Consecuencias psicológicas generadas en Educación Física tras el desarrollo de un programa de intervención basado en el apoyo a las necesidades psicológicas básicas en el alumnado

Resum

The aim of the study was to to examine the effects of a teaching style intervention, focused on autonomy, competence, and relatedness need support, on students' psychological outcomes in Physical Education (PE) classes. This needsupportive teaching program was part of a multicomponent school-based intervention called “Paths of the Pyrenees” that aimed to improve multiple health behaviors in adolescents. A quasi-experimental design was carried out in a sample of 210 students aged between 12 and 14 years old. One hundred and five participated in the control school (M = 13.07 ± 0.63, 53.3% girls) and 105 in the experimental school (M = 13.05 ± 0.59, 52.4% girls). Motivational strategies based on autonomy, competence, and relatedness need support were implemented in the teaching units during a school year. Students' perceptions of positive behaviors (i.e., respect for rules, facilities, and materials, assessment of effort, tolerance and respect for classmates, cooperation, and self-control), PE experiences, number of PE hours they would like to have, and oppositional defiance were measured. Among the results of the study, it should be highlighted that the experimental school students reported significantly higher values in tolerance and respect for classmates, cooperation, experiences in their PE classes, and the number of PE hours that they would like to have, as well as significantly lower values in oppositional defiance when compared to both control school students and their own baseline values. The design of strategies that allow students to make decisions in their teaching-learning process, a sense of competence of their abilities, and feel integrated and connected with their peers improve students' psychological outcomes in PE classes.