Auto regulação e percepção de competência motora em crianças praticantes e não praticantes de tênis de campo

Abstract

The present study had as objective to verify if children tennis players have better levels of perceived of motor competence and self-regulation when compared to children not practicing Tennis. Participants included 70 children aged 6 to 12 years old, students from a private school and tennis players from two clubs in a municipality in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul. The following instruments were used to evaluate the variables: (for cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control), Child Depression Inventory (for symptoms of depression), Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) (for child anxiety), Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance and Self -Perception Profile Of Children (for motor skills). Descriptive statistics were used to present the variables and the significance level of p ≤ 0.005 was adopted. Significant statistical differences were found between the groups in the symptoms of depression, anxiety and perceived of motor competence. The Tennis group, however, did not present statistical difference in cognitive flexibility and inhibition in relation to the school group. The school group presented higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms, and lower mean of motor competence perceived, these being, and children not engaged in systematized sports activities. We conclude that the practice of Tennis seems to be important for the perceived of motor competence, control of anxiety levels and depressive symptoms.