تصویرسازی بازی فعال کودکان

Objective The purpose of the present study was to examine how children's use of imagery in their active play can facilitate Deci and Ryan's (2002) three basic psychological needs (i.e., competence, relatedness, and autonomy) in their active play. A secondary purpose was to examine the content of children's mental images associated with their active play. Design Focus Groups. Method One hundred and four participants (male and female) aged 7–14 years old were recruited from various summer camps. Results The results indicated children use active play imagery and their use of imagery facilitates the satisfaction of the three basic needs (i.e., imagery → behaviour → need satisfaction). With respect to autonomy, children imaged activities that are their favourite, enjoyable, and they do often. For relatedness they imaged friends, family, and others (e.g., professional athletes), while for competence they imaged themselves being good at the activity. Age and gender differences emerged for relatedness and competence. Furthermore, the content of children's images included when participants imaged as well as the speed of their images (i.e., slow motion, real time, or fast). Conclusion These findings may enable the development of imagery interventions to increase children's motivation to be physically active.

A recent report from Active Healthy Kids Canada (AHK, 2010) has identified the increasing prevalence of sedentary lifestyles among Canadian children. Physical activity during childhood is associated with numerous physical and psychological benefits resulting in research focussing on ways in which to increase children's physical activity levels (AHK, 2010). Although there are many forms of physical activity (e.g., leisure-time, occupational, commuting), leisure-time physical activity has been the most extensively examined as it is the most self-directed and susceptible to change (Laaksonen et al., 2002). Leisure-time physical activity for children may be either structured (e.g., organized sport) or unstructured (e.g., active play) (Veitch, Salmon, & Ball, 2008).

In total, 1090 text units were coded in 107 nodes using the QSR NVivo 9 software program (QSR International, 2010). Specifically, the greatest number of text units were coded within the need for competence (n = 505), followed by relatedness (n = 303), and then autonomy (n = 282). The results indicate how active play imagery use aids the satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs (i.e., imagery → behaviour → need satisfaction). Table 1 provides an overview of each of the main themes as well as higher and lower order themes.