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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1402373
This article is part of the Research Topic Educational Transformation: 21st century skills and challenges for higher education View all 12 articles

Changes in perception of gender differences in university male students after a Selfdetermination program

Provisionally accepted
  • Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The aim of this study is to explore the outcomes of an intervention program to promote prosocial behaviour, foster personal responsibility and overcome gender stereotypes in sports. This is a mixed (qualitative-quantitative) quasi-experimental study using a single group. The sample consisted of 72 male university students (21.9 ± 8.85 years) enrolled in Spanish university. The program is based on the Self-determination Theory and consisted of 26 sessions. A teaching guide for gender equality in physical education, the "It Grows" program. The results of the study indicate that, firstly, the program is effective in significantly raising scores for the variable Personal Responsibility, improving decisionmaking and commitment to one's own goals. Secondly, there was an increase in Prosocial Behaviour, indicating greater degrees of empathy. Third, processes of intrinsic motivation also improved, with significantly higher scores in Basic Psychological Needs. Fourth, there was a decrease in the prevalence of gender stereotypes and sexist attitudes. An analysis of the pre-intervention correlations between variables indicated a positive and significant correlation between Personal Responsibility and Basic Psychological Needs (p < .001; r=.700), and between Responsibility and Prosocial Behaviour (p < .001; r=.504). After the intervention program, a positive correlation was found between scores for Personal Responsibility and Basic Psychological Needs (p < .001; r=.839) and between Personal Responsibility and Prosocial Behaviour (p < .001; r=.624). After the intervention program a negative correlation was also found between scores for Personal Responsibility and Gender Stereotypes (p < .001; r=-.281).

    Keywords: Equality, gender, Sports, Education, Program

    Received: 17 Mar 2024; Accepted: 30 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Smith Palacio, Bravo-Sánchez, Díaz Ureña and Fraile. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Eulisis Smith Palacio, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain

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