Predicting Future Trends in Adult Fitness Using the Delphi Approach

Abstract

This study determined how experts see the future of adult fitness by using the Delphi Technique as a measurement tool. Experts (n = 50), all Fellows of the American College of Sports Medicine, were selected on the basis of their reputations in adult fitness. Three questionnaires were submitted to the panel. In the first questionnaire each expert listed five or more events, trends, or developments they thought would take place and five or more events they would like to see take place in the next 25 years. From the events and trends listed on this questionnaire, 100 items were generated that formed the basis for the last two questionnaires. Responses to the items on the second questionnaire were evaluated on a 5-point Likert scale for probability and desirability. In the third questionnaire, group means and standard deviations were calculated and recorded for each item. Only those items which were significantly (p < .01) higher than 3.0, the average probability or desirability response on the Likert scale, were included in the analysis. The items were divided into seven categories: fitness in sport and recreation, fitness and wellness, fitness in industry, fitness in education, fitness in business, research in fitness, and fitness equipment and facilities. The highest single mean for any item for both probability (M = 4.31) and desirability (M = 4.83) was increased awareness of health and fitness among the elderly.     

Girls’ active identities: navigating othering discourses of femininity,bodies and physical education

Within physical education and sport, girls must navigate discourses of valued athletic and gendered bodies that marginalise or ‘other’ non-normative performances through systems of surveillance and punishment. The purpose of this paper is to share girls’ perspectives on how these discourses affected their gender performances and activity engagement. Students aged 13–14 in one ethnically diverse UK secondary school were invited to create a photo diary of the physical activities they engaged in. Photo-elicitation interviews in small groups followed. The girls positioned themselves as physically active but had to carefully manage their activity choices and gender performances in a single-sex physical education environment that regulated deviation from the fit, slender, girly-girl. Although the girls demonstrate the difficulty of resisting, they indicate moments of positioning themselves against norms that suggest the possibilities of shifting gendering processes. The paper points out the importance of listening to ‘other’ girls’ narratives in building positive physical education engagements.     

The impact of peer mentoring on pupils’ emotional literacy competencies

Research suggests that peer mentoring can positively impact on emotional literacy competencies. This study explored the effects of peer mentoring on the emotional literacy competencies of Year 7 peer mentees using a quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test control group design. Results supported the hypothesis that peer mentoring has a positive impact on the emotional literacy competencies of mentees with low to average levels of emotional literacy at pre-intervention. Results also showed a significant negative correlation between attendance at sessions and perceived Conduct Problems. Unexpectedly, results indicated adverse effects of reading mentoring on the emotional literacy competencies of control participants.     

Mothers’ Implicit and Explicit Attitudes and Attributions in Relation to Self-Reported Parenting Behavior

Objective. Parenting behavior is presumed to be related to the thoughts about child behavior that parents report in a controlled and explicit manner and to more implicit parent cognitions that occur outside of conscious awareness and are less accessible to verbal report. Design. We examined mothers’ attitudes toward their children as correlates of self-reported parenting behavior. We used a combination of a self-report questionnaire and a reaction-time method (the Implicit Association Test) to assess explicit and implicit attitudes, respectively. We also assessed mothers’ implicit and explicit attributions for child misbehavior in relation to parenting, using a questionnaire measure of attributions completed under high-cognitive load (implicit attributions) or under low-cognitive load (explicit attributions). Mothers of 124, 6- to 10-year-olds (52% male) participated. Results. Attitudes assessed by self-report questionnaire and the Implicit Association Test were uniquely associated with negative parenting. The cognitive load manipulation moderated associations between attributions and parenting, such that child-blaming attributions were inversely associated with positive parenting only under conditions of high-cognitive load. Conclusions. Compared to traditional self-report questionnaires, methods such as the Implicit Association Test or cognitive load manipulations may more effectively assess implicit parent cognitions.