Why are you fighting? Motor conflicts and negative emotions in the physical education class: The case of opposition games

Abstract

Conflicts, a common phenomenon in schools and a source of concern for teachers and educational authorities, arise when students are unable to deal with their negative emotions. In the context of physical education there are several families of motor games, such as opposition games, that can be used to teach interpersonal relationships among students. This article describes two studies that examined the impact of opposition games in relation to the emergence of conflicts in a group of 43 primary school students (study 1) and the effect of such games on the experience of negative emotions in a group of 220 secondary and baccalaureate students (study 2). The statistical analyses (descriptive analysis and inferential analysis by means of univariate and multivariate logistic regression in study 1, and the use of CHAID classification trees in study 2) showed that the competitive element and gender are variables that should be taken into account when using these kinds of games as part of the school curriculum. The presence of competition heightened conflicts and increased the intensity of negative emotions. Boys tended to be responsible for generating more, and more intense, conflicts, and they also reported more negative emotions than did girls, especially in the context of competitive opposition games.