BACKGROUND: Although physical activity can play a positive role in psychosocial development, few studies have longitudinally examined the relationship between physical activity from physical education (PA from PE) and perceived peer acceptance (PPA). METHODS:Data from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey were used with 1908 elementary students from the first (age 10 years) to the 4-year panel (age 13 years), and 1954 middle-school students from the first (age 14 years) to the 4-year panel (age 17 years). We analyzed the data using latent curve modeling. RESULTS:In childhood, an increase in the amount of PA from PE over time positively corresponds with positive linear tendency of PPA over time. In adolescence, a decrease in the amount of PA from PE over time negatively corresponds with positive linear tendency toward PPA over time. Thus, PPA changes are positively associated with PA from PE across both childhood and adolescence. CONCLUSIONS:Our data suggest that the amount of PA obtained in PE is salient to perceived peer acceptance of both children and adolescents. Other variables (eg, friendship, self-presentational processes) that might affect this relationship should be explored.

The present study examined the effect of aggression on peer acceptance among adolescents. We focused on the moderating effects of gender and participation in physical education activities and examined whether these effects varied during school transition. We used longitudinal data of adolescents aged 10 to 17 years that were obtained from a survey that was conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute. In only early adolescence, the interaction effect of gender and physical education activity influenced the relationship between aggression and peer acceptance. Specifically, the negative relationship between aggression and peer acceptance was strengthened among female students who participated in physical education activities as compared to female students who did not. This effect was not observed in male students. However, during transition from primary to secondary school, the negative effect of physical education activities did not exist. For middle-adolescents, for whom physical education activities increased more than previous years, the negative relationship between aggression and peer acceptance worsened. These influences were the same, regardless of gender. Thus, this study suggests that physical education activities improve the negative relationship between aggression and peer acceptance during school transition.

We examined the effects of the self-natural posture exercise (SNPE) program on changes in physical self-concept and perception of pain reduction among 114 individuals with chronic pain, sampled from a larger group of individuals who completed the SNPE program. Participants' physical self-concept and perception of their level of pain were measured 4 times (baseline and at 4, 8, and 12 weeks during the SNPE program). The effects of the SNPE on changes in these 2 variables were examined using latent curve model analysis. The program improved the muscle power, subjective health, and flexibility subdomains of physical self-concept, and led to a decrease in perceived pain. The effect of the SNPE on perceived pain was greater for individuals who spent longer sitting each day, and who had suffered from chronic pain for longer. These findings suggest that the SNPE program might be a useful method for the self-treatment of chronic pain.

This study employed a hierarchical linear model analysis to examine the effects of ego depletion and state anxiety on performance changes in golf putting. We randomly assigned 51 female college students with no previous golf putting experience to either an ego-depletion (experimental) group ( n = 26) or a non-ego-depletion (control) group ( n = 25). Putting performance changes over repeated trials displayed a quadratic curve, and both ego depletion and state anxiety exerted negative effects on early, but not late, putting performance. Contrary to previous findings, the interaction effect between ego depletion and state anxiety on performance was nonsignificant.