Exploring common stressors in physical education

Daily stressors, or hassles, refer to the everyday environmental demands that constitute a threat or challenge, or exceed an individual’s biological or psychological capacities. Increasing evidence suggests that daily stressors have a significant impact on adolescents’ educational outcomes, for exam...

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Main Authors: Tudor, K, Sarkar, M, Spray, C
Format: Journal article
Published: SAGE Publications 2018
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author Tudor, K
Sarkar, M
Spray, C
author_facet Tudor, K
Sarkar, M
Spray, C
author_sort Tudor, K
collection OXFORD
description Daily stressors, or hassles, refer to the everyday environmental demands that constitute a threat or challenge, or exceed an individual’s biological or psychological capacities. Increasing evidence suggests that daily stressors have a significant impact on adolescents’ educational outcomes, for example, performance, wellbeing and negative attitudes toward school; however, there is limited research examining the concept of common stressors in physical education (PE) lessons. As early adolescence is a developmental period associated with decreased engagement in PE, it is important to identify the environmental stressors that may be associated with increased disengagement. The study included 54 secondary school students and six PE teachers from five schools in the English Midlands. Semistructured interviews and focus groups were conducted and a thematic analysis was applied to the interview transcripts. Three higher order themes were identified from the data: the social environment; the physical and organisational environment; and the performance environment. Common stressors within the social environment included: interpersonal transactions between peers; differences in effort levels during PE; and working outside one’s peer group. Stressors within the physical and organisational environment consisted of environmental situations within the changing facilities and the availability of activities. Finally, performance environment stressors included: situations involving the difficult acquisition of physical skills; and situations where physical appearance and physical competencies were exposed. The study extends previous findings by identifying potentially threatening and frustrating environmental demands that have not been identified in the previous literature. The current study is the first to explore the typical stressors that are experienced by students in PE.
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spelling oxford-uuid:9de51deb-1566-4e67-b713-930e4b0080592022-03-27T00:46:24ZExploring common stressors in physical educationJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:9de51deb-1566-4e67-b713-930e4b008059Symplectic Elements at OxfordSAGE Publications2018Tudor, KSarkar, MSpray, CDaily stressors, or hassles, refer to the everyday environmental demands that constitute a threat or challenge, or exceed an individual’s biological or psychological capacities. Increasing evidence suggests that daily stressors have a significant impact on adolescents’ educational outcomes, for example, performance, wellbeing and negative attitudes toward school; however, there is limited research examining the concept of common stressors in physical education (PE) lessons. As early adolescence is a developmental period associated with decreased engagement in PE, it is important to identify the environmental stressors that may be associated with increased disengagement. The study included 54 secondary school students and six PE teachers from five schools in the English Midlands. Semistructured interviews and focus groups were conducted and a thematic analysis was applied to the interview transcripts. Three higher order themes were identified from the data: the social environment; the physical and organisational environment; and the performance environment. Common stressors within the social environment included: interpersonal transactions between peers; differences in effort levels during PE; and working outside one’s peer group. Stressors within the physical and organisational environment consisted of environmental situations within the changing facilities and the availability of activities. Finally, performance environment stressors included: situations involving the difficult acquisition of physical skills; and situations where physical appearance and physical competencies were exposed. The study extends previous findings by identifying potentially threatening and frustrating environmental demands that have not been identified in the previous literature. The current study is the first to explore the typical stressors that are experienced by students in PE.
spellingShingle Tudor, K
Sarkar, M
Spray, C
Exploring common stressors in physical education
title Exploring common stressors in physical education
title_full Exploring common stressors in physical education
title_fullStr Exploring common stressors in physical education
title_full_unstemmed Exploring common stressors in physical education
title_short Exploring common stressors in physical education
title_sort exploring common stressors in physical education
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