Growing concerns about women’s safety and psychological well-being in India have increased the importance of practical self-defence training as a tool for personal empowerment. Many young women choose self-defence not only to develop physical skills, but also to build personal agency, improve situational awareness, and strengthen psychological resilience. Martial arts–based self-defence training is especially known to boost confidence, emotional control, and a sense of personal capability. Although global research highlights the psychological benefits of martial arts, limited evidence exists on how karate specifically influences multidimensional self-efficacy among Indian female students. This study addresses that gap by comparing overall and domain-specific self-efficacy levels in karate-trained and untrained female college students using a culturally validated scale. It was hypothesised that students with karate training would score higher in overall self-efficacy and across all eight self-efficacy domains. A comparative cross-sectional design was adopted involving 186 female college students from India (karate-trained, n = 92; untrained, n = 94). Self-efficacy was assessed using the SES-MGBR scale, which measures eight psychological subdimensions. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, normality tests, independent t-tests, and effect sizes (Cohen’s d). Karate-trained participants had significantly higher scores across two self-efficacy domains (social achievement and self-esteem), with the largest group differences observed for self-esteem (d = 0.62) and overall self-efficacy (d = 0.79). Karate-based self-defence training status was associated with higher multidimensional self-efficacy among female college students; however, the cross-sectional design does not establish causality. The findings highlight the relevance of integrating structured, gender-sensitive martial arts programs into college curricula and community initiatives to promote personal safety, confidence, and mental well-being. Future research should explore longitudinal effects, training intensity thresholds, and the interplay between martial arts participation and broader psychosocial outcomes in diverse populations.
This study examines how institutional documents formalize conceptions and organizational arrangements of the Supervised Curricular Internship (SCI) within Physical Education teacher education programs at four public universities in Paraná, Brazil. The aim was to compare temporal distribution, formative progression, and mechanisms of governance, supervision, documentation, and assessment in light of the national regulatory and curricular framework and recent teacher education guidelines. This is a qualitative, theoretical documentary study based on the analysis of Course Pedagogical Projects, curriculum matrices, course syllabi, and internship regulations from UEL, UEM, UEPG, and UFPR. Documents were examined through a coding matrix combining a priori and emergent categories, while preserving the distinction between institutional prescriptions and possible formative implications. The findings indicate convergence in the curricular weight assigned to the SCI, but differences in program design: (a) concentration in the final years (UEL and UEPG) and (b) a more longitudinal and diversified organization (UEM and UFPR). Variation was also observed in normative density, with more specific regulations detailing roles, workflows, and instruments, which may provide clearer documentary conditions for monitoring, co-assessment, and evidence use. The study concludes that, at the prescribed-curriculum level, SCI quality should be analyzed not only by total workload, but also by the formative architecture that foresees cycles of observation, teaching intervention, analysis, and replanning, integrating technical-didactic and socio-relational competencies in ways responsive to the specificities of Physical Education teaching.
The study investigated the kind and quality of questions posed by Physical Education student teachers (PESTs) during practicum, their association with gender and educational level, and participants’ perceptions of using questions. Fifty-eight final-year PESTs from a Greek University were observed during school lessons using a structured observation tool where timing, target, type, purpose and response waiting-time of questions were recorded. Semi-structured interviews provided information about participants’ views regarding their experience with questioning. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics, chi-square, and Mann-Whitney U tests. The majority of questions were focused equally on knowledge and classroom organization. PESTs mainly posed closed-ended, low cognitive-level questions addressed to the whole class, with short response waiting times, without fostering critical and creative thinking. No significant gender differences were observed, while in elementary education featured a higher proportion of open-ended questions compared to secondary education. Interview responses provided information about anxiety, limited experience, and insufficient knowledge as factors that influenced participants' preference for low-level, closed-ended questions. This study highlights a critical gap in the pedagogical preparation of PESTs and the need to provide training programs in the use of cognitively demanding questions, aiming to enhance critical thinking and creative development in school-age students.
The Brazilian budgetary process evidences a reorganization of decision-making power, in which Executive dominance gives way to the mandatory nature of the Legislative branch in resource allocation via parliamentary amendments. This study aims to characterize the participation of amendments in the composition of the federal budget for sports public policies between 2016 and 2024. Quantitative in nature, this documentary research utilized data on executed expenditures from the General Union Budget, collected from official portals of the Executive and Legislative branches. Results reveal that the sports sector presents the highest proportional dependence on amendments among governmental areas, with a structural inflection in which legislative participation rose from 24.3% in 2016 to 74% in 2024. A transition from infrastructure investment to the funding of community sports actions was observed, driven by normative changes such as special transfers. It is concluded that budgetary "parliamentarization" subjects sports policy to a logic of fragmentation and seasonality that, while offsetting the scarcity of own resources, exhausts the Executive's coordination capacity and compromises the implementation of articulated systems provided for in the General Sports Law.
Parental support is a determining factor in the sports development of children and adolescents, exerting a direct influence on young people's involvement, motivation, and persistence in physical activities. This study aimed to analyze the association between parental support and motivation among young athletes in the context of sport development. A total of 417 adolescents (13.17 ± 1.66 years), of both sexes, practicing 13 team and individual sports, participated in the study. The instruments used were the Parental Support Scale and the Sport Motivation Scale II (SMS-2). Data were analyzed using the Shapiro–Wilk test, Spearman’s correlation coefficient, and network analysis with the EBICglasso estimator. The results indicated that parental support was positively associated with more self-determined forms of motivation, such as intrinsic, integrated, and identified regulation. In contrast, dimensions such as rejection and overprotection showed associations with less self-determined forms of motivation, such as external regulation and amotivation. It can be concluded that parental support perceived by young athletes appears to be associated with higher levels of self-determined motivation. On the other hand, feelings of rejection and overprotection were associated with lower levels of self-determined motivation and with amotivation in this context.
