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
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.
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