Paul Bernard Rukavina

Adelphi University | AU · Department of Exercise Science, Health Studies, Physical Education, & Sport Management

Background Parents from urban, lower social economic classes often encounter unique challenges in their lives, which shape how they work with their children who are overweight or obese to change their exercise and eating behaviors at home. The present study took an initial step to address a gap in the literature by describing the challenges that pa...

The deleterious effects of weight bias in physical activity spaces for children, adolescents, and adults are well documented. Different types of weight bias occur, and they interact at multiple levels within a person’s ecology, from the messaging of often unattainable sociocultural thin/muscular ideals and physical inequities (e.g., equipment not a...

BACKGROUND Establishing and maintaining a positive, inclusive social climate in school is essential, especially given the many potential social pressures that make school a toxic environment for vulnerable students. We explored middle school physical education (PE) teachers' perceptions of the factors that influence the implementation of social‐ori...

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether weight-related attitudes mediate the effect of goal orientation on cultural pluralism and diversity attitudes among pre-service physical educators. Results from 235 (Mage = 20.91 years, SD = 7.75) participants confirm the positive relationship between task orientation and attitudes toward...

Background: Parental support can protect adolescents from various forms of bullying. There is a lack of in-depth information about what social support parents provide to overweight adolescents when they are teased at school. In this study, we took an initial step to address this gap in the literature by describing the types and nature of support t...

Overweight and obese students are often socially and instructionally excluded from physical education and school physical activity opportunities. This article describes teaching strategies from a study of middle school physical education teachers who are committed to providing effective teaching and positive experiences for overweight and obese stu...

Using the Social Ecological Constraints model, a qualitative multiple case study design was used to explore experienced and committed middle school physical education teachers' perspectives on overweight and obese students (OWS), and how and why they acted to include OWS in physical education and physical activity opportunities in their school envi...

The purpose of the present study was to investigate particular psychosocial predictors of obesity bias in prehealth professionals, which include the internalization of athletic and general body ideals, perceived media pressure and information, and achievement goal orientations. Exercise science undergraduate students (n = 242) filled out a survey c...

Abstract In this study, we drew upon McCaughtry, Tischler, and Flory’s (2008) reconceptualized ecological framework to examine middle school students’ perceptions (N = 391) of competition in physical education, specifically after participating in noncompetitive and competitive active gaming (AG) sessions. Chi-square tests of independence were compu...

As part of a larger study, this paper describes teachers' perspectives and strategies on including overweight and obese students (OWS) in instruction related to motor skill/game play and fitness development in physical education. Using the Social Ecological Constraints framework, a qualitative multicase study was conducted using multiple in-depth i...

This single case study (Yin, 2009) compares an established urban physical education/ sport/physical activity program with two models: Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program/CSPAP (AAHPERD, 2013; CDC, 2013); and Lawson's propositions (2005) for sport, exercise and physical education for empowerment and community development to determine thei...

In this review, we propose a social ecological constraint model to study inclusion of overweight or obese students in physical education by integrating key concepts and assumptions from ecological constraint theory in motor development and social ecological models in health promotion and behavior. The social ecological constraint model proposes tha...

The purpose of the study was to explore overweight or obese students 'perceptions of caring in urban physical education (PE) programs. Forty-seven overweight or obese students were recruited and participated in a semi-structured interview. Inductive analysis and constant comparison were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that overweig...

In this review, we propose a social ecological constraint model to study inclusion of overweight or obese students in physical education by integrating key concepts and assumptions from ecological constraint theory in motor development and social ecological models in health promotion and behavior. The social ecological constraint model proposes tha...

This study examined the nature, occurring contexts, and psychological implications of weight-related teasing in urban physical education programs. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 47 participants from a large urban school district. Data were analyzed using inductive analysis and constant comparisons. Most overweight adolescents experie...

The purpose of this study was to examine coping against weight-related teasing among adolescents perceived to be overweight or obese in urban physical education. Forty-seven students perceived to be overweight or obese from a large urban school district were interviewed. Trustworthiness of data analysis was established by using a member-checking pr...

The purpose of this study was to examine coping against weight-related teasing among adolescents perceived to be overweight or obese in urban physical education. Forty-seven students perceived to be overweight or obese from a large urban school district were interviewed. Trustworthiness of data analysis was established by using a member-checking pr...

Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs, published in association with SHAPE America, accommodates the growing needs of academic researchers, school practitioners, district coordinators, educators, advocates, organizations, university faculty, and students who want to learn more about CSPAP or undertake ways to increase daily physical activ...

Purpose: This study examined negative attitudes toward overweight peers among pre-adolescents using different explicit and implicit measures and analyzed their relationships with self-reported Body Mass Index (BMI). Methods: Two hundred and twenty-four 7th and 8th graders enrolled in physical education classes from an urban school served as partici...

The purpose of the study was to assess adolescents' perceptions of controllability and its relation to weight stereotypes as a function of gender. Two hundred and thirty-one seventh and eighth graders from physical education classes completed a perception of controllability questionnaire and weight stereotype explicit scale ratings. Analysis of var...

Technology has influenced teaching, yet we know little about physical educators' predispositions and use. This study investigated secondary physical education teachers' attitudes and practices regarding technology integration and relationships between attitude and practice. The data collection instrument measured teachers' attitudes and technology...

The objective of the study was to assess the efficacy of a multi-component intervention to reduce kinesiology pre-professionals' implicit and explicit bias. A pre-post experimental design, which consisted of an experimental group (n = 42) and a control group (n = 36), was conducted to assess the efficacy of the intervention using both implicit and...

Guided by Green-Demers, Leagult, Pelletier, and Pelletier's (2008) assumption that amotivation (absence of motivation) is a multidimensional construct, we designed this study to investigate the influence of inadequate teacher-to-student social support on amotivation of high-school physical education students. Five hundred and sixty-six ninth grader...

Amotivation refers to a state in which individuals cannot perceive a relationship between their behavior and that behavior's subsequent outcome. With the belief that considering amotivation as a multidimensional construct could reflect the complexity of motivational deficits in physical education, we developed this study to validate an amotivation...

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Choosing which teaching approach to use and when to use it is a complex decision, especially for preservice teachers learning to teach individuals with a variety of skill levels and abilities. One source of information that teachers can use to help select an approach is motor-learning theory. This article describes an early field experience in whic...

Obesity bias such as teasing or weight criticism during physical activity can lead to psychological or emotional damage for overweight or obese individuals. The literature indicates that the adverse effects of stigmatization on overweight or obese individuals can be mediated by coping mechanisms. However, little is known about how overweight or obe...

The purpose of this study was to conduct an intervention to change attitudes toward obese individuals. Ninety-five Kinesiology undergraduates conducted a FITNESSGRAM service-learning project with school-aged children. They completed anti-fat attitude test (AFAT) and explicit attitude assessments before and after the intervention. The results indica...

Obesity bias is the tendency to negatively judge an overweight or obese individual based on assumed and/or false character traits, such as being physically unattractive, incompetent, lazy and lacking self-discipline. Obesity biases, such as teasing or weight criticism during physical activity (PA), can be psychologically or emotionally damaging for...

The useful operating range of the multistage, axial-flow compressor component of a gas turbine engine limits the extent of operation of that engine. Generally, the compressor stalls or surges at a low flow rate and chokes a a high flow rate. Thus, any improvement in the range between these compressor aerodynamic limits is normally of benefit to the...