IDO MOVEMENT FOR CULTURE

Background. Since parents are one of the most influential social-agents on children’ behavior, it is crucial to develop strategies for them to put major emphasis on their children’s physical activity. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of a judo-based intervention developed according to the self-determination theory on parents’ motivation.
Methods. Ninety-six parents (54 men and 42 women) aged between 25 and 48 (M = 37.2, SD =2.58) with no previous experience in judo participated in this study. The intervention consisted of a session in which parents practiced judo with their children under the direction of coaches who used strategies to promote the satisfaction of basic psychological needs.
Results. The post-intervention results showed high values in the satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs and significant increases of more self-determined forms of motivation and future intention to practice judo both for their children and for themselves. These increases were significantly higher for those parents with lower pre-intervention scores on the index of self-determination.
Conclusion. Providing the parents of young athletes with a practical experience together with their children, following specific strategies and guided by specialist professionals, could be an effective intervention to produce adaptive changes in their motivation. In addition, parents with low degrees of self-determined motivation would seem to be the main target of this kind of intervention.