Leadership Styles in Physical Education: A Longitudinal Study on Students' Perceptions and Preferences.
Background/Objectives: Leadership in physical education plays a critical role in the holistic development of students, influencing variables such as satisfaction, group cohesion, and performance. Despite the abundance of cross-sectional studies, there is a paucity of longitudinal evidence exploring...
| Publicado en: | Children Vol. 12; no. 9; pp. 1139 - 1172 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
MDPI
Sep2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=188331341&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 188331341 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 22279067 LW6K jtl: Children issn: 22279067 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Sep2025 vid: 12 iid: 9 pid: 97109 pub: MDPI artinfo: ui: 188331341 188331341 188331341 10.3390/children12091139 188331341 ppf: 1139 ppct: 33 formats: tig: atl: Leadership Styles in Physical Education: A Longitudinal Study on Students' Perceptions and Preferences. aug: au: Solera-Alfonso, Adrian Mijarra-Murillo, Juan-José Marconnot, Romain Gacría-González, Miriam Delfa-de-la-Morena, José-Manuel Anglada-Monzón, Pablo Ruiz-Barquín, Roberto affil: Department of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Avenida Atenas s/n, 28922 Alcorcon, Spain sug: subj: Management Styles Evaluation Physical Education and Training Student Attitudes Evaluation Students, High School Psychosocial Factors Human Male Female Adolescence Prospective Studies Descriptive Statistics Sports Participation Questionnaires Support, Social Sex Factors Convenience Sample Power Analysis Academic Performance Emotions Mann-Whitney U Test Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test Kruskal-Wallis Test Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient Feedback Descriptive Research Correlational Studies Confidence Intervals Data Analysis Software Adolescent: 13-18 years Male Female ab: Background/Objectives: Leadership in physical education plays a critical role in the holistic development of students, influencing variables such as satisfaction, group cohesion, and performance. Despite the abundance of cross-sectional studies, there is a paucity of longitudinal evidence exploring the temporal stability of these perceptions in adolescent populations, which limits the current understanding of leadership development in educational settings. This longitudinal study investigates how secondary and high school students perceive and prefer different leadership styles in PE and how these relate to gender, academic level, and sport participation, grounded in the multidimensional leadership model. The analysis is further contextualized by recent research emphasizing adaptive, evidence-based pedagogical approaches in physical education, the influence of competitive environments on leadership expectations, and the role of emotional support in training contexts. Methods: Using validated questionnaires (LSS-1 and LSS-2), five dimensions were assessed: Training and Instruction, democratic behavior, autocratic behavior, Social Support, and positive feedback, considering variables such as gender, academic level, and extracurricular sport participation. Data were collected at two time points over a 12-month interval, enabling the identification of temporal patterns in students' perceptions and preferences. Sampling procedures were clearly defined to enhance transparency and potential replicability, and the choice of a convenience sample from two private schools was justified by accessibility and continuity in longitudinal tracking. Although no a priori power analysis was conducted, the sample size (n = 370) was deemed adequate for the non-parametric analyses employed, with an estimated statistical power ≥ 0.80 for medium effect sizes (Cohen's d = 0.3–0.5). Results: The results revealed a marked preference for leadership styles emphasizing social support and positive feedback, particularly among students engaged in sports. Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) were identified based on gender and academic maturity, with female students favoring democratic behavior and students in the fourth year of compulsory secondary education showing a stronger inclination toward styles prioritizing emotional support. Trends toward statistical significance (p < 0.10) were also reported, following precedents in the sport psychology and sport sciences literature, as they provide potentially relevant indications for future research directions. The congruence between perceived and preferred leadership emerged as a key factor in student satisfaction, confirming that adaptive leadership enhances students' learning experiences and overall well-being. However, this satisfaction was inferred from congruence measures, rather than directly assessed, representing a key methodological limitation. Conclusions: This study underscores the importance of physical education teachers tailoring their leadership styles to the individual and group characteristics of their students. The findings align with methodological approaches used in preference hierarchy analyses in sport contexts and support calls for individualized pedagogical strategies observed in sports medicine and training research. By providing longitudinal evidence on leadership perception stability and integrating recent cross-disciplinary findings, the study makes an original contribution to bridging the gap between educational theory and practice. The results address a gap in the literature concerning the temporal stability of leadership perceptions among adolescents, offering a theoretically grounded basis for future research and the design of pedagogical innovations in PE. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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