The effect of mindfulness on the executive function of adolescent athletes

Subject Areas : Sport psychology

Shiva Molavinia ¹ , Fahimeh Sepehri ² , Rokhsareh Badami ³

1 - Departmentof Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Isfahan (Khorasgan)
2 - PhD candidate in Motor Behavior, Departmentof Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran
3 - دانشکدة تربیت بدنی و علوم ورزشی،واحد اصفهان(خوراسگان)، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، اصفهان، ایران

Received: 2024-07-11 Accepted : 2024-08-20 Published : 2024-09-23

Keywords: Consciousness. Executive function. Psychological characteristics. Athlete. Adolescent ,

Abstract :

Objective: Sports success is affected by many abilities that include psychological, physical, and cognitive and skill dimensions. Executive function is a term used to define a number of cognitive processes that are important for success in everyday life. Self-awareness, the ability to focus on thoughts and behavior and self-regulation, the ability to manage emotional and behavioral reactions, working memory, attention and inhibitory control are important components of executive function. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of mindfulness on the executive function of adolescent athletes.

Methods: The current research was an action research study with pre-test-post-test stages. This research was conducted according to the needs and cognitive problems of adolescent athletes. 21 male adolescent athletes with the age range of 11 to 13 years were selected as participants from a specialized football academy who participated in the premier league of Isfahan cities. The data collection tool included the N-Back test. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data.

Results: The findings show that the multivariate analysis for the effect of time on the executive function of teenage soccer players was significant (p<0.001). These findings show that the changes in the scores of all seven times of the test during the executive function of the teenage soccer players have shown a significant difference. The findings of the current research, in line with previous researches, have determined that the training of strategic planning, cognitive flexibility, planning and self-regulation, selective inhibition, goal orientation, mindfulness and psychological skills lead to strengthening the functions of implementation and cognitive processes.

Conclusions: According to the research literature, it can be predicted that through direct and indirect training, the executive functions of adolescent football players will improve. The improvement of executive function is done in an indirect way by using programs focused on stress reduction, increasing social communication, regulating sleep and finally doing physical activity. Considering the indirect effect of mindfulness training on executive function, more interventions should be done in the field of team and individual athletes.

References:

Becker, D. R., McClelland, M., Loprinzi, P., & Trost, S. G. (2014). Physical activity, self- regulation, and early academic achievement in preschool children. Early Education and Development, 25, 56-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2013.780505.
Belling, P.K.; Ward, P. (2015) Time to Start Training: A Review of Cognitive Research in Sport and Bridging the Gap from Academia to the Field. Procedia Manuf., 3, 1219–1224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2015.07.202
Bidzan-Bluma, I.; Lipowska, M. (2018) Physical activity and cognitive functioning of children: A systematic review. Int. J. Environ. Res.Public Health, 15, 800. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15040800
Clarke V, Braun V. Successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners. London, UK: Sage; 2013.
De Greeff, J.W.; Bosker, R.J.; Oosterlaan, J.; Visscher, C.; Hartman, E. (2018) Effects of physical activity on executive functions, attention and academic performance in preadolescent children: A meta-analysis. J. Sci. Med. Sport, 21, 501–507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2017.09.595
Diamond, A. (2000). Close interrelation of motor development and cognitive development and of the cerebellum and prefrontal cortex. Child development, 71(1), 44-56.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00117
Doğan, U. (2016). Mindfulness-acceptance-commitment program for athletes and exercisers: an action research case study. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-201604202276 Emanuel, A. S., Updegraff, J. A., Kalmbach, D. A., & Ciesla, J. A. (2010). The role of mindfulness facets in affective forecasting. Personality and Individual differences, 49(7), 815-818. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.06.012.
Evans L, Hardy L, Fleming S. (2000). Intervention strategies with injured athletes: An action research study. The Sport Psychologist; 14(2): 188-206. https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.14.2.188.
Frank, C., Land, W. M., & Schack, T. (2013). Mental representation and learning: The influence of practice on the development of mental representation structure in complex action. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 14(3), 353-361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2012.12.001
Garon, N., Bryson, S. E., & Smith, I. M. (2008). Executive function in preschoolers: A review using an integrative framework. Psychological Bulletin, 134(1), 31-60. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.1.31
Gentile, A.; Boca, S.; Demetriou, Y.; Sturm, D.; Pajaujiene, S.; Zuoziene, I.J.; Sahin, F.N.; Güler, O.; Gómez-López, M.; Borrego,C.C.; et al. (2020) The Influence of an Enriched Sport Program on Children’s Sport Motivation in the School Context: The ESA PROGRAM. Front. Psychol., 11, 601000. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.601000
Heilmann, F., Memmert, D., Weinberg, H., & Lautenbach, F. (2023). The relationship between executive functions and sports experience, relative age effect, as well as physical maturity in youth soccer players of different ages. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 21(2), 271-289. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2021.2025141
Jacobson, J.; Matthaeus, L. (2014) Athletics and executive functioning: How athletic participation and sport type correlate with cognitive performance. Psychol. Sport Exerc., 15, 521–527. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2014.05.005
Krenn, B.; Finkenzeller, T.; Würth, S.; Amesberger, G. (2018) Sport type determines differences in executive functions in elite athletes. Psychol. Sport Exerc., 38, 72–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2018.06.002
Land, W. M., Frank, C., & Schack, T. (2014). The influence of attentional focus on the development of skill representation in a complex action. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 15(1), 30-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.09.006
Laureys, F., Collins, D., Deconinck, F. J., & Lenoir, M. (2021). Exploring the use of the Psychological Characteristics of Developing Excellence (PCDEs) in younger age groups: First steps in the validation process of the PCDE Questionnaire for Children (PCDEQ-C). PloS one, 16(11), e0259396. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259396
MacNamara A., Button A., and Collins D.(2010) "The Role of Psychological Characteristics in Facilitating the Pathway to Elite Performance Part 1: Identifying Mental Skills and
Behaviors," Sport Psychologist, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 52–73, Mar, https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.24.1.52 10.
.Malinowski, P. (2013). Neural mechanisms of attentional control in mindfulness meditation. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 7, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2013.00008 Müller, C., Dubiel, D., Kremeti, E., Lieb, M., Streicher, E., Siakir Oglou, N., ... & Karbach, J. (2021). Effects of a single physical or mindfulness intervention on mood, attention, and
executive functions: Results from two randomized controlled studies in university classes. Mindfulness, 12, 1282-1293.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01601-z Popa, D., Mîndrescu, V., Iconomescu, T. M., & Talaghir, L. G. (2020). Mindfulness and self-regulation strategies predict performance of romanian handball players. Sustainability, 12(9), 3667. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093667
Rahmani, J., Ajilchi, B., & Zareian, E. (2017). Relationship between mindfulness and cognitive abilities in blind veteran athletes. Iranian Journal of War and Public Health, 9(2), 105-110. ‎ https://doi.org/10.18869/acadpub.ijwph.9.2.105
Rosenblum, S., Aloni, T., & Josman, N. (2010). Relationships between handwriting performance and organizational abilities among children with and without dysgraphia: A preliminary study. Research in developmental disabilities, 31(2), 502-509. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2009.10.016
Schöne, B., Gruber, T., Graetz, S., Bernhof, M., & Malinowski, P. (2018). Mindful breath awareness meditation facilitates efficacy gains in brain networks: A steady-state visually evoked potentials study. Scientific Reports, 8, 13687. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32046-5
Shahbazi, M., Aalie, M.B. (2020). “The effect of active and passive imagery on the learning of the dart throwing skills in 7-12 years old student”. sport psychology, 2 (5): 17 – 28. (in persian). https://doi.org/10.48308/MBSP.5.2.17
Tomich, L., Levchenko, A., Girchenko, O., Sikorska, L., Nazarov, О., & Perelygina, L. (2023). Psychological Counseling as a Means of Developing the Athlete’s Personality. BRAIN. Broad Research in Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience, 14(1), 647-661. https://doi.org/10.18662/brain/14.1/439

Tomporowski, P.D.; Pesce, C. (2019) Exercise, sports, and performance arts benefit cognition via a common process. Psychol. Bull.,145, 929–951. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000200 Van den Berg, V., Saliasi, E., De Groot, R. H., Jolles, J., Chinapaw, M. J., & Singh, A. S. (2016). Physical activity in the school setting: Cognitive performance is not affected by three different types of acute exercise. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 723. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00723