Global self-worth is important for healthy development and learning, and is therefore highlighted as a major aim in the Norwegian physical education (PE) curriculum. Based on prior research this study aimed to assess potential differences in global self-worth and contextual basic need satisfaction among 2854 adolescents (47.5% boys, 52.5% girls, ages 13 and 16) participating in different movement contexts, and to determine whether basic need satisfaction in PE relates to global selfworth. Structural equation modeling analyses indicate that basic need satisfaction in PE relates significantly to global self-worth. However, adolescents who do not participate in movement contexts outside school report significantly lower basic need satisfaction in PE compared to their sports-active peers, and could possibly therefore experience reduced global self-worth development through PE. Findings support research showing that sports active youth reap most of the benefits of PE, and thus, that PE violates the principles of equal education.

Research shows that sports-active students experience more basic need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, relatedness) in physical education (PE) than their non-sports-active peers, and thus, reap most of the benefits of PE. This study aimed to investigate the role of a two-year PE programme, referred to as Interest-based PE, in contributing to students’ basic need satisfaction in PE, and in particular, to assess potential basic needs-benefits among students who were not involved in leisure-time sport. Among 693 students, 348 were offered a choice of two different PE approaches (“explorative” vs. “sports” approach) for the next two years, while the remaining students continued to receive traditional PE. Girls, non-sports-active students, and students who experienced less need satisfaction in PE at baseline were more likely to choose the explorative approach, thereby signifying a wish for a less sports-centred PE. However, no significant differences in autonomy, competence, and relatedness need satisfaction were identified between Interest-based PE groups and their respective control groups over the course of the programme. Sports active students experienced more gains in relatedness need satisfaction than non-sports active students over the course of the programme, suggesting that challenges in promoting equal opportunities for learning in PE may require more than “Interest-based PE”.

Abstract:Purpose: This study examined whether high school students' degree of self-determined motivation in school physical education predicted their intentions to be physically active after graduation, and whether perceived physical competence and physical activity identity mediated this hypothesized cross-sectional relationship. Additionally, the possibility of conditional effects of gender on these associations was considered. Method: A cross sectional study involving 1650 high-school students allowed for the examination of indirect effects using a bias-corrected bootstrapping technique. Results: Results showed that self-determination in PE may positively affect adolescents' intentions to be physically active after graduation, both independently and through the strengthening of students' physical activity identity and perceived physical competence. Moderation analysis identified that the indirect effect of perceived competence on the adolescents' physical activity intentions was only significant in boys. Identity however, was a significant mediator of physical activity intention in both genders. Conclusions: School interventions aiming to improve adolescents' physical activity intentions might take advantage of increasing adolescents' physical activity identities as well as perceived physical competence.

This study investigated the temporal relations of adolescents’ basic need satisfaction in physical education (PE) and global self-worth in a sample of 3,398 lower and upper secondary school students (49% boys, 51% girls, average age T1 = 15.00, SD = 1.79). Four models and competing hypotheses were tested, and the model with bidirectional paths specified showed the best fit to the data. The bidirectional effect estimates suggest not only that basic need satisfaction in PE predicts global self-worth development but also that adolescents’ perceptions of global self-worth predict the degree to which they experience basic need satisfaction in PE. Findings could suggest that students with low global self-worth are less sensitive to basic need support in PE. These students may need personally tailored need-supportive initiatives in order to develop basic need satisfaction in PE and, thus, global self-worth through PE.