youth sports

Introduction: Psychological factors can be important for the physical performance of developing female football players, but research is needed to assess their impact. Objective: To determine the effectiveness of a motivational psychological intervention strategy to improve physical performance in female U-15 football players from a football school in Zone 8 of Guayaquil, Ecuador. Method: Pre-experimental design with a single group and pretest-posttest measurements. Thirty football players participated. For the evaluation of the motivational climate, the PMCSQ-2 was used, while the YYIR1 and the Cooper Test were the instruments employed to assess physical performance. The intervention consisted of 12 sessions of 45 minutes over six weeks. The Shapiro-Wilk test was applied and then the Student's t-test for dependent samples. Results: The overall PMCSQ-2 score did not show statistically significant changes (t(29) = −1.37; p = 0.182; d = −0.250). On the contrary, statistically significant differences with large effect sizes were found for both the YYIR1 (t(29) = −16.08; p < 0.001; d = −2.936) and the Cooper Test (t(29) = −19.54; p < 0.001; d = −3.567). Discussion: Improvements are evident in the evaluated physical indicators, without significant changes in the overall motivational score. This divergence indicates that the physical response and the perception of the motivational climate do not always develop at the same pace. Conclusions: The intervention was associated with significant improvements in physical performance, which supports its application in youth women's football.

The effectiveness of young football players’ athletic training is determined by the interaction of physical, technical, tactical, theoretical, integrated, and psychological components. In team sports, communicative and organizational inclinations are of particular importance as psychological prerequisites for effective interaction and the realization of leadership potential. Purpose. To identify and compare the age-related characteristics of communicative and organizational inclinations in young football players and to determine their role in the implementation of leadership functions in team activities. Materials and methods. To achieve the aim of the study, an analysis was conducted analysis of scientific and methodological literature, comparison, psychological assessment using the «Assessment of Communicative and Organizational Inclinations» by V. V. Sinyavskyi and B. O. Fedorishyn, and methods of mathematical statistics, including the Kruskal–Wallis test. The study involved three groups of football players (n=108): aged 9–10 (n=33), 13–14 (n=37), and 16–17 years (n=38) from Children and Youth Sports Schools in Kyiv.Results. Significant individual variability in the indicators was established. Communicative inclinations were found to be more developed than organizational inclinations. Their mean values were 3.00±1.58, 2.92±1.40, and 3.21±1.45 points, respectively, across the three age groups, while organizational inclinations were 2.03±1.33, 2.24±1.42, and 2.34±1.38 points. The oldest group demonstrated a higher proportion of athletes with high and very high levels of communicative inclinations, whereas a low level predominated in organizational inclinations across all age groups. No statistically significant age-related differences were found in communicative (H=0.75; p=0.69) or organizational inclinations (H=1.11; p=0.57). Conclusions. Communicative and organizational inclinations are important psychological prerequisites, but not direct indicators, of leadership function implementation. The communicative component creates prerequisites for information, motivational, mediating, and representative functions, while the organizational component contributes to planning, coordination, and responsibility-taking. The findings support the need for targeted development of these characteristics and the application of distributed leadership principles.

Introduction This study treats adolescent athletes' self-efficacy as a dynamic process rather than a fixed quantity, asking how its fluctuations arise in online social settings and how that volatility shapes training engagement. Methods We recruited a stratified sample of 320 youth athletes across sport discipline, competitive tier, and sex, and combined ecological momentary assessment with weekly follow-up over 8 consecutive weeks, using instruments released under open licenses and open-source software throughout. Two dispersion indices, the intraindividual standard deviation and the root mean square of successive differences, summarized fluctuation at the person level, while absolute occasion-to-occasion change indexed momentary instability at the event level. We fitted multilevel linear models, a two-level dynamic structural equation model, latent growth curve models, and multilevel structural equation models, with each path labeled by its level of analysis. Results Momentary self-efficacy showed genuine within-person temporal dependence rather than independent scatter, and its trajectory was phase-linked to the competitive calendar and unevenly distributed across individuals. Between persons, fluctuation amplitude tracked the intensity of negatively valenced comparison rather than the sheer volume of feedback, and comparison orientation amplified that association on the negative arm alone. Within persons, negative comparison enlarged momentary instability both immediately and at a one-occasion lag, whereas positive signals steadied confidence only briefly. Amplitude was negatively associated with all three engagement facets beyond mean efficacy, most strongly for absorption, although a formal equality test separated absorption from dedication but not vigor. The direct reach of negative comparison into engagement proved facet-specific: vigor and absorption were affected, dedication was not, so the facet-by-facet hypothesis holds only in part. Sensitivity analyses adding competitive-calendar phase, splitting the series by season phase, partialling the person mean and the person-specific autoregression out of the amplitude index, entering competitive tier as a covariate, and checking participant-coded valence against automated sentiment scoring left the pattern intact. Discussion The findings extend social cognitive theory's vicarious and persuasive sources into a temporally dense digital regime and point toward protective coaching and self-regulation strategies.