Physical inactivity is a global concern. Physical educators have direct access to children. Researchers have investigated the benefits of student perceived physical education (PE) autonomy-supportive instruction in PE and leisure-time (LT). Hence, a fixed-effect meta-analysis was conducted to gain an understanding of the direct effects of perceived PE autonomy-supportive instruction on a number of student outcomes. In total, 39 correlation based studies totaling 23,554 participants were analyzed with mean weighted correlation (r_w) as the analyzed effect size. Nearly all effect sizes were statistically significant (p < .01). Effect sizes in PE ranged in meaningfulness from large to small across the PE categories of basic needs, emotions, motivational processes and behaviors, physical activity self-esteem, physical activity motivation, and general self-esteem/concept. For LT, effect sizes were mostly medium to small across the basics needs, motivation processes, and physical activity categories. Thus, though student perceived PE teacher autonomy-support instruction was meaningfully related to basics needs, higher level motivational processes (i.e. intrinsic motivation), and positive emotions in PE and LT, the relationships were small in meaningfulness with regards to physical activity. Future research must elucidate how perceived PE teacher autonomy-support instruction may directly improve children’s physical activity to combat the global inactivity epidemic.

Resumen

La inactividad física es una preocupación a nivel mundial. Los educadores físicos tienen acceso directo a los niños. Los investigadores han estudiado los beneficios percibidos en educación física (PE) por los estudiantes respecto a la formación en educación física de apoyo a la autonomía tanto en la educación física como en el tiempo libre (TL). Por ende, se realizó un meta-análisis de efecto fijo con el fin comprender los efectos directos de la percepción de formación de apoyo a la autonomía en PE en los resultados de un grupo de estudiantes.  En total, se analizaron 39 estudios de correlación con un total de 23.554 participantes analizados según la correlación de medias ponderada (r_w) y el tamaño del efecto analizado. Casi todos los tamaños del efecto fueron estadísticamente significativos (p < 0.01). Los tamaños del efecto en PE oscilaban, de mayor a menor, a través de las categorías de necesidades básicas de educación física, las emociones, los procesos y los comportamientos de motivación, la autoestima y la motivación en la actividad física y la autoestima en general, como concepto. En TL los tamaños del efecto eran, en su mayoría, de medianos a pequeños en la categoría de necesidades básicas, procesos de motivación y actividad física. Por lo tanto, aunque la instrucción de ayuda a la autonomía del profesor de educación física fue percibida por los estudiantes como significativa en relación a las necesidades básicas,  procesos motivacionales de nivel superior (es decir, la motivación intrínseca) y emociones positivas, tanto en educación física como en tiempo libre, las relaciones fueron poco significativas respecto a la actividad física. Futuras investigaciones deben aclarar cómo la percepción de la instrucción del soporte de autonomía del profesor de educación física puede mejorar directamente la actividad física de los niños, para combatir la epidemia de inactividad global.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5232/ricyde2016.04302

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