Mothers' Expectancies and Young Adolescents Perceived Physical Competence : A Year-long Study

Julien Bois (1) , Philippe Sarrazin (2) , Robert Brustad (3) , David Trouilloud (2) , François Cury (4)

1 MEPS - Mouvement, Équilibre, Performance, Santé
2 SENS - Sport et Environnement Social
3 School of Sport & Exercise Science
4 LPC - Laboratoire de psychologie cognitive

Perceived physical competence can be an important predictor of the physical activity behavior of children and adolescents. Investigated in this study was the role of mothers' expectancies effects in shaping their child's perceived physical competence. Data were obtained from 156 French children and young adolescents and their mothers. Structural equation modeling revealed that mothers' perceptions of their child's physical competence predicted their child's own perceived physical competence one year later, independent of the child's previously demonstrated physical ability and the child's initial level of perceived competence. Child's gender moderated the relation in that mothers' perceptions of their daughters' competence were related significantly to their child's perceived competence but that relation was not present between mothers and sons.

Mots clés: expectancy effects; perceived competence; physical activity; parental socialization; motivation

Domaines: Psychologie

Julien Bois, Philippe Sarrazin, Robert Brustad, David Trouilloud, François Cury. Mothers' Expectancies and Young Adolescents Perceived Physical Competence : A Year-long Study. Journal of Early Adolescence, 2002, 22 (4), pp.384-406. ⟨hal-00388562⟩