Antonio Fonseca

• Professor
• University of Porto

Youth sports can enhance adolescents’ well-being, but their impact depends on factors such as achievement goals and perceived motivational climate. This study examined the relationship between achievement goals (task/ego) and perceived motivational climate (task, performance, mistakes) with the emotional states of fear of failure and anxiety. Six h...

The expectancy-value theory posits that expectations of success and the value placed on a task are critical determinants of motivation and learning. This study explored the relationships between perceptions of the parental motivational climate, perceptions of competence (self-perceptions and parental reflected appraisals), and the value attributed...

Mental toughness is an important predictor of desirable outcomes in sport, and so an essential mental ability for young athletes to develop. However, it remains unclear how mental toughness relates to distinct-yet-interacting features of several team psychosocial contexts, such as the motivational climate and the quality of coach-athlete relationsh...

Mental toughness is a concept that has been considered a critical feature of sporting success. However, there are still conceptual issues related to its traitness and its relationship with sporting performance that remain unresolved. Consequently, the objective of this research is to contrast empirically whether the eventual changes in MT and its r...

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived mother- and father-initiated motivational climates and players’ fear of failure in youth male team sports. A sample of 336 youth male players from five team sports (basketball, football, handball, volleyball, and water polo) completed the Parent-Initiated Motivational Climate Q...

RESUMEN En el contexto de la práctica deportiva, tan pronto como se pasa el período ideal para alcanzar ciertas metas y la inversión en una meta ya no es alcanzable, la desinversión en una determinada meta bloqueada y la reinversión en metas alternativas contribuirán a un desarrollo adaptativo, como argumentan las teorías de autorregulación. El obj...

- Background Over the two last decades, the interest in personal and psychosocial youth development has been growing due to its engagement in sport activities. Furthermore, participation in sport has been referenced as a favourable mechanism and context for positive youth development (PYD). However, some studies and researchers continue to question...

This study characterised the sport participation patterns of 546 male youth team sport players. A retrospective questionnaire was used to identify the sport starting age (general sports and main sport) and the quantity and type of sports undertaken during the early years of development. A mixed-ANOVA and Chi-square tests were implemented. All parti...

In this study, we evaluate how anxiety impacts performance effectiveness and efficiency in soccer players using a Virtual Reality (VR) test.

Youth sports coaches do not seem to have a clear understanding of mental imagery, although research has highlighted its benefits. This study tried to understand the perspective of national coaches regarding the importance of MI in practical settings, analysing how they understand, integrate, and encourage its use. A qualitative approach was used, w...

This study characterized developmental sporting activities undertaken by volleyball players between ages of 6 to 12 years. Highly skilled (n = 30) and less skilled (n = 30) players participated in retrospective interviews to identify the nature of their formative enrichment experiences (formal adult-led and informal child-led activities) and types...

The purpose of this study was to understand the perceptions of highly skilled and less skilled volleyball players about the influences that parents, coaches, and peers had on their sport development and performance achievement. Highly skilled (n = 30) and less skilled (n = 30) volleyball players participated in semi-structured retrospective intervi...

Este estudo procurou analisar as relações existentes entre as regulações motivacionais, os estágios de mudança e a frequência da prática de exercício dos estudantes de enfermagem, em ambos os sexos. Foi realizado um estudo transversal, descritivo e exploratório com 535 estudantes. Os resultados indicaram que: (a) 55.3% dos estudantes não tinham uma...

A investigação indica que a prática desportiva – em diferentes contextos como a escola (na disciplina de EF e no desporto escolar) e os clubes - pode promover competências pessoais e sociais (Schaillée et al., 2019) mas também o desenvolvimento de competências de cidadania participativa como o empoderamento e consciência crítica (Coakley, 2015). Co...

O objetivo deste estudo é o de conhecer as perceções que os jovens têm do desporto enquanto contexto de educação para a cidadania e participação. Para o efeito foram dinamizados grupos de discussão focalizada junto de 40 estudantes de Cursos Profissionais (Ensino Secundário) de uma escola profissional. A análise de conteúdo revelou que estes jovens...

Background: Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) has been studied and implemented through physical activity in different backgrounds for over three decades. However, there is no systematized review in the literature concerning the after-school context. Aim: Conducting a systematic review of literature on after-school interventions ba...

Portuguese elite athletes with disabilities (n=14) were interviewed to explore the importance assigned to psychological preparation and their personal experiences on sport psychology. Semi-structured interviews were conducted using standard qualitative methodology. All the participants highlighted the importance of psychological preparation in spor...

Background: Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) has been studied and implemented through physical activity in different backgrounds for over three decades. However, there is no systematized review in the literature concerning the after-school context. Aim: Conducting a systematic review of literature on after-school interventions bas...

This article presents a scoping review of the published literature on mental imagery in the context of volleyball. Four online databases and one peer-reviewed journals were searched, based on the inclusion criteria. Publication information, procedures and research methods, sample characteristics, sport type and type of mental imagery were analyzed....

The aging process is as complex as any other development phase. The clinical evaluation of aging must, therefore, encompass dimensions such as functionality and quality of life. The concept of quality of life, in turn, encompasses the idea of well-being (Barnes, Gahagan & Ward, 2013). Being that the functionality is related to the independent life...

O estresse é parte integrante da vida de um atleta, uma vez que o desporto fornece um contexto único de experiências emocionais, cognitivas e comportamentais. Desta maneira, o presente estudo teve como objetivo descrever como os atletas de judô avaliam situações de estresse e as estratégias utilizadas para lidar com as mesmas, assim como os afetos...

O estresse é parte integrante da vida de um atleta, uma vez que o desporto fornece um contexto único de experiências emocionais, cognitivas e comportamentais. Desta maneira, o presente estudo teve como objetivo descrever como os atletas de judô avaliam situações de estresse e as estratégias utilizadas para lidar com as mesmas, assim como os afetos...

Resumo A proficiência do ensino depende, em parte, das estratégias utilizadas pelo professor que, independentemente da disciplina que leciona, deve fomentar comportamentos e atitudes que sirvam de alicerces para a formação pessoal, social e cultural dos jovens preparando-os para um processo de transição bem-sucedido para a idade adulta. A disciplin...

Os jovens do grupo experimental evidenciaram uma maior perceção quer da responsabilidade pessoal quer da responsabilidade social comparativamente com o grupo de controlo; O grupo experimental diminuiu, ao longo do tempo, os comportamentos de desinteresse, assim como, as atitudes desadequadas à aula mantendo-se mais focado nas tarefas/ atividades pr...

This work intends to share the implementation process of the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) in East Timor, in two instances: first, with future teachers using a model of experiential learning; and, second, among elementary school students whose teachers, from 1st to 6th grade of elementary school, were those involved in the firs...

O objetivo deste estudo foi examinar a fiabilidade, a validade fatorial e a invariância de medida de duas escalas intrapessoais – autoeficácia e prazer/satisfação na prática de atividade física, em crianças e adolescentes portuguesas. A amostra ficou constituída por 499 crianças e adolescentes (280 rapazes e 219 raparigas) com idades compreendidas...

The aim of this study was to examine the reliability, factorial validity and measurement invariance of two intrapersonal scales - self-efficacy and enjoyment (Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale) related to physical activity in Portuguese children and adolescents. The sample consisted of 499 children and adolescents (280 boys and 219 girls) between t...

Our study investigated the perception of elite handball players, belonging to national teams who during the early stages of their career had similar success rates but with different levels of success at the senior level, on how they characterize their most important club and national team coach. Fourteen athletes were interviewed based on the proto...

The aim of the present study was to carry out the cross-cultural adaptation of the Portuguese version of "Empowering and Disempowering Motivational Climate" (EDMCQ-C), which evaluates the athletes' perception the motivational climate provided by the coach and to examine the factorial invariance between Brazilians and Portuguese. The sample was comp...

Throughout the last decades, the teaching personal and social responsibility model has proven useful in a range of contexts. Several observational instruments such as the tool for assessing responsibility-based education have been developed to assess responsibility-based interventions. However, researchers have recognized the tool for assessing res...

O objetivo do presente estudo foi proceder à tradução e adaptação transcultural do "Empowering and Disempowering Motivational Climate Questionnaire-Coach" (EDMCQ-C) para a língua portuguesa e analisar a invariância da sua estrutura fatorial, quando aplicado a atletas brasileiros e portugueses. A amostra foi constituída por 963 atletas do sexo mascu...

O objetivo deste artigo foi analisar os modelos de avaliação da qualidade de serviços e a relação da qualidade dos serviços na satisfação de espectadores de eventos esportivos. O estudo é uma revisão sistemática. A busca por artigos originais publicados a partir de janeiro de 2000 até junho de 2017 foi realizada nas bases de dados: SPORTDiscus, Sco...

Este estudo teve por objetivo procurar perceber como se situam os jovens portugueses relativamente a alguns parâmetros que têm sido associados com o desenvolvimento positivo dos jovens. Para o efeito, foi considerado o modelo dos 5C’s (Lerner et al., 2005), nomeadamente no que concerne à sua proposta de avaliação. Novecentos e sete alunos portugues...

Goal-setting, imagery, relaxation and self-talk are psychological strategies crucial for successful psychological preparation and consequently for the improvement of the athlete’s sport performance. The coaches have an important role in the implementation of psychological skills training and may contribute to increase the use of psychological strat...

The purpose of this article was to review the existing literature on parental influence in sport. The following databases were used to collect the articles: Academic Search Complete, SPORTDiscus, PsychInfo, Education Research Complete, ISI Web of Knowledge, PubMed, EBSCO, and SCOPUS. After a careful selection of the articles and a rigorous analysis...

Perceptions of mental toughness attributes were explored among Judo competitors. Twelve Portuguese judokas from different levels of achievement underwent a semi-structured interview, based on Personal Construct Psychology sociality and dichotomy corollaries (Kelly, 1991). A total of 148 verbatim transcribed pages resulted as raw data from the inter...

O desporto, embora tenha o potencial necessário para fomentar o desenvolvimento positivo dos jovens (DPJ), nem sempre é usado com este propósito. Deste modo, este estudo teve objetivo analisar componentes da filosofia de treino e as estratégias utilizadas por treinadores de jovens em risco de exclusão social, assim como os desafios encontrados por...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to perceive the perspective of Portuguese and Czech’ talented athletes regarding: the main reasons pointed to drop out of sport, putting into analysis motivational factors; the conciliation of School and Sport, and how the organization of schools and sports contexts are articulated in relation to the training an...

Competitive youth sport can provide solid grounds for positive youth development (PYD). However, there is need to understand if coaches are facilitating these types of outcomes. The purpose of this study was to analyze how competitive youth sport is used to facilitate PYD. The participants in this study were four youth football coaches and 19 adole...

The aim of this research was to explore coaches’ perceptions about mental toughness characteristics in competitive Judo, in light of current single-sport mental toughness literature. Nine Portuguese Judo coaches from different levels of achievement (non-elite, sub-elite and elite) were interviewed. The protocol used for semi-structured interviews w...

It seems that sport has the potential to foster positive youth development (PYD) if it is used with this purpose. This study aimed to analyze the strategies used by coaches who work with at risk youth and their coaching philosophies as well as the challenges faced while promoting PYD and life skills development. Semi-structured interviews were cond...

The strategic plan of development for Timor-Leste (2011/2030) defines changes in the education policies with an emphasis on improving the quality of teacher education regarding the role that these actors play in building a proactive and socially responsible youth. The Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model presents itself as an ex...

Considering the lack of research focused on the circumstances that require mental toughness in Judo, this study’s purpose was to explore the perceptions of those demanding situations between athletes and coaches. Nine coaches and 12 athletes, with different levels of achievement, were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews applied the “experience”...

Objetivo Analisar os padrões de frequência de prática esportiva, as fases dos estágios de mudança e os prós e os contras do balanço decisional em estudantes de enfermagem, em função do sexo e do ano da licenciatura. Método Realizou-se um estudo transversal, descritivo e exploratório. Resultados Participaram do estudo 535 estudantes de ambos os se...

Over the last decades positive development (PD) has served as a framework for several investigations within the sport science community. In fact, multiple researchers have analyzed youth coaches’ role in PD. However, there is recent interest in exploring high performance coaching due to the complexity of the coaching practice, the different develop...

A randomized controlled trial was conducted to assess the effects of exercise plus pharmacotherapy on monoamine neurotransmitters (dopamine, noradrenaline, adrenaline, serotonin) and cortisol levels. A total of 26 women with clinical depression were randomly assigned to one of the two groups: aerobic exercise plus pharmacotherapy or only pharmacoth...

Objectives: . Understand perceptions that young athletes have about civic and political participation; . Reflect about Sports Contexts’ influence on different (individual and collective) forms of civic and political participation; . Reflect how Sports Contexts’ promotes personal and social competences, but also civic and political competences and p...

Os autores do artigo declaram que não existem conflitos de interesses. Resumo Um dos objetivos da Educação Física é ensinar valores e competências essenciais à vida em sociedade. Neste âmbito, os professores de Educação Física desempenham um papel fundamental através da implemen-tação de modelos pedagógicos coerentes com este objetivo. O modelo de...

Youth sport is a valuable context to foster the development of personal and social responsibility (PSR). Within competitive youth sport coaches face many challenges promoting PSR while still being required to win. However, information related to the role played by coaches in PSR development within competitive youth sport is scarce and thus addition...

Correspondence to: Centre of Research, Sports Sciences, Health and Human Development, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Quinta dos Prados, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal. Tel.: +351 961336988.

Background: The Satisfaction with Life Scale is one of the most widely used scales to measure the global cognitive judgment of satisfaction with one’s life. Method: This study assesses the equivalence of the SWLS across Spanish and Portuguese adolescents, using multi-sample Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Participants were Spanish (N = 2183) and P...

This study sought to analyse self-reported perceptions of how the nature of sport activities undertaken by volleyball players aided their development. Thirty highly skilled and thirty less skilled players participated in retrospective interviews to identify the nature of activities undertaken in their developmental pathways. All players reported ha...

We aimed to compare the prevalence of the relative age effect (RAE) - year and quarter of birth – in several generations simultaneously and in independent cohorts. The sample included 502 athletes (287 men; 215 women), who competed in the national teams between the 1986/87 and 2010/11 seasons. The sample was divided into eight cohorts of each gende...

O comportamento de atividade física dos jovens é alvo de preocupações em toda a comunidade científica, sendo que a escola, dadas as suas valências, é um organismo determinante na promoção deste comportamento. O modelo sócio-ecológico para a atividade física reconhece a interação de diferentes fatores, provenientes de diferentes níveis, que são dete...

The present study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Managerial Behaviour Instrument, Portuguese version, for the Brazilian sport federations. The sample was composed of 263 members of federations, including managerial (39.5%), technical (35.1%), executive (20.6%) bodies and others (4.9%). The study used descriptive, reliability a...

This research aimed at verifying whether there are differences in behavioural self-perception of presidents of the Brazilian Olympic Sport Federations regarding the real and ideal leadership competencies profiles, taking their time of experience in position into account. This study comprised two complementary studies. The sample of the first study...

This review aims to examine the most significant research regarding the development of talent in sport, with a focus on the quantity and type of practice necessary for the attainment of expertise. A total of 54 peer-reviewed empirical articles were collected and analysed for their content. The literature reveals considerable evidence demonstrating...

This study presents a systematic review of psychological studies applied to futsal. A total of 23 studies were analyzed within five sections: a year overview and the name of journals, research designs, data collection, sample characteristics, and a focus category. This study found that the first psychological articles that were applied to futsal we...

Background: Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is a catabolic enzyme involved in the degradation of bioactive molecules including the neurotransmitters epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine. Higher COMT activity in depressive patients in comparison to non-depressed individuals has been reported. The effect of aerobic exercise on depressive pa...

Over the past decades, research related to youth´s positive development through sport has advanced significantly. The objective of the present study was to systematically review the literature regarding the coaches´ role in promoting positive youth development through sport. Thirty articles, published in specialized magazines portraying this issue...

The purpose of this study was to analyse the developmental pathway of skilled and less skilled volleyball players by focusing on the quantity and type of sporting activities, as well as their age and height in comparison to peers in those experiences. Retrospective interviews were conducted to provide a longitudinal and detailed account of sport in...

This study investigated the self-efficacy among collective games players. The research group consisted 65 male undergraduate students. The research was used the self-efficacy scale. Results indicated that student-players obtained high level of self-efficacy .while no significant difference was observed among student-players (football players, handb...

The development of psychological instruments with favorable validity indicators is of utmost importance for the study and development of a theoretical construct, in particular when it is a relatively new phenomenon, such as resilience, which is understood generally as the process that allows individuals to overlap their risks and obtain positive ga...

The aim of this study was to verify whether it was possible to distinguish between young athletes who intended to continue playing sports and those who intended to dropout, based on their achievement goal, beliefs about their sport competence, perceived competence, intrinsic motivation and autonomy in sport practice. Three thousand and three hundre...

Attraction to physical activity (PA) is an important contributor to children´s intrinsic motivation to engage in games, and sports. Previous studies have supported the utility of the children´s attraction to PA scale (CAPA) (Brustad, 1996) but the validity of this measure for use in Portugal has not been established. The purpose of this study was t...

The purpose of this investigation was to study the extent to which Portuguese soccer goalkeepers used imagery, and to examine if and how athletes of different ages differed in their use of imagery. Seventy soccer goalkeepers playing in the two major Portuguese soccer leagues completed the translated versions of the Sports Inventory of Mental Strate...