Relacionamento social e aprendizagem motora em adolescentes

Abstract

Evidence in the area of Motor Learning has observed that the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and social relatedness benefits the learning of motor skills in children, adults and the older adults. During adolescence, the way of relating and the centrality that relationships assume makes both the support and the frustration of the social relatedness, can have a substantial impact on the motor learning of this population. In the light of the macro theory of self-determination, a review article and three experimental studies were proposed, with the objective of observing the effects of social relatedness in adolescents aged 14 to 16 years. The task, in the three experiments, involved learning a motor skill to hit a ball, using a racket, on a target. The first experiment aimed to verify the effects of social relatedness support and frustration. Participants were randomly divided into three experimental groups: relatedness support (SR), relatedness frustration (RF) and control. The second experiment verified the effects of support and frustration of social relatedness by a pair on motor learning. Participants were divided into three experimental groups: relatedness support (SR), relatedness frustration (RF) and control. The third experiment aimed to verify the effects of the relatedness, manipulated through a context of cooperation and a context of competition in motor learning. Participants were randomly divided into three experimental groups: cooperation (COO), competition (COMP) and control. Both experiments had phases of practice, retention and transfer. Still, in both experiments the effects of mediating mechanisms were verified, namely: motivation, perception of self-efficacy and affections. The results showed that social relatedness support, either by the experimenter, by a pair, or by the context that promotes positive interaction (cooperation) benefits motor learning, leads to greater motivation, self-efficacy and higher levels of positive affects in adolescents relative to contexts that frustrate the social relatedness. This evidence allows us to conclude that the social relatedness is a socio-cognitive and affective factor that positively impacts motor learning in adolescents. For future studies, it is suggested to verify different contexts that promote positive interaction and its effects on learning motor skills.