (DEP2005-00046/ACTI). DJ-P was supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation – MINECO (RYC-2014-16938), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness – MINECO/FEDER (DEP2016-76123-R), the Government of Andalusia, Integrated Territorial Initiative 2014–2020 for the province of Cádiz (PI-0002-2017), the European Union's ERASMUS+SPORT Programme (Grant Agreement 603121-EPP-1-2018-1-ES-SPO-SCP), and the EXERNET Research Network on Exercise and Health in Special Populations (DEP2005-00046/ACTI).

## SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg. 2019.01585/full#supplementary-material

report. Am. J. Public Health 78, 708–710. doi: 10.2105/ajph.78. 6.708

**Conflict of Interest Statement:** The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

The handling Editor is currently editing co-organizing a Research Topic with two of the authors, AM-M and PP, and confirms the absence of any other collaboration.

Copyright © 2019 Palou, Muntaner-Mas, Cantallops, Borràs, Labayen, Jiménez-Pavón, Dorado García, Moliner-Urdiales, Rodríguez Pérez, Rojo-Tirado, Cadenas-Sanchez, Ortega and Vidal-Conti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

fpsyg-10-01585 July 8, 2019 Time: 16:8 # 9

# Dual Career of the U-23 Spanish Canoeing Team

Juan Gavala-González1 \*, Alfonso Castillo-Rodríguez2 and José Carlos Fernández-García3,4

1 Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Seville, Seville, Spain, 2 Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Granada, Granada, Spain, 3 Department of Didactics of Languages, Arts and Sport, University of Malaga, Andalucía-Tech, Málaga, Spain, 4 IBIMA, Málaga, Spain

Canoeing is one of the sport disciplines that brings great success to Spain in international competitions and Olympic Games (of the 17 medals won in Rio in 2016, four were in this sport, including three gold). However, the journey to become an elite athlete coincides in time with the challenge of pursuing an academic education, which often involves making difficult choices in the training-university dichotomy. The aim of this research was to ascertain how the Spanish under-23 calm water canoeing team perceives their athletic and academic careers. The present study was carried out with the Spanish under-23 flat water canoeing team, the step prior to competition at the highest level. The study sample comprised the whole population, namely the entire national team, made up of 21 athletes (11 women and 10 men) with a mean age of 20.57 ± 2.64 years and 10.00 ± 3.49 years of experience. These athletes are usually based at La Cartuja High Performance Center (Seville) and combine their sports activity with studying toward a university degree. A double qualitative and quantitative methodology was used. For the first of these, an interview script was elaborated based on the theoretical model by Wylleman et al. (2013). Applicable consents were requested from the Spanish Royal Canoeing Federation, coaches and paddlers. Interviews were carried out with each athlete twice: at the beginning and at the end of the season/academic year, which were recorded and subsequently tabulated and analyzed. Concerning quantitative methodology, the ESTPORT dual career questionnaire validated by Sánchez-Pato et al. (2016) was used. The results show that for all the paddlers canoeing is very important. It is typically complicated for them to attend classes, and subject planning is usually based on their training schedules. In the second/last part of the course, it is stressful for these athletes to combine both activities and some drop out of school. During the course, though, they appreciate having another activity that allows them to escape from the training routine. In addition, they miss not having an academic tutor to guide and advise them. These student-athletes are aware that their sport causes them to miss out on many moments with family and friends due to training or competing. However, at present this is offset, largely because of their high level of performance, which makes it easier for them to obtain scholarships that provide economic support.

Keywords: dual career, psychological well-being, canoeing, high-education, sport

#### Edited by:

Alexandre Garcia-Mas, University of the Balearic Islands, Spain

#### Reviewed by:

Ma Dolores González Fernández, Colegio Oficial de Psicología Galicia, Spain Pedrona Serra, National Institute of Physical Education of Catalonia (INEFC), Spain

> \*Correspondence: Juan Gavala-González<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
#### Specialty section:

This article was submitted to Movement Science and Sport Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology

Received: 29 April 2019 Accepted: 17 July 2019 Published: 02 August 2019

#### Citation:

Gavala-González J, Castillo-Rodríguez A and Fernández-García JC (2019) Dual Career of the U-23 Spanish Canoeing Team. Front. Psychol. 10:1783. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01783

## INTRODUCTION

fpsyg-10-01783 July 31, 2019 Time: 20:1 # 2

The transition of any young person when he or she enters university is not an easy process, but when this must also be combined with training and competitions, this step becomes even more important (Tekavc et al., 2015). The dual career (DC) path undertaken by athletes involves the challenge of combining a career in sports with studies or work, a concern for most highperformance athletes (Ryba et al., 2015). In the case of studentathletes the optimal DC balance has been defined by Stambulova et al. (2015) as the combination of sport and studies that helps athletes achieve their academic and athletic goals and live a satisfying private life, maintaining their health and well-being.

It is well known that the practice of sport has been included in the strategic agenda of the European Union to promote integration among nations and cultures (European Commission, 2007). Nonetheless, when high levels of specialization and competition are achieved, the young people involved face the challenge of combining their athletic and educational preparation (Conzelmann and Nagel, 2003; Capranica and Millard-Stafford, 2011; Lobillo and Guevara, 2018), which quite often leads to their abandoning the practice of high-level sports in order to give priority to education with the aim of benefiting from future employment opportunities (Amara et al., 2004) or, conversely, to neglect academic preparation (Capranica and Millard-Stafford, 2011; Aquilina, 2013; Sohn and Hong, 2014; Guidotti et al., 2015; López de Subijana et al., 2015; Huang et al., 2016; Miro et al., 2017; Sum et al., 2017; Barriopedro et al., 2018; Krueger et al., 2018), resulting in low academic performance and limiting future and adequate inclusion in the working world (Conzelmann and Nagel, 2003; Kuettel et al., 2017; Vilanova and Puig, 2017; Barriopedro et al., 2018; López de Subijana et al., 2018).

All types of athletes are affected by the DC, regardless of social status, type of sport, location, the sex of the athlete or his or her experience (Erpic et al., 2004 ˇ ). According to Ryba et al. (2017), one of the main challenges faced by elite athletes between the ages of 12 and 25 is to successfully combine education and high-performance sport.

Early research (Purdy et al., 1982) indicated the negative effects of a double career on academic success. However, the most recent research suggests that talented athletes tend to perform well not only in sports, but also in the academic environment because they are highly motivated to perform well in both domains (Guidotti et al., 2015; Lupo et al., 2015; Fuchs et al., 2016; De Brandt et al., 2017; Isidori et al., 2017; Jordana et al., 2017; Kristiansen, 2017; Kuettel et al., 2017; Miro et al., 2017; Budevici-Puiu, 2018; Guirola et al., 2018; Kerstajn et al., 2018; Knight et al., 2018; Krueger et al., 2018; López de Subijana and Equiza, 2018; Ronkainen et al., 2018; Stefano and Ginevra, 2018; Tekavc and Erpic, 2018). Supporting this idea, O'Neill et al. (2013) concluded that student-athletes were determined to combine their education and sport, explaining that both dimensions strengthen their sense of identity, purpose and well-being.

Among athletes who abandoned their athletic careers due to different personal situations, a better transition and incorporation into working life was observed in those who had combined their double careers compared to those athletes who focused exclusively on their athletic careers (Aquilina, 2013; Torregrosa et al., 2015; Tshube and Feltz, 2015). Therefore, according to Stambulova and Wylleman (2015), to become long-term winners, student-athletes should first "win in the short term," i.e., adapt well to their current DC programs for possible future benefits.

The DC guarantees that the athlete will have a future outside of sports when his or her high-level career ends (Stambulova and Wylleman, 2015), although it is true that during the years in which the athlete tries to combine sport and studies, this situation causes episodes of tension and anxiety (Gustafsson et al., 2008; Aquilina, 2013; O'Neill et al., 2013; Torregrosa et al., 2015; Sorkkila et al., 2017). For this reason, in some cases, the help and support of psychologists is needed to guide the athlete to successfully continue the DC (Stambulova et al., 2009; Mateos et al., 2010). Consequently, many athletes are convinced of the importance of combining the highest level of athletic life with academic life, especially in those minority sports that do not have sufficient financial support and/or their athletic life is short (Conzelmann and Nagel, 2003; Debois et al., 2015; Gledhill and Harwood, 2015; Kuettel et al., 2017; Barriopedro et al., 2018; López de Subijana et al., 2018; Pink et al., 2018). Aware of the consequences for athletes of combining two careers, many universities and organizations at the national and state levels have created support programs (Park et al., 2013; Brown et al., 2015; López de Subijana et al., 2015; Pink et al., 2015). Also relevant are the results of Barriopedro et al. (2018), which support the holistic vision of the development of the athletic career, showing an interrelation between the academic-vocational and the athletic areas, indicating the possible role of gender in the pursuit of both careers.

We see the opposite side of this situation with some athletes who are still not aware of the reality in which they live. Everything that is not related to their athletic career is indifferent to them or they do not give it the importance they should, which causes them to miss out on opportunities that exist outside their sport (Gorley et al., 2001; Lavallee and Robinson, 2007; Stambulova et al., 2009; Kelly and Hickey, 2010; Aquilina, 2013).

All athletes have their moment and it is at that point when a conscious change is noted that their athletic career is about to end and they search for a strategy to plan for the future (Park et al., 2012). According to the study by North and Lavallee (2004), it was observed that 79% of the athletes who sensed that in a few years their athletic career would come to an end, began to plan their future for that time, showing less interest in dedicating time to training and even defending the importance of work outside the realm of sport.

However, no studies currently exist on canoeing, one of the most internationally successful sports in Spain. We therefore consider this research to be innovative as the aim of our study was to gain insight into how the Spanish under-23 flat water canoeing team members (those who are called to take over from

the paddlers in the international competitions) experience the duality between their athletic and academic careers.

## METHODOLOGY

#### Participants

The study participants comprised 21 paddlers (10 men and 11 women) with a mean age of 20.57 ± 2.64 years y 10.00 ± 3.49 years of experience from the permanent pool of the Spanish Under-23 Flat Water Canoeing Team at CEAR La Cartuja (Specialized Center for High Performance Rowing and Canoeing) in Seville. All the paddlers, in addition to competing at an international level, are enrolled in a university degree program. **Table 1** shows the characteristics of the participants. To avoid potential identification, areas of study were classified as either Sciences or Social Sciences.

#### Procedure

The methodology used was twofold: qualitative-quantitative. Consents were requested from the Royal Spanish Canoeing Federation, coaches and paddlers. Subsequently, individual contact was made with each athlete to arrange the date and time. In all cases, the place chosen was the facilities of CEAR La Cartuja, a space where all the athletes feel comfortable. The purpose of the study was explained to them and they were asked to consent to the use of the information, notifying them of the confidential nature and providing a brief explanation of the study. The interviews lasting between 10 and 15 min were recorded then

later transcribed and analyzed-codified according to the levels of the theoretical model described. The five levels were analyzed according to two criteria, facilitators and barriers.

#### Instruments

The qualitative portion used a semi-structured interview based on the theoretical model by Wylleman et al. (2013), which is based on three main themes: (a) balancing studies and athletic career; (b) balancing economic level and athletic career and complementary studies/activity; (c) balancing psychosocial level and athletic career and complementary studies/activity. This model is a reformulation of the original holistic model by Wylleman and Lavallee (2004) which defined four stages in the athletic career: initiation, development, mastery and discontinuation. According to the holistic model of the athletic career, not only should the athletic dimension be taken into account, but also other facets involved in the development of the person such as the individual, psychosocial, academic/vocational and financial aspects. In this way, the athlete can be better understood from an overall perspective. Despite sharing elements with previous models, the differential contribution of these authors was that of presenting the athletic stages in a coordinated manner together with psychological, psychosocial and academicvocational stages thus contributing a holistic perspective to the concept of the athlete and defining both stages and transitions for each area, adding the economic dimension in the 2013 version. In our case, the athletes studied were classified according to the above-mentioned model at the level of mastery, as they are members of the permanent Spanish Canoeing Federation team; at the psychological level at the end of adolescence/beginning of adulthood; at the psychosocial level according to their relationship with peers, family, coaches and teammates, university classmates/professors; at the academic and vocational levels as a semi-professional or professional athlete and university student and finally at the economic level with financial support from government scholarships, sponsors, and family.

The interview was therefore structured around the three basic pillars established by Wylleman et al. (2013): balancing academic career with athletic career (Athletic Level and Academic/Vocational Level blocks); balancing psychosocial level with athletic and academic careers (Psychosocial Level block); and balancing economic level with athletic and academic careers (Economic Level block). The psychological level was left out since the purpose of this research was not to assess the level of psychological maturity of the subjects.

The quantitative methodology used was the DC questionnaire called ESTPORT validated by (Sánchez-Pato et al., 2016). This questionnaire is the result of a project approved by the European Commission in 2014 entitled the "Development of an Innovative European Sport Tutorship Model for the Dual Career of Athletes" ESTPORT the aim of which was "to develop, transfer and implement an innovative EU Sport Tutorship program in different European Universities" in order to comply with the EU's DC guidelines for athletes. Therefore, due to these characteristics, this questionnaire was considered an appropriate tool and with great potential to be extrapolated to other countries.

This questionnaire was administered after the interview and completed in the presence of the interviewer. ESTPORT consists of two large blocks: the first on sociodemographic variables and the second on the DC, which in turn is divided into academic career and athletic career. The paddlers answered the questions in these blocks, which were structured into two types of answers: yes or no; or on a Likert scale ranging from very easily/totally agree, to very difficult/totally disagree, depending on the question.

#### Data Analysis

The statistical software packages used were SPSS for Windows v.23 (IBM SPSS Statistics, Chicago, IL, United States) and Microsoft Office Excel (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, United States). To verify the normality of the variables, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was performed, and a reliability analysis was carried out using Cronbach's alpha statistic of the closed-ended questions on the Likert scale, regarding the perceptual dimensions of academic career, athletic career and digital competence of the athlete. Subsequently, a t-test was conducted with the independent variable of sex and category (semi-professional or professional). The effect size (d) was also calculated, which quantifies the size of the difference between the two groups (Coe and Merino, 2003). Threshold values for the effect sizes on the ANOVA test were small, 0.10; moderate, 0.25; and large, 0.40 (Cohen, 1988). The level of significance was set at p < 0.05.

## RESULTS

This study includes both quantitative and qualitative results.

#### Quantitative Results

**Table 2** shows the results of the reliability testing for the dimensions of academic career, athletic career and digital competence of the athlete. The dimensions evaluated show medium–high reliability values. Reliability data reported for the athletic career are scarce mainly due to the diversity in the type of response. In some cases, the responses were categorized as dichotomous values yes (1) and no (0), and in others, the answers were Likert type ranging from 1 to 5. This variety causes fluctuation in the reliability of the scale values, which suggests it would be preferable to use only one type of response. Moreover, in the academic career according to sex, reliability was lower because the perception of male athletes differs due to the type of university studies and the future professional career that they believe possible through these studies. In addition, an example of this was found in the categorization between semi-professionals and professionals, as it was observed that in the latter there were differing perceptions regarding their academic career, possibly due to the success achieved in their athletic career.

To gain insight into how student-athletes perceive their DC, it is essential to verify the variance that exists between the populations studied. **Table 3** shows the differences in perception between young men and women athletes of their academic career. There was little gender variance, with just two differences noted. The first was the distance between residence and university, with the female athletes living closer to the university than the male athletes. The second item corresponded to the importance of a better result, which the male athletes attached greater importance to than the female athletes. This lack of differences was due to the homogeneity of the sample, as they all practiced the same sport and were in a position to combine their athletic career with their university career.

The perception of the sports career of the athletes participating in the study was similar according to gender (**Table 4**). Regarding digital competence, the men used Twitter teaching support more frequently than the women (P < 0.05). In addition, the item of use of assignments as teaching support was marginally different (P = 0.06), with a higher frequency in the women.

In the athlete's perception of his or her academic career according to category (semi-professional or professional), there were once again two significant differences (**Table 5**). The first of these was regarding the time taken away from studying by their other tasks as an athlete, on which the semi-professional athletes scored 1.83/5 points, indicating that sport-related activities did not interfere with their academic work (P < 0.05; d = 1.08). The second item with the greatest variance was losing contact with their peers, on which the professional athletes had a better score (approaching disagreement), thus positively assessing their DC (P = 0.05; d = 1.02).

On the perception of athletic career and digital competency (**Table 6**) by category, no significant differences were observed, despite the fact that the effect sizes (Cohen's d) were large in items 72 and 73 (d = 0.88 y 0.84, respectively) regarding athletic career and the use of chat to support teaching (d = 0.73).

#### Qualitative Results

For a better understanding of the qualitative results, we established two blocks: circumstances that enable the athlete to maintain continuity between both careers: athletic and academic, which we call "facilitators," and by contrast, other reasons that lead the athlete to choose just one of the careers that we call "barriers."

#### Facilitators

Concerning the "facilitators," in the athletic realm we note that that the coaches themselves are concerned about the need and importance of the academic education of their paddlers. In fact, they view the DC as positive because this way they also think about other things, in fact E1 commented: "It is better that they study, that they interact with other people who have nothing to do with canoeing. This way they have other things to think about. . . if not, if one day training goes poorly, they will be thinking about how badly they did it. . . if they have to think about having to go to the Faculty, etc. they forget about it sooner," "the things in the water stay in the water and have to be fixed in the water, driving themselves crazy about it only makes it worse."

Consistent with these words, the coaches have scheduled start times for each of the daily training sessions, although all paddlers say that coaches do not impose an obligation to attend each day's training, and even tend to modify training schedules so that their paddlers can combine going to class and training.

#### TABLE 2 | Reliability of the psychological variables studied.

TABLE 3 | Descriptive statistics on the perception of university student high-level athletes of their academic career.

Univ., university.

P6 Comments: "My coach, whenever possible, tries to help us., sometimes he lets us train later or earlier, but it's not good to train every day alone either. Besides, he doesn't force us to train, but if we push it, he reminds us that we are here thanks to a scholarship from the Federation."

On the psychological level, all canoeists comment on how important canoeing is and has been for them, and that, today, they do not understand and would not understand their lives without this sport. At the beginning it was the social environment that stood out (P11: "I liked most the atmosphere, my teammates, I enjoyed training at the club, I had fun"). Whereas, today, what motivates them is to be where they are and to be able to have it all. (P2: "I love the sensation and the appetite for more. I'm very much a perfectionist and wanted to achieve more things").

In relation to the psychosocial aspect, the affective part: surrounding themselves with their loved ones and their friends, this is their best time and although they have little time, and many see friends and relatives very occasionally, those days serve to "recharge batteries, escape and draw energy to continue training and their day to day" P14.

P19 comments: "The basic pillar in all of this are friendships and your group of friends, if not, you go crazy. Family is fundamental.

DC, dual career.

TABLE 5 | Student's t-test score by academic career category.

Univ., university.

TABLE 6 | Student's t-test score by category of athletic career and digital competency.

DC, dual career.

The academic level causes them the most distress, since attending class is very complicated as it usually coincides with training. So what they usually do is organize themselves at the beginning of the course/season. They ask their coach about the training schedules, and based on the schedule published in the faculty, they register for the courses they think they will be able to attend.

P3: "In September, when I arrive here, I ask the coach about the timetables and I outline the practical classes I can attend, since the theoretical ones are not compulsory, if I can attend, I go, but the other ones, I enroll because I can attend class. I try to maintain this throughout the course. although when the end of the course arrives, which coincides with the peak of the (sports) season, I spend weeks without going to the University, I'm dead!".

In addition, peer support is essential to address this situation.

P8: ". . .Having classmates who understand your situation and support you in everything (notes, group work, exams) is priceless!! To them, I owe half my degree."

P10: "My classmates know that I can't always go to class, they leave me their notes or let me know about important things the teacher has said. That way I can keep up to date. They also count on me for group work because they know that I need it so that I don't fall behind in the subject."

Currently, the economic aspect is not an obstacle for these paddlers since most have a maintenance grant from the Federation. In addition, some meet the requirements for other grants.

P16: "There are scholarships to help you pay the university tuition and if you can get them it is very helpful. I also usually apply for sports scholarships based on the results. In my case, the government of my region doesn't give me anything, but there are other colleagues who receive other assistance because they are Basque or Galician. . .".

P7: "I applied for a grant from the ministry, which I imagine they will give me. I have also just applied for the Galician high-level athlete grant and in theory they have to give me financial aid."

#### Barriers

#### **Athletic**

In general, for all the paddlers on the under-23 team who combine studies and training, both commitments overlap in time. Training schedules usually coincide with class schedules, so fulfilling both obligations is impossible. The most common option is to attend only the required classes (practical) and when these overlap, change the training schedule, even if this means training alone (without teammates or coach).

P13: "Practically it is the day to day... mainly the practical classes usually coincide with training. I have to train here very early to arrive just in time for class or late and the truth is that it makes everything difficult for me because I arrive at class tired. it is hard to manage. . . at the beginning of the season, I can still. . . but when the peak season comes. I am just dead when I get out of the water and cannot even climb the ladder, so just imagine going to the University.'

This academic-athletic situation affects the athlete at the psychological level with a considerable load of stress, since, as we have seen, being able to combine both activities on a daily basis is quite a complicated task.

P15: "Since practice is in the morning and the afternoon, I try to squeeze everything into a single session (I know I lose training quality and don't get enough rest between one and the other), but either I race against the clock or I can't manage."

P17: "I finish training between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m., I get home like at 3:30p.m. I take the bike to go to the university from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., you get home and you have to start studying because if not, you have no other time to do it."

P11: "I eat in a hurry because at 3:00 pm I have to leave to go to class, which I have from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., when I come back to

CEAR I stay there studying, doing homework or reading a little and at about 12:00 a.m. I go to sleep."

As we can see, in the life of the under-23 paddler there is no time for anything other than training, going to class, eating and resting. In this sense, the psychosocial aspect is the most neglected, certainly not because they want to, but because of lack of time. The most surprising thing is that they accept it and as it stands today their sacrifice is compensated.

P1: "After so much time maintaining this rhythm it's something I've internalized, but it's complicated to handle, I sacrifice many moments with friends and family. Lose many weekends, holidays, birthdays, and even evenings with friends to disconnect. You have to devote many hours to training, rest if you want to achieve something in this. . . and in your free time, study."

P11: "Friends are those who are in Galicia, I see them at Christmas or summer and that's it."

P12:"It's very complicated, because at the Faculty they tell me to stay for a drink, but for me, I would love to stay, but I have to train, I have to complete a training session, and maybe I could after dinner, around 9.30 at night, but the next day at 7:00 a.m. it wouldn't be realistic. so you have to be clear about what you are here for."

#### **Academics**

The academic realm presents the most barriers, and in greater number as the course and season progresses: attendance at classes, practical work, group work, exams...to which we should add training, gatherings outside Seville and the competitions, in many cases international. Successfully combining academic and athletic life becomes impossible even with good organization and, most of the time, one of the two facets is given up due to incompatibility. In all cases, it is academic life that is abandoned because the current university system does not benefit these athletes. In fact, many of them have chosen to switch from physically attending university to distance learning because of all these issues, while others have dropped out of university completely.

P3: "I started at the Complutense University of Madrid, when the Senior Lady's team was based at the Joaquín Blume residence in Madrid, and the following year when they told us that the training location would be changed, I decided to reconsider because the training location would be a bit volatile and I'm not going to be able to advance normally."

P19:"The first year I only passed one subject and last year I repeated the first year and passed a few more, I saw that it was impossible and that I was not going to be able to manage it if I wanted to continue training at a high level and I was not going to be able to pursue a career in Medicine, it is a career that you have to dedicate all your time to and be very focused, I loved it, I thought it was amazing but with this sport and the level at which I do it, for me, at least it is impossible." "The second quarter of the first year was very complicated. In the morning it was impossible to go to class. I trained every morning which is class time that you cannot change and that was the most complicated part really. Without going to class it is almost impossible to complete a career of that caliber."

Finally, from an economic standpoint, while there are scholarships to help these athletes, very few of them benefit from an athletic scholarship since they only receive one if they have been successful in international competitions and that is usually very difficult. These athletes spend years training at the highest level but are not assured that they will have compensation that will enable them to support themselves and to achieve independence. Some of them comment that they have had to look for an apartment outside the High Performance Center, because due to poor results in the previous year, they were not granted a scholarship, even though they are still on the team. Therefore, they need economic support from their family.

P13: "I don't receive any help or sponsorship, not from the club, or from the Asturian federation, and I don't any opportunity for a scholarship to the University because I'm not registered for the whole course, so I' m not entitled to it."

P5:"Canoeing in itself is not a sport that makes it easy for you on an economic level: you often have to pay for a competition yourself or if the Federation does not pay for the physiotherapist, you have to pay for the treatment yourself. Then regarding studies there are more and more scholarships, but there are no scholarships linking athletes with their studies, many scholarships are awarded for getting very good grades or for passing everything, and of course an athlete does not have the same chance as a normal student to pass everything or to get very good grades."

These are other reasons why the paddlers admit that they cannot quit studying because they know that the day they do not get results, they will have to find another way to make a living, and without a university degree, the options are very scarce.

P9: Who lives from canoeing in Spain? Maybe just one or two, and that's because they are civil servants, and they are able to train because they have facilities at work. I'm doing this to get to Tokyo 2020, to have the experience of an Olympic Games, not because it compensates financially."

## DISCUSSION

The purpose of the present study was to gain an understanding of the perception of life both in the athletic and the academic careers of the Spanish under-23 flat water canoeing team. The athletes showed some significant differences according to gender. The men live farther away from the university area and the sports facilities where they carry out their DC, an issue that may be related to their economic situation. Sometimes, when the problems are perceived by both populations, it is due to the university campus as well as the location where the training sessions are held frequently being located on the outskirts of the city. In addition, it is more difficult for the men to achieve a better result in their academic careers. This greater difficulty shown by the men may be associated with the constant concern that these athletes have for their future outside of sport (Stambulova and Wylleman, 2015), which translates into greater tension and anxiety (Gustafsson et al., 2008; Aquilina, 2013; O'Neill et al., 2013; Torregrosa et al., 2015; Sorkkila et al., 2017). Concluding the academic section according to gender, of note is that all the male athletes showed high scores on earning a university degree, the association between a university degree and finding work and

having knowledge and skills, which indicates that they perceive excessive difficulty in achieving these goals. These concerns or difficulties demonstrate the need to incorporate tutors at universities for high-level athletes to help and support these athletes providing optimal academic guidance (Stambulova et al., 2009; Mateos et al., 2010). The perception of the sports career, however, showed no significant differences according to gender.

These athletes were classified according to their level of expertise, differentiating between professionals and semi-professionals. The former showed greater difficulty and confirmed that training time takes time away from their studies, leading to the conclusion that it is more challenging for them to combine their studies with their athletic career. In contrast, the semi-professionals claimed that training time causes a loss of contact with peers. Some studies corroborate that many athletes, especially in minority sports, are aware of the importance of combining athletic life at the highest level with academic life, mainly due to the fact that athletic careers are short (Conzelmann and Nagel, 2003; Debois et al., 2015; Gledhill and Harwood, 2015; Kuettel et al., 2017; Barriopedro et al., 2018; López de Subijana et al., 2018; Pink et al., 2018).

On a qualitative level, we have seen the shift in research on the DC since the early studies by Purdy et al. (1982) advised against it because of poor academic results, while more current studies (Guidotti et al., 2015; Lupo et al., 2015; Stambulova and Wylleman, 2015; Fuchs et al., 2016; De Brandt et al., 2017; Isidori et al., 2017; Jordana et al., 2017; Kristiansen, 2017; Kuettel et al., 2017; Miro et al., 2017; Budevici-Puiu, 2018; Guirola et al., 2018; Kerstajn et al., 2018; Knight et al., 2018; Krueger et al., 2018; Ronkainen et al., 2018; Stefano and Ginevra, 2018; Tekavc and Erpic, 2018) corroborate the desirability of a double life (academic and athletic), with which our results coincide.

Studies by Stambulova et al. (2015) suggest that the optimal balance in the DC is the combination of sport and studies, whereas Gustafsson et al. (2008), Aquilina (2013), O'Neill et al. (2013), Torregrosa et al. (2015), Ryba et al. (2017), and Sorkkila et al. (2017), warn of the complexity of successfully combining these two spheres, causing anxiety, stress and tension. This has also been verified in our study, and when these appear, the paddlers abandon their academic career, first partially (they only attend the required classes) and if their stress is very high, they drop out completely, which is consistent with the research by Purdy et al. (1982).

Concerning the economic aspect, our results agree with those of other studies such as the results by Conzelmann and Nagel (2003), Debois et al. (2015), Gledhill and Harwood (2015), Kuettel et al. (2017), Barriopedro et al. (2018), López de Subijana et al. (2018), and Pink et al. (2018) since our paddlers, despite having a maintenance grant, are aware that they must have an academic career, as no matter how successful a sporting career may be, they will never be able to earn a living from it.

This study has several limitations that must be taken into account. First, the questionnaire validated by a group of Spanish researchers in a sample of Spanish athletes appears to have discrepancies concerning the reliability and validity of the elements that comprise the sport category. Experts have proven that some of the items that refer to the knowledge of applications and use of social networks should not be considered in the athletic career category. Accordingly, we view this as a limitation and thus propose designing a new questionnaire that includes all the variables and categories in a comprehensive manner. Furthermore, it could be very interesting to consider differences in other types of sports, whether team, opponent or individual. Athletes in team sports, for example, are thought to have different perceptions of their DC, enabling variations to be found in items that can be improved or palliated due in part to a process of intervention, tutoring or mentoring, embedded within the university itself.

### CONCLUSION

This is the first study to describe the perception of the DC in both professional and semi-professional under-23 canoeists. This information makes it possible to verify the difficulties currently encountered by these paddlers. According to the data extracted from the results section of the qualitative methodology, the athletes encounter specific problems that make it difficult to efficiently combine their DC. Due to the existence of these complications, we recommend the incorporation of the position of a tutor for high-level athletes into the university system to support, help and guide athletes during the times they need greater attention.

## DATA AVAILABILITY

All datasets generated for this study are included in the manuscript and/or the supplementary files.

## ETHICS STATEMENT

This study was performed in compliance with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki, revised in 2013, which defines the ethical guidelines for research involving human subjects. Prior to the study, written informed consent was obtained from the participants and their legal guardians. Throughout the entire research process and afterward, the provisions of the Organic Law 15/1999 of 13 December, on the protection of personal data were applied. All the participants were treated following the ethical guidelines of respect, confidentiality and anonymity in data processing.

### AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

#### ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

fpsyg-10-01783 July 31, 2019 Time: 20:1 # 10

We would like to thank the Royal Spanish Canoeing Federation, their coaches and paddlers for the time they

#### REFERENCES

have dedicated to making this study a success. In particular, to María Corbera Muñoz. We would also like to thank Maria Repice for her help with the English version of this manuscript.

italian case study," in Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Technology, Education and Development, eds L. G. Chova, A. L. Martinez, and I. C. Torres (Valencia: International Association of Technology, Education and Development (IATED)), 8028–8037.

**Conflict of Interest Statement:** The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Copyright © 2019 Gavala-González, Castillo-Rodríguez and Fernández-García. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

# Levels of Physical Activity Are Associated With the Motivational Climate and Resilience in University Students of Physical Education From Andalucía: An Explanatory Model

Ramón Chacón-Cuberos1 , Manuel Castro-Sánchez2 , José Antonio Pérez-Turpin3 , Eva María Olmedo-Moreno1 and Félix Zurita Ortega2 \*

#### Edited by:

Pedro L. Almeida, Higher Institute of Applied Psychology (ISPA), Portugal

#### Reviewed by:

Alessandro Quartiroli, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, United States Josep Vidal-Conti, University of the Balearic Islands, Spain Pere Palou Sampol, University of the Balearic Islands, Spain

> \*Correspondence: Félix Zurita Ortega

<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
#### Specialty section:

This article was submitted to Movement Science and Sport Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology

Received: 07 March 2019 Accepted: 23 July 2019 Published: 06 August 2019

#### Citation:

Chacón-Cuberos R, Castro-Sánchez M, Pérez-Turpin JA, Olmedo-Moreno EM and Zurita Ortega F (2019) Levels of Physical Activity Are Associated With the Motivational Climate and Resilience in University Students of Physical Education From Andalucía: An Explanatory Model. Front. Psychol. 10:1821. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01821 General and Specific Training, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain

1 Department of Research Methods and Diagnosis in Education, University of Granada, Granada, Spain, 2 Department of Didactics of Musical, Plastic and Corporal Expression, University of Granada, Granada, Spain, 3 Department of Didactic

Background: The practice of Physical Activity (PA) is a key factor for the improvement of physical and mental health, making the study of the motivational processes that take part in the development of active lifestyles of interest.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 775 university students of Physical Education (PE) from Spain. This research aims to develop an explanatory model for the relationships between motivational climate and resilience according to the level of PA, using structural equations analysis. The main instrument used were the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport (PMCSQ-2) and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC).

Results: A negative relationship was observed between task-oriented climate (TC) and ego-oriented climate, which acquired greater correlation strength in the respondents who did less PA. Likewise, a positive relationship was obtained between TC and resilience, which was higher in participants who did more than 3 h of weekly PA. Finally, it was observed that resilience was highly correlated with personal competence, tenacity and control capacity in the most active respondents.

Conclusion: The importance of promoting task-oriented motivational climates in PA is highlighted, since this could develop a better resilience capacity in university students and will favor the tolerance to adversity and the positive acceptance of changes.

Keywords: resilience, motivational climate, physical activity, sport, university

## INTRODUCTION

Given the benefits produced for physical and mental health, there's been an expansion in recent decades in the promotion of healthy lifestyles (Ekelund et al., 2016; Lewis et al., 2017). One of the main ways to achieve this aim is the practice of Physical Activity (PA). This is defined as all body movements that involve an energy expenditure, while the practice of physical exercise implies a prescription of PA with a specific load and rest periods. Moreover, sport is a more specific

concept that can be defined as a regulated and institutionalized PA that can involve competition in different ways. Thus, an adequate prescription of these habits will provide multiple benefits at the physiological level, and its promotion is essential from an early age (Bouchard et al., 2018). Specifically, World Health Organization [WHO] (2010) recommends performing at least 150 min of moderate PA or 75 min of intense PA per week in adults aged between 18 and 64 years old. This recommendation is especially important in university students, which are approaching adulthood (Arnett and Tanner, 2016). This stage is a period of labor and social complexity, in which several harmful habits can arise due to peer influence. Some of these habits include the consumption of legal drugs, sedentary digital leisure or unhealthy food intakes (Chacón-Cuberos et al., 2018a; Erturan-Ilker et al., 2018).

Among the benefits provided by positive habits figures a decrease in the risk of suffering from diseases such as osteoporosis, cancer or obesity (Warburton and Bredin, 2017). PA produces an improvement in insulin sensitivity, develops cardiorespiratory fitness through adaptations in the cardiovascular system and helps decrease the percentage of fat mass (Fransson et al., 2018; López-Sánchez et al., 2018). In addition, PA also generates a multitude of benefits at a cognitive level, which are the focus of this research work. For example, Sink et al. (2015) demonstrated that older adults who followed an active lifestyle based on PA for 24 months improved cognitive function and reaction time. Likewise, Plotnikoff et al. (2015), Donnelly et al. (2016) revealed that adolescents who performed physical exercise improved their cerebral neuroplasticity, attention capacity and academic performance. In fact, the practice of PA is associated with improvements in several psychosocial factors, such as self-esteem, perceived well-being, self-concept or resilience (Kavosi et al., 2015; Plotnikoff et al., 2015; Prakash et al., 2015).

Due to the positive effects for the health linked to the practice of PA, it is interesting to study the motivational processes that promote its practice. The Self-Determination Theory (Ryan and Deci, 2017; Chacón-Cuberos et al., 2018b) and the Achievement Goals Theory (Mascret et al., 2015; Chacón-Cuberos et al., 2018a) represent the two main models that explain the development of behaviors in the sport context. The first theory states that the level of motivation linked to a behavior establishes a continuum which varies from higher to lower level of self-determination. The most self-determined area includes more autonomous and controlled forms of motivation such as intrinsic motivation, while amotivation is found in the less self-determined area. In the middle zone the extrinsic motivation can be found, which is characterized by behaviors which are done in order to obtain some separable outcome or rewards. It is also important to point out that this level of self-determination will be mediated by three basic components, such as competence, autonomy, and relationship with others (Ryan and Deci, 2000; Gorelik et al., 2018). Briefly, the need of competence is linked to the ability to control actions effectively in order to obtain the desired result. The need for autonomy is associated with the desire of the person to build and determine their own behavior and modify it according to the need of the context. Finally, the

need of relationship is linked to behaviors that improve the social world of the athlete, integrating a socializing component (Ryan and Deci, 2017; Erturan-Ilker et al., 2018).

The second model establishes that the goals fixed by a person in the sport practice depend on the perception that people have of their abilities and skills (Harwood et al., 2015; Gorelik et al., 2018; Castro-Sánchez et al., 2019). The motivational climate is defined as the set of social and contextual signals through which social agents are related, which define the keys to success or failure (Moreno et al., 2008). Thus, two types of motivational climates can be developed as a result of the relationships between peers, rivals, coaches and other agents; the task-oriented motivational climate and the ego-oriented motivational climate. Moreover, several authors have demonstrated the link between the motivational climate and the theory of self-determination (Moreno et al., 2008; Jaakkola et al., 2017). The task-oriented climate (TC) is associated with intrinsic motivations that are related to teamwork, learning new skills and enjoying the PA. On the contrary, the ego-oriented climate (EC) is related to extrinsic motivations linked to competition and obtaining better results than rivals in sports practice (Chacón-Cuberos et al., 2018b; Monteiro et al., 2018; Cordo-Cabal et al., 2019).

Under this perspective, several studies have shown how the development of TCs in sport favors the promotion of healthy habits, while the ego-oriented motivational climate is associated with greater non-adaptive behaviors (Harwood et al., 2015; Chacón-Cuberos et al., 2018b). As an example of this basis, Reinboth and Duda (2006) show how people who practice collective sports, whose coach generates a task-oriented motivational climate, have higher levels of well-being. Similarly, Chacón-Cuberos et al. (2018a) reveal that the mastery climate is related to higher levels of PA and a better quality diet, while the EC is associated with greater alcohol consumption. Finally, and taking into account other psychological factors, Vitali et al. (2015) show that TC acts as a protective factor against burnout situations, as well as helping the development of resilience capacity.

The resilience capacity has been widely studied in the sport and academic context (Connor and Davidson, 2003; Doll et al., 2014; Vitali et al., 2015). This psychosocial factor refers to the ability to overcome situations of adversity (Connor and Davidson, 2003). In fact, resilience is closely associated with situations of stress and anxiety, since these negative factors are generated in situations in which an individual is not perceived with sufficient competence to overcome an event (Olmedilla et al., 2018; Zurita-Ortega et al., 2018). Therefore, it is of special interest to carry out actions that improve resilience capacity, since it acts as a protective factor against many vital experiences (Al-Haramlah, 2018). Sarkar and Fletcher (2014) show how the development of personal factors such as confidence, self-determined motivation and social support helps improve resilience and reduce the effect of stressors in the sport context. Moreover, Galli and Gonzalez (2015) highlight the importance of developing intervention programs based on the development of personal beliefs and the ability to control negative situations. In addition, and considering the association with the theoretical framework developed, it is interesting to

know its association with PA and motivation. For example, the study conducted by Hegberg and Tone (2015) reveals through a linear regression analysis how the PA and the perceived resilience are positively related, which is mediated by the trait anxiety levels. Furthermore, Ka et al. (2015) point out in a study conducted in young people from China how PA was related to mental wellbeing, self-efficacy and resilience, which shows the potential of this psychosocial factor and its association with healthy habits.

This research considers the motivational orientations involved in PA and the relationships of the motivational climate on the resilience capacity in different context. The present study sought to answer the following research question: are there differences in the relationship between motivational climate and the capacity of resilience according to the level of PA done? Given the findings of previous research the following hypotheses are proposed:

Thus, the following aims are set in the present study: (a) to develop an explanatory model about the relationships between motivational climate, resilience and its different indicators; (b) to contrast the structural equation model (SEM) developed according to the level of PA through multi-group analysis.

### MATERIALS AND METHODS

#### Subjects and Design

This study presents a cross-sectional design with a single measurement in a single group. The study sample consisted of 775 university students of Physical Education (PE) from the eight provinces of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia (Spain), with 58.7% (n = 455) men and a 41.3% (n = 320) women. The age of the respondents was between 21 and 35 years old (22.22 ± 3.76). A total of 1167 students were enrolled in the mention of PE (degree in Primary Education) during the academic year 2016/2017 (data provided by the different universities). Considering the university centers that accepted to participate in this study and the selection criteria [(1) To study PE degree; (2) To attend regularly to university -at least 75% of attendance in class considering the check-list of their professors- ; (3) Not to suffer from important pathologies], a sample of 829 subjects was considered using simple random sampling. A total of 54 questionnaires had to be eliminated because they were wrongly completed, obtaining a final sample of 775 university students. It can be considered that a representative sample was obtained for the studied population (university students of PE), with a sampling error of 0.05 and a CI of 95.5%. All the participants gave written informed consent.

#### Measures

This study used some main instruments as described below.

Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire (PMCSQ-2) (Walling et al., 1993). The Spanish version validated by González-Cutre et al. (2008) was used. This instrument allows to evaluate the motivational climate in sport and it is composed of 33 five-point items ranging from 1 to 5 (1 = Strongly Disagree; 5 = Strongly Agree). This scale establishes two dimensions (TC and ego-oriented climate), each containing three factors. These are Effort/Improvement, Cooperative learning, and Important role for the TC and Punishment for mistakes, Member rivalry, and Unequal recognition for the ego-oriented climate. This instrument has an acceptable value for Cronbach's alpha (α = 0.85), showing an appropriate internal consistency. For each dimension, TC showed an excellent value of α = 0.92, while EC ghas a value of α = 0.93.

Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), developed by Connor and Davidson (2003) and validated into Spanish by Olmo et al. (2017), which allows the assessment of the resilience capacity of respondents. This instrument is composed of 25 five-point items ranging from 0 to 4 (0 = I totally disagree; 4 = I totally agree). The 25 items conform to five factors related to resilient behavior, such as personal ability and tenacity, confidence and tolerance for adversity, positive acceptance of changes, capacity of control and spiritual influence. This instrument has an excellent reliability in the present study, showing an alpha value of α = 0.90. For each dimension the values were: Personal competence (α = 0.85), Tolerance to adversity (α = 0.71), Positive acceptance to changes (α = 0.72), Control capacity (α = 0.65), and Spirituality (α = 0.59).

International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) (Craig et al., 2003), validated into Spanish by Mantilla and Gómez-Conesa (2007), allowed the evaluation of levels of PA done in the last week by respondents. This scale is scored through a five-point Likert scale with seven items (0 = Never; 4 = Always) obtaining a summation that establishes the global level of PA in the last 7 days. Subsequently, a variable of categorical type was created, which determined whether the participants performed more than 3 h per week of PA outside academic hours. This variable of dichotomous type (1 = Yes; 2 = No) was used for the multi-group analysis of the two structural equation models. This research obtained an acceptable reliability in this research (α = 0.86).

#### Procedure

First, the collaboration of the respondents was requested through an informative letter created by the Corporal Area of the University of Granada. This was provided to the university students who attended the Mention of PE of the degree of Primary Education of the eight Andalusian provinces. This document detailed the proposal of the research, as well as the objectives of the same. In addition, the informed consent of the participants was requested. This was obtained and written.

The application of the described instruments was subsequently done. A total of 829 university students took part in the study. Data collection was done during school hours in the different university centers without any type of incident. Moreover, researchers were present in order to ensure the correct application of the instruments.

The anonymity of all subjects has been respected, as well as the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975 for studies with humans. Similarly, the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Granada (Spain) approved this study (462/CEIH/2017). Respondents participated voluntarily in this research.

#### Statistical Analysis

First, the IBM SPSS R 23.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, United States) software was used to check the normal distribution of the sample through the values of asymmetry and kurtosis of the items of the scales. In this case, no value equal to or greater than 2 was obtained, showing a normal distribution. In addition, frequencies and means were used for the basic descriptive and the T-test to verify the existence of statistically significant differences between variables. On the other hand, the IBM AMOS R 23 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, United States) software was used to analyze the relationships between the involved constructs of the structural model. Once the theoretical model is developed, a SEM is carried out considering the relationships of the matrix from a multi-group analysis according to the level of practice of PA. The SEM is made up of 11 observable variables and three latent variables to determine the indicators (**Figure 1**). In these, explanations of the associations between the latent variables are formulated from the observed relationships. Likewise, measurement errors (circles) are included in the observable variables so that they are directly controlled. The arrows are lines of relationships between the variables and these are interpreted as regression coefficients.

The SEM showed in **Figure 1** is composed of three latent variables (ovals) and 11 observed variables (squares). Task Climate (TC) and Ego Climate (EC) are the latent and exogenous variables. These two exogenous variables were inferred by the following six observed variables: Important Role (RI), Cooperative Learning (CL), and Effort/Improvement (EI) for Task Climate (TC), and Member Rivalry (MR), Unequal Recognition (UR), and Punishment for Mistakes (PM) for Ego Climate (EC). Another latent variable was Resilience (RES), which was inferred by Personal Competence (PC), Tolerance to Adversity (TA), Positive Acceptance to changes (PA), Control Capacity (CO), and Spirituality (S).

The method of maximum likelihood (ML) was used to estimate relationships between variables. We chose this method because it is consistent, unbiased and invariant to types of scale, given variables with a normal distribution. Model fit was examined to verify the compatibility of the proposed model and the empirical information gathered. Goodness of fit was tested using a number of indices described (Barrett, 2007). Chi-squared analysis followed when non-significant p-Values indicated a good model fit. Comparative fit index (CFI), normalized fit index (NFI) and increase fit index (IFI) values higher than 0.90 indicate acceptable model fit while values higher than 0.95 indicate excellent model fit. Root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) values below 0.08 indicate acceptable model fit while values below 0.05 indicate excellent model fit.

## RESULTS

First, descriptive data of the sample are shown in relation to the variables (motivational climate and resilience), considering the gender [men = 58.7% (n = 455); women = 41.3% (n = 320)] and the practice of more than 3 h per week of PA [+3 h/week = 74.1% (n = 574); −3 h/week = 25.9% (n = 201)]. Specifically, **Table 1** shows the differences between men and women for all subdimensions of the ego-oriented climate, being higher in men. Considering the practice of weekly PA, it was observed that those who practiced more than three weekly non-teaching hours had higher scores in the global TC, cooperative learning, unequal recognition and rivalry between members.

**Table 2** shows the levels of resilience based on gender and the practice of PA. Statistically significant differences were observed in global resilience, personal competence and positive acceptance to change, with higher scores in men. In addition, statistically significant differences were revealed with regards to the levels of PA, with higher scores for those respondents who do more PA in global resilience, personal competence and tolerance to adversity.

Subsequently, the SEM was carried out, including the motivational climate and resilience, through a multi-group analysis according to the practice of PA. The path model showed correct fit indices in the parameters analyzed. P-value reveals a statistically significant value (χ 2 = 210.200, df = 82, p < 0.001). This index should not be interpreted in a standardized way due to its sensitivity to sample size. In this way, other fit indices were included as established by Marsh (2007). The NFI revealed an acceptable value of 0.94, while the CFI and the Increment Fit Index (IFI) showed excellent an value of 0.96 for both parameters. Moreover, an acceptable value of 0.05 was obtained for the RMSEA.

First, it is showed the SEM for respondents considered physically active (more than 3 hours of PA/week) (**Figure 2** and **Table 3**). Statistically significant differences were obtained at the p < 0.001 level in the associations given between the two dimensions of motivational climate and its indicators. In this sense, the indicator that had the greatest influence on TC was CL (b = 0.91), while the indicator that obtained the lowest regression weight was the Effort/Improvement (EI) (b = 0.83). For EC the highest correlation was showed by the UR (b = 0.91), while the indicator with the least influence was the Rivalry between members (MR) (b = 0.70). Likewise, the TC and EC were inversely related (b = −0.54, p < 0.001).

Statistically significant differences (p < 0.001) were observed between resilience capacity (RES) and all its indicators, showing direct relationships. The variable with the highest influence was Personal competence and tenacity (PC) (b = 0.92), while the one with the lowest regression weight was Spirituality (S) (b = 0.31). Moreover, the relationships between the motivational climate and the RES were positive and direct, acquiring a greater correlation strength for the TC (b = 0.52, p < 0.001) than for the EC (b = 0.16, p < 0.05).

**Figure 3** and **Table 4** show the regression weights of the SEM designed for those university students who follow a less active lifestyle (less than 3 h of PA/week). Statistically significant differences were obtained for the relationships given between all

acceptance to changes; CO, control capacity; S, spirituality.

the indicators and the two dimensions of the motivational climate (p < 0.001) as showed by the previous SEM. In this case, the indicator with the highest regression weight for the TC was the RI (b = 0.91), while the variable with the least association was the EI (b = 0.76). The highest correlation was shown with UR (b = 0.93) for the CE dimension, with the least regression weight for MR (b = 0.65).

In a similar line, statistically significant relationships (p < 0.001) are shown for all the indicators of the RES except for the S. The variable with the greatest regression weight was the PC (b = 0.87), while the one with the least influence was the CO (b = 0.63). Likewise, statistical associations were only observed for the relationship between TC and RES in the university students linked to a lower level of PA, showing a positive and direct association (b = 0.30, p < 0.01).

### DISCUSSION

This research aims to analyze the relationships between motivational climate in sport and resilience capacity in university students using a SEM with multi-group analysis. This association

TC, task-oriented climate; IR, important role; EI, effort/improvement; CL, cooperative learning; EC, ego-oriented climate; PM, punishment for mistakes; UR, unequal recognition; MR, member rivalry; SD, standard deviation. ∗Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05).

#### TABLE 2 | Levels of resilience according to gender and PA.

RES, resilience; PC, personal competence; TA, tolerance to adversity; PA, positive acceptance to changes; CO, control capacity; S, spirituality; SD, standard deviation. ∗Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05).

is analyzed according to the level of PA in order to verify the relationship between these variables depending on the practice of more than 3 h per week of PA. Supporting this study, other similar researches are those carried out by Lee and Loke (2005), Schnettler et al. (2015), Chacón-Cuberos et al. (2018a), Zurita-Ortega et al. (2018), which address physical and mental health in university students as a risk group for harmful behaviors.

First, the influence exerted by the indicators of each dimension of the motivational climate is analyzed. The SEM showed that CL was the most influential indicator in the TC for students who practice more PA. The IR was the indicator with the higher regression weight for the respondents who did less than 3 h per week of PA. These results can be explained by the findings of Parish and Treasure (2003), who demonstrate how the most self-determined motivations favor higher levels of PA, which is linked to the TC as it is shown in the present research. Moreover, teamwork is more associated with intrinsic motivations given the hedonistic and social component involved in sports practice, which makes university students want to maintain this habit (Monteiro et al., 2018; Montero-Cobo et al., 2018). Nevertheless, the IR is established as an indicator that can be associated with both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (Hodge and Gucciardi, 2015). For this reason, university students who are related to extrinsic motivations such as competition, practice sports with less frequency (Winter and Collins, 2015).

According to the ego-oriented climate, the UR obtained the greatest regression weight for active and non-active students, although this showed a higher score in the non-active students despite the difference being minimal. This lower influence can be justified by the premises previously explained, given that

#### TABLE 3 | Regression weights and standardized regression weights in active students (>3 h/week of PA).

TC, task-oriented climate; IR, important role; EI, effort/improvement; CL, cooperative learning; EC, ego-oriented climate; PM, punishment for mistakes; UR, unequal recognition; MR, member rivalry; RES, resilience; PC, personal competence; TA, tolerance to adversity; PA, positive acceptance to changes; CO, control capacity; S, spirituality; SRW, standardized regression weights; SE, estimation of Error; CR, critical ratio; RW, regression weights; EST, estimation. ∗p < 0.05 and ∗∗∗p < 0.001.

university students who practice less PA are linked to external motivations associated with specific rewards and competition (Winter and Collins, 2015; McLaren et al., 2017). Specifically, Castro-Sánchez et al. (2018) established that the sport practice associated with competition can be linked to negative emotions that emerge from unwanted results, such as defeat, anxiety or frustration. This causes these individual to stop practicing sport due to these negative feelings, which make them less physically active (McLaren et al., 2017; Castro-Sánchez et al., 2018). Likewise, this type of motivation can be linked to non-adaptive behaviors, such as the consumption of harmful substances, the intensive use of technological devices or poor diets (Chacón-Cuberos et al., 2018b).

Personal competence and control capacity acquired a slightly higher regression weight for resilience in active people. These findings highlight that PA can be linked to an improvement of personal competence through tenacity and the ability to overcome negative situations. It is because the practice of PA

TC, task-oriented climate; IR, important role; EI, effort/improvement; CL, cooperative learning; EC, ego-oriented climate; PM, punishment for mistakes; UR, unequal recognition; MR, member rivalry; RES, resilience; PC, personal competence; TA, tolerance to adversity; PA, positive acceptance to changes; CO, control capacity; S, spirituality; SRW, standardized regression weights; SE, estimation of error; CR, critical ratio; RW, regression weights; EST, estimation. ∗∗p < 0.01 and ∗∗∗p < 0.001.

generates endorphins and reduces stress, helps maintain levels of effort, allows the setting of attainable goals and favors the development of self-determined motivations (Mandolesi et al., 2018; Zurita-Ortega et al., 2018). In addition, Shoenfelt (2016) establish how the practice of sport improves the control capacity, since the athlete will learn to fight against situations of adversity such as defeat, and negative emotions such as anxiety, frustration or fear. In contrast, tolerance to adversity and positive acceptance of changes were the indicators more related to resilience in the respondents who practice fewer than 3 h of PA per week. This situation may be due to a lower capacity of these students to maintain behaviors when establishing goals, being less persistent and forced to accept the new events (Morgan et al., 2017). Thus, the respondents who practice more PA are more optimistic and empathic, which makes them more resilient without the need to achieve their objectives (Laborde et al., 2016).

The relationship between motivational climate and resilience revealed a positive relationship between TC and resilience capacity, which was higher in the more active respondents. From these results, it can be inferred that those students who practice more PA linked to intrinsic motivations such as hedonism, learning improvement or socialization, are more resilient. Specifically, Vitali et al. (2015) demonstrate how coaches who develop task-oriented motivational climates help improve the level of achievement in athletes, sports devaluation and burnout levels, acting as a protective factor and improving resilience. On a similar note, Martin and Dowson (2009) emphasize that positive psychology, which has certain elements in common with selfdetermined motivations, can be positively related to resilience. Specifically, it highlights the importance of favoring adaptive behaviors within the cognitive sphere such as goals oriented toward mastery, self-efficacy and the value of work (Crane et al., 2017; Chacón-Cuberos et al., 2018b). Likewise, within the field of behavior, emphasis is placed on developing persistence, planning and the ability to organize work tasks (Martin and Dowson, 2009; Secades et al., 2016).

The EC showed a lower association with resilience, and only in active people due to the relationship that exists between both motivational climates in those people who practice sports frequently. Specifically, Matosic et al. (2017) remember how the promotion of both motivational climates generates a positive effect on the adherence of university students to sports practice, justifying these findings. Nevertheless, the development of intrinsic motivations should not be neglected, since several works establish how motivational climates oriented exclusively to the ego are linked to situations of self-handicap, disgust, poor control and avoidance of failure (Martin and Dowson, 2009; Verner-Filion et al., 2014). This is due to situations in which the desired results are not achieved, when there is excessive competition or when these two factors lead to high levels of state anxiety, stress or sports burnout (Smith et al., 2007). Therefore, it can be concluded that the promotion of motivational climates oriented to the task could favor the resilient capacity and act in a preventive way with negative emotions in sports.

It is important to establish the main limitations of this study. The first is associated with the study design, since a crosssectional research do not allow to show cause-effect relationships. However, the SEM is useful to know the associations between the psychosocial variables which have been studied. Moreover, multi-group analysis is used in order to compare the regression weights of this relationship according to a dichotomous variable as the practice of PA. Another limitation is linked to the study sample, since only university students who attend PE degrees were considered. Consequently, it can be established that this sample already has a relatively high level of PA. Therefore, there is a need to replicate this study in other types of university students,

since students from other degrees may be more sedentary and may develop more harmful habits such as a poor diet or substance abuse. In this way, we could expand the vision of the existing relationships between PA level, resilience and motivation in sports as future perspectives. Finally, it would also be interesting to include other psychological factors associated with resilience, such as self-concept or burnout syndrome.

#### CONCLUSION

Considering the research question, it can be established that resilience is associated with the type of motivational climate in sport and the levels of PA of university students. Nevertheless, this relationship depends on the type of motivational climate, showing different types of influence in this capacity. Therefore, we should point out about the hypothesis:

As a main conclusion, it can be established that the practice of PA could be associated with more favorable motivational climates and levels of resilience capacity in university students. Specifically, respondents who do more than 3 h of PA per week showed slightly higher levels of TC, which were linked to a

#### REFERENCES

greater resilience. This factor was mainly influenced by a personal competence and the capacity of control.

#### DATA AVAILABILITY

The datasets for this manuscript are not publicly available because the reason is that they are part of a project and belong to the research group. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to the corresponding author.

#### ETHICS STATEMENT

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.

## AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

RC-C, EO-M, and FZO conceived the hypothesis of this study. FZO, JP-T, and MC-S participated in the data collection. RC-C and MC-S analyzed the data. All authors contributed to the data interpretation of the statistical analysis, and read and approved the final manuscript. RC-C, EO-M, and MC-S wrote the manuscript with the significant input from FZO and JP-T.

**Conflict of Interest Statement:** The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Copyright © 2019 Chacón-Cuberos, Castro-Sánchez, Pérez-Turpin, Olmedo-Moreno and Zurita Ortega. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

# Self-Determined Motivation and Competitive Anxiety in Athletes/Students: A Probabilistic Study Using Bayesian Networks

Francisco Javier Ponseti1 , Pedro L. Almeida2 , Joao Lameiras3 , Bruno Martins4 , Aurelio Olmedilla5 \*, Jeanette López-Walle6 \*, Orlando Reyes6 and Alexandre Garcia-Mas7

1 Department of Pedagogy, University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Spain, 2 Departamento de Psicologia Social e Organizacional, ISPA – Instituto Universitario, Lisbon, Portugal, 3 Portuguese Athletics Federation, Lisbon, Portugal, 4 GICAFE de la UIB, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal, 5 Departamento de Personalidad, Evaluación y Tratamiento Psicológicos, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain, 6 Facultad de Organización Deportiva, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Nuevo León, Mexico, 7 Department of Psychology, University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Spain

#### Edited by:

Adelaida María Castro Sánchez, University of Almería, Spain

#### Reviewed by:

Esther Gil Martínez, University of Almería, Spain Miguel-Angel Gomez-Ruano, Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain

#### \*Correspondence:

Jeanette López-Walle<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Aurelio Olmedilla<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
#### Specialty section:

This article was submitted to Movement Science and Sport Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology

Received: 08 April 2019 Accepted: 08 August 2019 Published: 06 September 2019

#### Citation:

Ponseti FJ, Almeida PL, Lameiras J, Martins B, Olmedilla A, López-Walle J, Reyes O and Garcia-Mas A (2019) Self-Determined Motivation and Competitive Anxiety in Athletes/Students: A Probabilistic Study Using Bayesian Networks. Front. Psychol. 10:1947. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01947 This study attempts to analyze the relationship between two key psychological variables associated with performance in sports – Self-Determined Motivation and Competitive Anxiety – through Bayesian Networks (BN) analysis. We analyzed 674 university students that are athletes from 44 universities that competed at the University Games in Mexico, with an average age of 21 years (SD = 2.07) and with a mean of 8.61 years' (SD = 5.15) experience in sports. Methods: Regarding the data analysis, firstly, classification using the CHAID algorithm was carried out to determine the dependence links between variables; Secondly, a BN was developed to reduce the uncertainty in the relationships between the two key psychological variables. The validation of the BN revealed AUC values ranging from 0.5 to 0.92. Subsequently, various instantiations were performed with hypothetical values applied to the "bottom" variables. Results showed two probability trees that have extrinsic motivation and amotivation at the top, while the anxiety/activation due to worries about performance was at the bottom of the probabilities. The instantiations carried out support the existence of these probabilistic relationships, demonstrating their scarce influence on anxiety about competition generated by the intrinsic motivation, and the complex probabilistic effect of introjected and identified regulation regarding the appearance of anxiety due to worry about performance.

#### Keywords: Bayesian networks, self-determined motivation, competitive anxiety, athletes, students

## INTRODUCTION

One of the biggest problems facing social science is the great difficulty involved in predicting human behavior. It may be due to the large number of variables that bear influence on it, however, other explanations have also been proposed within the framework of information theory (IT) and the entropy inherent in the development of open and closed systems, although they do not form part of the currently valid paradigm in psychological research (Luce, 2003; Chen and Huang, 2018; Olmedilla et al., 2018). As far as statistical methods in Psychology are concerned, something very

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similar to the analysis derived from Bayes' theorem has arisen, which has a very direct relationship with the classic concept of Entropy (Laming, 2001; Farr et al., 2018). Adding sense to the similarity between these two concepts, we can argue that "IT provides a constructive criterion for setting up probability distributions on the basis of partial knowledge, and leads to a type of statistical inference that is called the (Jaakkola et al., 2000).

Therefore, it is plausible to assume that the conceptual framework of entropy is quite fitting when attempting to explain the situation of an athlete before a competition at a given moment in time. The so-called entropic "time arrow" – which implies irreversibility of events, by prohibiting the symmetry between past and future – understood psychologically, implies the generation of a past, through past events recall and memorybuilding, in the face of a mobile future that is configured mainly on the basis of expectations and a broad spectrum of emotions ranging from hope to fear.

In the case of sports psychology, one of the most relevant issues already extensively studied but still open to discussion affects precisely these two aspects of the "time arrow": how do emotions associated with future performance combine with the athletes' motivational past?

Motivation is one of the most studied variables in the context of sport (Lindahl et al., 2015; Clancy et al., 2016), and it is defined as the cause of a behavior, which operates at a psychological level within the individual and determines the execution or not of a certain activity (Tohidi and Jabbari, 2012). Intrinsic motivation can be defined as one in which individuals move autonomously toward new challenges, broader experience frameworks, and greater coherence in understanding. It represents a behavior that interests them, seeks encouragement, limits evidence, and openly assimilates novelty. On the other hand, there are four motivational norms that offer a broader framework on external motivation. The first of these is external regulation, in which the individual regulates his behavior through externally controlled rewards and punishments; the second is introjected regulation; in that regulation, the individual, by complying with internal demands, can develop certain forms of self-esteem, self-satisfaction and feelings of pride about himself; in identified regulation people value the importance of certain behavior and see it as something important for themselves; in integrated regulation, it implies that the individual brings a value or regulation in congruence with the other aspects of himself; with his basic psychological needs and with his other identifications. Finally, a motivation describes a state in which the individual is not motivated to behave or behaves in a way that is not mediated by intentionality (Ryan and Deci, 2017).

On the other hand, another of the most widely studied variables in regard to the activation of individual and sports performance is anxiety (Patel et al., 2010; Ponseti F. et al., 2016). This is defined as an immediate emotional state, characterized by apprehension and tension, associated with the activation of the organism that occurs in situations of competition (Martens, 1977). Also, competitive anxiety has been characterized by two cognitive components. One of these is worry, which is understood as restlessness about the potentially negative consequences associated with poor performance; and the second is deconcentration, which is associated with the athlete's difficulty to focus on key aspects of the task to be performed that impede clarity of thought during the competitive situation (Grossbard et al., 2009).

That is why, in view of the scarcity of relevant literature (Fuster-Parra et al., 2015), the objective of this paper is to investigate the relationships that exist between motivational regulations (intrinsic regulation, integrated regulation, identified regulation, introjected regulation, external regulation, and amotivation) and anxiety (cognitive anxiety, worry, and deconcentration), in relation to competition in sports. The study of the relationship between these variables is of particular importance, since some authors (Nuñez and García-Mas, 2017) even affirm the possibility that anxiety in its different dimensions (e.g., cognitive, somatic, and motor) in certain conditions and based on the intrinsic characteristics of the individuals, such as their motivational regulation, can play a facilitating role of performance in competitive contexts.

In our study, framed within a closed IT system (a sports competition directed at a homogenous sample of athletes/students), we decided in favor of using a tool recommended for this type of situation, namely analysis through a machine learning classification and Bayesian networks (BN) (Puga et al., 2007; Trafimow and Marks, 2015). This approach should allow us – in part – to simulate the reversal of the "time arrow" when modifying parameters in the temporal succession of events based on the principles of probability inherent to the BNs, which presuppose independence between the events under study.

Bayesian networks are beginning to be more widely used in the field of Social Science (Ranganathan et al., 2014; Lewandowski et al., 2015; Fuster-Parra et al., 2017; Chen and Huang, 2018) and, more recently, they have been introduced as a useful methodology in Sports Psychology, given their ability to provide information on the probability of occurrence of events (some of them psychological) related to performance in sports or, for example, the likelihood of sports injuries. BN have been used to discover relationships between negative features in sport, co-operative team work, motivation and types of sporting cooperation among players on competing teams, motivational climate and anxiety (Jones and Hanton, 2001) and relative age effect (Fuster-Parra et al., 2014, 2016; Ishigami, 2016; Ponseti F.J. et al., 2016).