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ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 180 (2015) 1297 – 1303

The 6th International Conference Edu World 2014 “Education Facing Contemporary World Issues”, 7th - 9th November 2014

Sport – a solution to the social integration of children with conduct disorders ? Pilot Study Moşoi Adrian Alexandru, Balint Lorand * University of Transylvania Braşov, Faculty of Physical Education and Mountain Sports, Eroilor nr.29, Braşov, Romania Abstract

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the differences between different social groups at a psychomotor, psychological and psychosocial level. The premise from which this study started was that comparing students who practice physical activities complimentary to the physical education classes in school and students with conduct problems. The youths that are involved in physical activities have fewer chances to behave antisocially. We assume that students with conduct problems have a low level of social integration, but re-education possibilities, thus being no significant differences at a psychomotor and psychological level, but only at a psychosocial level. © Published byby Elsevier Ltd.Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ©2015 2015The TheAuthors. Authors.Published Elsevier (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of The Association “Education for tomorrow” / [Asociatia “Educatiepentrumaine”]. Peer-review under responsibility of The Association “Education for tomorrow” / [Asociatia “Educatie pentru maine”]. Keywords: conduct problems, sport, senzo motor, self esteem, social esteem.

1. Paper rationale Practicing physical exercise is the simplest and most flexible way of social communication and group integration. Trudeau and Shepard, (2009), talk about the importance of informing people about the impact of physical education in the development of the adolescent. Through sports, the student is not oriented to a certain educational field, but to a lifestyle adapted to the social environment, no matter the age. But sometimes, not all adolescents lead a normal life. Some of them present behavioural problems. Behavioural problems can be identified in illegal activities, which can be isolated or repetitive. The interest for illegal activities is more elevated in the

* Corresponding author: 0040 723748195 E-mail address:[email protected] ; [email protected]

1877-0428 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of The Association “Education for tomorrow” / [Asociatia “Educatie pentru maine”]. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.02.267

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Moşoi Adrian Alexandru and Balint Lorand / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 180 (2015) 1297 – 1303

adolescence period. This frequency peaks at the age of 15-16 years and drops in the first years of maturity, being at its lowest rate at the age of 30 (Blumstein et al., 1986 apud Capaldi and Shortt 2009). This violation of social norms or of the fundamental rights of other persons is called conduct disorder. A major contribution in the development of conduct problems is the parent-adolescent relationship. If the parents have an anti-social behaviour, reduced parenting skills, are alcohol and/or drug consumers, suffer from stress or depression in advanced states, exert an abusive discipline on the child, the risk of appearance and development of conduct disorders is high. In the case of parents that have anti-social behaviour, permissiveness toward adolescent mistakes is higher than it would be in the case of parents who behave socially correct. It is well known that the evolution of a child is conditioned by three factors, heredity, environment and education. For children whose parents were / are criminals, the risk of behavioural disorder is high, both in terms of temper (genetic) and from the point of view of his environment and bad educational influences which he gets intentionally or not (Capaldi and Shortt 2009). In order to improve this type of disorder, psychologists and psychiatrists resort to various cognitive, behavioural, biomedical, humanistic therapies, all with the same purpose: adapting the subject to social life. Very few of these specialists take into account sports as therapy support. Practicing physical exercise doesn’t necessarily have performance as a goal, but it can be oriented towards adapting the individual to a system of principles, rules, requirements, and action fields etc., which offer him the possibility of integrating in a group. Among the types of practice that involve sports (Dragnea 2002), brings into question the practice of physical exercise as therapy. The author is not developing this demarche, but merely mentioning the fact that the goal of this kind of activity represents a chance/alternative for those in suffering. Very little is spoken about introducing sports to improve these disorders. In a report released in Conduct Problems Best Practice Report, (2009)on conduct problems (behavioural disorders), it is underlined the role of social programs to integrate these teenagers into different types of therapies, with the help of parents, schools and the local community. In the same report, the role of activities in reducing the aggressiveness and violence of some adolescents is emphasized, but in none of these activities are sports included. Physical health need people with mental illness are neglected. Encouraging people with mental health problems to practice exercise is important for improving the physical condition and mental health (Mosoi, 2013). The youths that are involved in physical activities have fewer chances to behave antisocially. In Canada Report (2008) it is mentioned that young people that are involved in sports activities have a lot less chances to develop antisocial behaviours. The report also shows that there are 80% less chances for a minor to cause anti-social acts, if he practices sports in an organized environment. Also it improves the self-esteem and self-image, but many of these studies were conducted on normal participant lots. (Callaghan, 2004 and Bowker et al., 2003).Can all of these benefits manifest at adolescents with conduct problems? Richardson et al (2005) bring valuable arguments in this context, claiming that, through interventions that belong to the physical exercise field, effects that are similar to the ones of the non-clinical population are obtained. The first condition of improving the psychological state, in the researchers’ opinion, is changing the subject’s lifestyle by making him do moderate physical activities in which the effects of the physical exercises are similar to the effects of the psychotherapeutic intervention. In this regard, physical exercises can improve the side-effects of the disorders, for example low self-esteem and social withdrawal. This research suggests that physical exercises can be accepted and, at the same time, appreciated as a way of treatment. Peluso& Andrade, (2005) consider that the lack of physical exercise can be perceived as a health issue, both at apparently healthy and clinical individuals, bringing evidence about the state of mind of the subjects of their research. Maïano et al. 2007 brings into discussion the effects of adolescents with conduct issues participating in physical activities through a longitudinal study on a period of 18 months. The conclusion of the study was that, over the period of practicing physical exercises teenagers have developed specific physical skills of the game of basketball but self-esteem did not improve significantly. The authors assume that periods of participation in physical activities should be much longer for teenagers to discover new perspectives on them. Taking into consideration the previous study, Jaisvinder&Ayush (2010) recommend that phtsical exercise


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targeted at improving social behaviour should unfold during a period longer than 4 weeks, and for the clinical population, directed physical activities should be carried out consistently over a longer period of time. With sessions lasting a minimum of 30 minutes, performed three times a week, these exercises must be adapted to serve the circumstances and preferences of those on which they are applied, so as to have the effect of minimizing mental. discomfort as well. (Morgan et al. 2013). By observing exercising subjects, supervisors or specialized personnel can identify specific skills for specific areas and / or different sports. A staring point could be the student’s ability in a particular field. Suppose a teenager with a behavioural disorder is very good at swimming. The therapeutic contact must be positive and it must use the strengths of the system, in order to change the adolescent’s conduct. The ability, once identified, should be acknowledged and developed, meaning that its merit should by recognised to the subject, encouraging him to work in this direction, with the purpose of improving one’s behaviour .(Scott, 2012).It should be emphasized that teenagers with conduct disorders are not to be treated differently, but they should be offered the chance to to develop the skills that they have and most times, are not aware of having. The question is what to do with those who have no specific skills for any domain? In this case, a first position would be enrolling them in a re-education through sports program, performed in an organized environment. One of the conditions as a teenager with behavioural disorders to practice physical activities is to be encouraged by the family (Selles et al. 2011).This study discussed the role of the family in improving the conduct disorder of their children by supporting their various activities, among which the practice of sports activities. These sport games have the quality to offer an accepted set of consequences regarding the ongoing regulations, especially when the team/individual game is conducted by a referee. The referee is capable to use the rules in order to identify inappropriate behaviours and apply sanctions. This approach is meant to assure the proper conduct of the competition and the compliance of all participants (Centre for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA. (2008). The social contact is one of the fundamental conditions to improve behavioural issues. Social contact can be introduced through group therapy or sports games. The character is the same: to relate, empathize and do things together. The study of Frazze et al. 2004 has shown that the differences between the experimental group and the control group were pro-social behaviour and the ability to promote emotions by increasing social contact with colleagues; this intervention was positively associated with improved classroom behaviour and decreased aggression. 2. Methodology Our pilot study has been conducted on a number of 9athletes, which practice physical activities complementary to those required in school and 9 students with behavioural problems (social integration problems) from the Voila Hospital in Campina, average age 14.4 and S.D 1.54. Before conducting the tests, the participants of this study completed a questionnaire regarding their personal status, number of siblings, parental education, type of family (two parents or single parent), data on school results, average mark in Romanian, math and sports as well as anthropometric data on weight and height. Moreover, the test persons had to specify the hours of their physical activity conducted per week. The equipment from the Research Institute of psycho-motor testing from Transylvania, Brasov, was used for this study. The sensor motor hand - eye coordination and the anticipation in space and time were measured with the help of the Vienna Test Sport System Battery, using The SMK test and the Time/ Movement Anticipation. This battery contains in its structure an answering panel, made from more buttons of different colours. In this study, the SMK S 1 test was used by operating a circular segment, which is moving in a tri-dimensional space. The purpose of this task is to provide information regarding the sensor motor development level of hand - eye. The test ZBA S2 with 12 items, linear form presents the following task: on the screen. A red ball is moving with a certain velocity and, at some point, disappears between two parallel lines. The subject has to press a key the in the

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moment in which the ball is about to take contact with one of the two parallel lines. The anticipation in time will be measured through the athlete’s capacity to indicate the exact time when the ball will appear on the line. In the second phase, the subject will also have to indicate the place of the ball. This last performance measures the capacity of the individual to anticipate the time and space movement. The test consists of 2 accommodation items and 8 testing items. At the moment when the player is tested, he will not receive feedback, like in the two previous accommodation phases. The variables used in the study were raw data from the mean deviation angle, horizontal mean deviation, mean vertical deviation, deviation angle dispersion, dispersion horizontal deviation, vertical deviation and time dispersion in ideal range. For testing anticipation in time and space the variables median time deviation and median direction deviation were considered. For all these variables the raw scores were taken into account. For the psychological testing, the following test were used:- Rosenberg Questionnaire (self-esteem) This test has, as purpose, the measurement of the personal value and auto-acceptance feeling, self-confidence and of the personal impairment and the questionnaire, the corporal self-esteem. - For the psycho-social testing, the social selfesteem inventory (SSEI) has been developed to measure self-esteem in social situations. This article has the advantage of measuring only one dimension of the self-esteem. The subjects, who have assertive deficit, meaning an avoidant personality disorder, should have a more inferior level of social esteem, compared to the control group. School adjustment questionnaire (SAQ) - 67 items. Investigation fields: school neuroticism, rebel spirit, cumulative school un-adjustment. - School inadaptability questionnaire (SIQ), which had also gone through similar steps in the initial stage of its conceiving (Clinciu, 2003, 2014). The evaluation protocol was formed from psycho-social testing, which lasted 30 minutes, and biometric testing, which was 30 minutes for each participant, 18 minutes for the SMK test and 8 minutes the ZBA test. 3. Results Parental studies have indicated that 33.3% of parents have been to primary school, 11.1% have also attended high school and 56% have a higher education degree. From students that practice sports activities regularly, 100% of parents have a higher education degree. Type of family: 27.8% come from mono-parental families and 72.8 % come from bi-parental families. 100% of the students who practice sports activities come from bi-parental families. Most of the students practice sports every day (55.6%), 22.2% three times a week, 16.7% twice a week and 5.6% once a week. On the studied lot, associations were reported between school neuroticism, rebelliousness, school maladjustment and social esteem, the only negative association being between school neuroticism and the difference between the two scores of the grids of the social esteem test. The only negative association was between school neuroticism and the difference between the two scores at the test grids:ୱ = -.69, p = .002, ܴௌଶ =.47. No associations were detected between school neuroticism, rebel spirit , school maladjustment and body self-perception, but some positive associations have been reported between school neuroticism and self-esteem, , ୱ = -48, p = .036, ܴௌଶ =.23 and between school maladjustment and self-esteem,ୱ = -.54, p = .002, ܴௌଶ =.29. School neuroticism is negatively associated with the hand-coordination level, with the horizontal average, ୱ = .66, p = .003, ܴௌଶ =.43, with the horizontal dispersion, ୱ = .65, p = .003, ܴௌଶ =.42 and positively associated with ideal time, ୱ = -.49, p = .037, ܴௌଶ =.24. No associations were identified between space and time anticipation test (ZBA) and school neuroticism. Depending on group membership, students with behavioural disorders and students who practice sports activities, the following results were obtained, listed in Table 1 and 2.

Tabel 1. Mann Whtney results:


Variables Parents Studies Family type School Neuroticism Inadaptare şcolară Social esteem Difference Self esteem Mean angle Mean Vertical Mean Horizontal Dispersion angle Dispersion Vertical Dispersion Horizontal Time in ideal range Mean Time Dev Mean Dev. Direction

MannWhitney U 4.500 18.000 11.000 15.000 13.000 30.000 3.500 15.000 17.500 6.000 13.000 25.000 3.500 34.500 24.000

Z -3.571 -2.557 -2.614 -2.26 -2.430 -.932 -3.269 -2.252 -2.032 -3.046 -2.428 -1.369 -3.298 -.530 -1.458

Tabel 2.Mann Whtney results – SMK 1 (after 5 minute). Variables MannWhitney U Z Mean angle 3.500 -3.269 Mean Vertical 15.000 -2.252 Mean Horizontal 17.500 -2.032 Dispersion angle 6.000 -3.046 Dispersion Vertical 13.000 -2.428 Dispersion Horizontal 25.000 -1.369 Time in ideal range 3.500 -3.298

p ≤ .05* p ≤ .001** .000** .05 .008* .024* .014* .387 .000** .024* .050* .001** .014* .190 .000* .605 .161

r -.84 -.60 -.61 -.53 -.57 -.77 -.53 -.47 -.71 -. 57 -.77 -

p ≤ .05* p ≤ .001** .000** .050* .094 .002* .050* .258 .000**

r -.77 -.53 -.71 -.57 -.77

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4. Discussions A first difference between the two groups studied was identified at the education and family type from which the adolescents with conduct disorder come from. The survey data confirms the observation of Capaldi&Shortt2009 about the importance of the family and environment of the adolescents. At a social level, on the studied lots, no significant results were noted, the only difference being observed at the second answering grid, where the score of the adolescents with conduct problems is bigger than of the adolescents that practice sports. Being a grid that is marked reverse (the first is denoted ascending - the second descending), we assume that students with behavioural disorders in the study group responded mostly positive to all questions, even if they also had negative character, thus the total score is higher among athletes, but the grid score is different. Significant differences between the two groups are also at school. Athletes have ales vulnerable perception of school, and their adaptation to school activities is at an upper level. Practicing exercise plays an important role in the daily operations of behavioural disordered teenagers, but this is not done in an organized manner. No differences were found at the level of the frequency of exercise, but coordination level differences have been reported in all measuring ranges. These differences in the level of hand-eye coordination can be explained by the daily practice of sport, in an organized framework in certain

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directions. Richardson et al. 2005. The idea of involving physical exercises in the development of adolescents must also be raised. After the first five minutes of the test sample SMK 1, the differences between athletes were identified at only 5 evaluation scales out of 7, 2 of which are at the limit of significance. 5. Conclusions Practicing exercise may be a step in the development of skills of the conduct disordered adolescents. Being a pilot study, our results will be accepted as trends because of the very small batch of participants in the study. These trends give us an outside research source to identify differences in clinical and nonclinical populations, at a social and psychomotor level and the chance to introduce sports activities in the development of the clinical population, if it is proved that there are benefit effects in time. 6. Acknowledgments We hereby acknowledge the structural founds project PRO-DD (POS-CCE, O.2.2.1., ID 123, SMIS 2637, ctr. No 11/2009) for providing the infrastructure used in this work and the project Invest in people! EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND. Sectorial Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007 – 2013: Priority Axis 1 "Education and professional training in support for growth and development of the knowledge society" Key Area of Intervention 1.5. "Doctoral and post-doctoral research support" Title: Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research Excellence: The identification number of the contract: POSDRU / 159 / 1.5 / S / 134378. Beneficiary: Transylvania University of Brasov. References Bowker, A., Gadbois, S., & Cornock, B. (2003). Sports participation and self-esteem: Variation as a function of gender and gender orientation. Sex Roles, 49, 47-58. Callaghan, P. (2004) Exercise: a neglected intervention in mental health care? Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 11, 476-483. Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport 2008. What sport can do. The true sport report.http/www.cces.ca/files.pdfs/TS_report_EN_webdownload.pdf Capaldi, D.M &Shortt, J.W (2009) Înţelegerea problemelor de conduit în adolescenţă în raport cu întreaga viaţă. PSIHOLOGIA ADOLESCENŢEI. Coord.Adams, G.R &Berzonsky, M.D. Manualul Blackwell.Editura: Polirom. Iaşi. pp. 518-536. Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA. (2008). Conduct and Behavior Problems Related to School Aged Youth. Los Angeles, CA: Author. Clinciu, A.I. (2003). Chestionar de inadaptare şcolară.In I. Petrescu (coord.).Eficienţă, legalitate, etică în România mileniului trei.Braşov: Editura Lux Libris. Clinciu, A.I. (2014) Validation Study of School Inadaptability Questionnaire. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 127(2014) 154-158. Psyworld 2013. Conduct Problems. Best Practice Report (2009) Report by the Advisory Group on Conduct Problems. Published March 2009by the Ministry of Social Development Bowen State Building PO Box 1556, Wellington 6140 New Zealand. Dragnea A., (2002) Teoria sportului, Bucureşti - Editura FEST Fraser, M. W., Day, S.H., Galinsky, M. J., Hodges, V. G., Smokowsky, P.R (2004) Conduct Problems and Peer Rejection in Childhood: Randomized Trial of the Making Choices and Strong Families Programs. Research on Social Work Practice, Vol. 14 No. 5, September 2004 313324. Jaisvinder, K &Ayush, V (2010) Exercise and mental health. Review article. Delhi Psychiatry Journal. Vol. 13. No 2. pp. 236-239. Maïan, C., Ninot, G., Morin, A.J.S., Bilard, J (2007) Effects of Sport Participation on the Basketball Skills and Physical Self of Adolescents with Conduct Disorders. ADAPTED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY QUARTERLY, 2007, 24, 178-196 © 2007 Human Kinetics, Inc. Morgan, A. J., Parker, A. G., Alvarez-Jimenez, M., Jor m, A. F (2013) Exercise and Mental Health: An Exercise and Sports Science Australia Commissioned Review. Journal of Exercise Physiology online. Volume 16.Number 4.Jeponline.64-73. Moşoi.A.A., 2013 Exerciţiile fizice şi sănătatea. Psihoeducaţie Pozitivă şi Optimizare Umană – Psihologie pozitivă şi dezvoltare personală. Coord.Mincu.C.L. Editura, Universitară. Bucureşti. Vol. 1.pp. 179-190. - ISBN 978-606 591-891-7 Peluso, M, A, M & Andrade, L, H, S, G 2005 Physical activity and mental health: the association between exercise and mood. CLINICS 60(1): 61-70. (Review). Richardon, C. R., Faulkner, G., McDevit, J., Skrinar, G. S., Hutchinson, D. S., Piette, J. D. (2005) Integrating Physical Activity Into Mental Health Services for Persons with Serious Mental Illness. PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES. March 2005 Vol. 56 No. 3 Scott S. 2012. Conduct disorders. In Rey JM (ed), IACAPAP e-Textbook of Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Geneva: International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions 2012. Sells, S.P., Early, K. W, Smith, T. E (2011) Reducing Adolescent Oppositional and Conduct Disorders: An Experimental design using the Parenting with Love and Limits ® Model. Professional Issues in Criminal Justice Vol: 6(3 & 4),9-30.

Moşoi Adrian Alexandru and Balint Lorand / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 180 (2015) 1297 – 1303 Trudeau, F & Shepard, J, R 2009 Relation of Physical Activity to Brain Health and the Academic Performance of Schoolchildren. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. STATE OF THE ART. Rewies. pp. 1-13.

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