The results confirm that traditional games can play a key role in relation to the emotional facets of physical education.

No abstract

Increasing evidence suggests that persons with early dementia can give reliable and valid assessments about their own quality of life (QOL), thereby improving accuracy, and reducing the need for proxy informants. The objective of this study was to examine QOL in persons diagnosed with dementia (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder-IV) using a battery of subjective assessments including the new World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF). Persons with mild-to-moderate dementia (n=104) were recruited and interviewed at 6 Spanish centers to obtain sociodemographic information, health perceptions, depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale 15-item version), functional ability (Barthel Index), generic QOL (WHOQOL-BREF), and specific QOL (DEMQOL-28). Analysis was performed using classical psychometric methods. Internal consistency reliability for the WHOQOL-BREF domains ranged from moderate (0.54 for social) to good (0.79 for psychological). Test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation) ranged from moderate (0.51 for psychological) to good (0.70 for physical). Associations were confirmed between WHOQOL-BREF domains with DEMQOL-28, Geriatric Depression Scale 15-item version, and Barthel dimensions. With regard to contrasting groups' differences, WHOQOL-BREF scores significantly differentiated between healthy and unhealthy and depressed and nondepressed participants. This study is the first to report on the use of the WHOQOL-BREF in persons with mild-to-moderate dementia. These results indicate that it is a useful tool in assessing these groups, as it includes important dimensions commonly omitted from other dementia measures.

<span style="font-family: 'Garamond',serif; font-size: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US">This study analyzed the effect of the variables: </span><span style="font-family: 'Garamond',serif; font-size: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="ES-TRAD">game type (individual or cooperative),</span><span style="font-family: 'Garamond',serif; font-size: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US"> competition, gender, students' association type and </span><span style="font-family: 'Garamond',serif; font-size: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="ES-TRAD">beginning-end</span><span style="font-family: 'Garamond',serif; font-size: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US"> of the session on the university students' moods. 201 Physical Education college students participated. After having received an initial instruction concerning moods, participants executed 2 sessions </span><span style="font-family: 'Garamond',serif; font-size: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-fareast-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="ES-TRAD">involving cooperative games and 2 individual games. The POMS scale was filled in both at the beginning and at the end of each session. The data were analyzed using generalized estimating equations. Among the main findings, we can point out that positive emotional states increase significantly when cooperative games are applied, with competition. Negative moods are more present in individual games, with no competition, when practiced by men and when they are organized in separate groups.</span><span style="font-family: 'Garamond',serif; font-size: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-bidi-language: HI; mso-font-kerning: 1.5pt;" lang="ES-TRAD">All these factors contribute towards knowing the influence of play on the training of the future teachers of a modern physical education, in which there is the intention of promoting such important aspects as socioemotional well-being and co-education.</span>

Growth trends in children are often based on cross‐sectional studies, in which a sample of the population is investigated at one given point in time. Estimating age‐related percentiles in such studies involves fitting data distributions, each of which is specific for one age group, and a subsequent smoothing of the percentile curves. The first requirement for this process is the selection of a distributional form that is expected to be consistent with the observed data. If a goodness‐of‐fit test reveals significant discrepancies between the data and the best‐fitting member of this distributional form, an alternative distribution must be found. In practice, there is seldom an objective argument for selecting any particular distribution. Also, different distributions can yield very similar fits, so that any selection is somewhat arbitrary. Finally, the shapes of the observed distributions may change throughout the age range so drastically that no single traditional distribution can fit them all in a satisfactory manner. To overcome these difficulties in population studies, non‐parametric smoothing techniques and normalizing transformations have been used to derive percentile curves. In this paper we present an alternative strategy in the form of a flexible parametric family of statistical distributions: the S‐distribution. We suggest a method that guides the search for well‐fitting S‐distributions for groups of observed distributions. The method is first tested with simulated data sets and subsequently applied to actual weight distributions of girls of different ages. As far as the results can be tested, they are consistent with observations and with results from other methods. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.