Does living in urban or rural settings affect aspects of physical fitness in children? An allometric approach.

The aim of this study was to investigate physical fitness in relation to fatness in urban and rural Greek children by means of allometric scaling. METHODS: The sample consisted of 360 (189 urban and 171 rural; age 12.3+/-0.42 years) boys and 247 (125 urban and 122 rural; age 12.3+/-0.43 years) girls. The sample was highly representative (32-64%) of all 12 year old children registered in the prefecture of Trikala, Greece. All volunteers were assessed for BMI and % body fat, as well as sit and reach, basketball throw (BT), vertical jump (VJ), handgrip strength (HG), 40 m sprint, agility run, and 20 m shuttle run. To correct for possible associations between fatness and fitness, a single cause allometric scaling was employed using the natural logarithms (ln) of fitness parameters that were significantly correlated with the ln body fat. RESULTS: Independent-samples t tests revealed that VJ (p<0.05) was significantly higher in boys living in urban settings compared to their rural counterparts. Similarly, BT was found to be significantly better (p<0.05) in urban girls, whereas HG was significantly higher (p<0.05) in rural girls. CONCLUSION: Considering that (a) only three out of the 14 possible cases (seven fitness parameters for boys and seven for girls) were significantly different between urban and rural children, and (b) these differences were not uniformly distributed in children living in either urban or rural environments, it is concluded that the place of residence has no clear impact on physical fitness as studied herein

EXAMINING INSTRUMENTS’ PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES WITHIN THE ITEM RESPONSE THEORY FRAMEWORK: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Η Θεωρία Απόκρισης Στοιχείου (ΘΑΣ) αποτελεί μιαν εναλλακτική προσέγγιση της Κλασικής Θεωρίας Μέτρησης (ΚΘΜ) για την ανάπτυξη εργαλείων μέτρησης και την εξέταση των ψυχομετρικών τους ιδιοτήτων. Η ΘΑΣ, όπως προκύπτει από το όνομά της, εστιάζεται και εξετάζει το κάθε στοιχείο του εργαλείου μέτρησης. Σκοπός της είναι να μοντελοποιήσει τη σχέση μεταξύ του λανθάνοντος χαρακτηριστικού των συμμετεχόντων (latent trait) και της απόκρισής των στα διάφορα στοιχεία του εργαλείου μέτρησης. Στην παρούσα εργασία παρουσιάζονται οι βασικές έννοιες της ΘΑΣ, τα πλεονεκτήματά της συγκριτικά με την ΚΘΜ, οι προϋποθέσεις εφαρμογής της καθώς ο τρόπος ερμηνείας και αξιοποίησης των αποτελεσμάτων σε μια προσπάθεια ευαισθητοποίησης των ερευνητών για τη χρησιμότητά της και τις εφαρμογές της.  Η παρουσίαση εστιάζεται στα πιο απλά μοντέλα όπου χρησιμοποιούνται κυρίως διχοτομικά δεδομένα καθώς η σε βάθος κατανόησή των διευκολύνει την ομαλή μετάβαση στην εφαρμογή πιο σύνθετων τεχνικών. Στη συνέχεια παρουσιάζεται μια εφαρμογή της ανάλυσης με τη χρήση δύο στατιστικών προγραμμάτων, ενός εμπορικού με γραφικό περιβάλλον (IRTPRO) και ενός ελεύθερου λογισμικού (ltm) στο περιβάλλον της R.  Item Response Theory (IRT) represents an alternative to Classical Test Theory (CTT) framework for developing new instruments and examining the psychometric properties of existing ones. IRT models the relationship between a latent trait and the response of each item of a measurement tool. Thus, contrary to CTT, the focus of IRT is on the item level. In the present study the basic concepts of IRT are presented along with its advantages in relation to CTT, the assumptions underlying its implementation and how the results can be interpreted and utilized in an attempt to sensitize researchers for its applicability and usefulness. The study focuses on the simplest models where dichotomous data are used as their in-depth understanding facilitates a smooth transition to the application of more complex IRT techniques. Finally, an example of IRT analysis is presented in detail using two statistical programs, a commercial one with graphical environment (IRTPRO) and an open source (ltm) in the R environment.

Fit to Perform: A Profile of Higher Education Music Students’ Physical Fitness

Musicians are often called athletes of the upper body, but knowledge of their physical and fitness profiles is nonetheless limited, especially those of advanced music students who are training to enter music’s competitive professional landscape. To gain insight into how physical fitness is associated with music making, this study investigated music students’ fitness levels on several standardized indicators. 483 students took part in a fitness screening protocol that included measurements of lung function, flexibility (hypermobility, shoulder range of motion, sit and reach), strength and endurance (hand grip, plank, press-up), and sub-maximal cardiovascular fitness (3-min step test), as well as self-reported physical activity (IPAQ-SF). Participants scored within ranges appropriate for their age on lung function, shoulder range of motion, grip strength, and cardiovascular fitness. Their results for the plank, press up, and sit and reach were poor by comparison. Reported difficulty (22%) and pain (17%) in internal rotation of the right shoulder were also found. Differences between instrument groups and levels of study were observed on some measures. In particular, brass players showed greater lung function and grip strength compared with other groups, and postgraduate students on the whole were able to maintain the plank for longer but also demonstrated higher hypermobility and lower lung function (FEV1) and cardiovascular fitness than undergraduates. 79% of participants exceeded the minimum recommended weekly amount of physical activity, with singers the most physically active group and keyboard players, composers, and conductors the least active. IPAQ-SF scores correlated positively with lung function, sit and reach, press-up and cardiovascular fitness suggesting that, in the absence of time and resources to carry out comprehensive physical assessments with musicians, this one measure alone can provide useful insights. The findings indicate that music students have adequate levels of general health-related fitness, and we discuss whether adequate fitness is enough for people undertaking physically and mentally demanding activities such as making music. We argue that musicians could benefit from strengthening their supportive musculature and enhancing their awareness of strength imbalances

The effect of an introductory training program on teachers’ efficacy beliefs

Greek teachers who are appointed for the first time in public schools on a permanent basis have to attend an introductory training program. The present study investigated the effect of this program on teacher’s self-efficacy beliefs. Participants were 237 teachers from various disciplines employed in primary and secondary education. The Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES, Tschannen-Moran &amp; Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) was used to measure three dimensions of teachers’ competence beliefs, efficacy for instructional strategies, for classroom management and for student engagement. The TSES was administered twice, once before the beginning of the training program and once after the completion of the first phase. Doubly repeated measures analysis showed a significant and a meaningful increase in efficacy for classroom management and a tendency for positive shift in efficacy for student engagement. It was concluded that the first phase of the training program enhanced teachers’ beliefs in their capabilities

Patterns of teacher-child relationships quality: Young children’s perspectives

Examining children’s perspectives about the quality of teacher-child relationships can contribute significantly to our understanding of how the quality of these relationships is developed. The Child Appraisal of the Relationship with the Teacher Scale (CARTS) is a newly developed measure that assesses the quality of teacher-child relationships from children’s perspectives. The purpose of this study was a) to confirm the factor structure of the Greek version of CARTS, b) to examine whether any patterns of teacher-child relationships exist, and c) if they are associated with children’s gender and age. The sample consisted of 365 preschool children from Greece. Results confirmed the construct validity of the CARTS scale. Consistent with attachment-based research, results revealed four types of teacher-child relationships. In addition, results showed that patterns of teacher-child relationships based on children’s perspectives, similar to those of teachers’ perspectives, are existent from the early years

Open Access Infrastructure in Greece : Current Status, Challenges and Perspectives

Open access (OA) is a global movement to make research results widely available by removing price and permission barriers. OA infrastructure is necessary for implementing open access and open science in any country. The aim of the present paper is twofold: (i) to give a description of the Greek OA infrastructure with emphasis on academic repositories and OA journals, and (ii) to examined the OA availability of publications authored by Greek researchers and published in international journals. Results indicated that Open access infrastructures in Greece have been steadily improving over the past years, with 28 out of 36 HEIs running their own IR and 116 OA journals being published. The OA availability of the literature produced by Greek researchers is similar to that found in other studies and falls within the range that has been reported for European countries. Although numbers seem rather satisfactory, there are a number of challenges that have to be addressed at both the infrastructural and the policy level, the most important being the implementation of national open policies and funders mandates

Multidimensional structure of goal orientations: The importance of adopting a personal development goal in physical education

ABSTRACT IS AVAILABLE IN THE PD

Dimensionality assessment in ordinal data: a comparison between parallel analysis and exploratory graph analysis

In the social sciences, accurately identifying the dimensionality of measurement scales is crucial for understanding latent constructs such as anxiety, happiness, and self-efficacy. This study presents a rigorous comparison between Parallel Analysis (PA) and Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA) for assessing the dimensionality of scales, particularly focusing on ordinal data. Through an extensive simulation study, we evaluated the effectiveness of these methods under various conditions, including varying sample size, number of factors and their association, patterns of loading magnitudes, and symmetrical or skewed item distributions with assumed underlying normality or non-normality. Results show that the performance of each method varies across different scenarios, depending on the context. EGA consistently outperforms PA in correctly identifying the number of factors, particularly in complex scenarios characterized by more than a single factor, high inter-factor correlations and low to medium primary loadings. However, for datasets with simpler and stronger factor structures, specifically those with a single factor, high primary loadings, low cross-loadings, and low to moderate interfactor correlations, PA is suggested as the method of choice. Skewed item distributions with assumed underlying normality or non-normality were found to noticeably impact the performance of both methods, particularly in complex scenarios. The results provide valuable insights for researchers utilizing these methods in scale development and validation, ensuring that measurement instruments accurately reflect theoretical constructs