A non-competitive sporting challenge: experience shared by a group of women

ABSTRACTGiven that scientific evidence shows that regular physical activity (PA) has physical, psychological, and social benefits, multiple initiatives have been implemented to promote its practice among women. One such initiative is Le Défi des Roses, a non-competitive sporting challenge in Quebec, Canada. A mixed method study consisting of a questionnaire (n = 141) and individual interviews (n = 38) was used among women enrolled in the challenge to: 1) assess participants’ physical, psychological, and social profile at the beginning of their training and 2) describe the physical, psychological, and social impacts of the challenge on participants. Le Défi des Roses had positive impacts physically (e.g. increase in the diversity of PA practice), psychologically (e.g. improvement in body image) and socially (e.g. increased influence over family members). These results could inspire other active leisure organizations designed to promote women’s regular PA, and ultimately, their physical, psychological, and social well-being.RésuméÉtant donné que les preuves scientifiques démontrent que l’activité physique (AP) régulière présente des avantages physiques, psychologiques et sociaux, de nombreuses initiatives ont été mises en œuvre pour promouvoir sa pratique chez les femmes. L’une de ces initiatives est Le Défi des Roses, un défi sportif non compétitif organisé au Québec (Canada). Une étude à méthodologie mixte composée d’un questionnaire (n=141) et d’entretiens individuels (n=38) a été utilisée auprès des femmes inscrites au défi pour : 1) évaluer le profil physique, psychologique et social des participantes au début de leur entraînement et 2) décrire les impacts physiques, psychologiques et sociaux du défi sur les participantes. Le Défi des Roses a eu des impacts positifs sur le plan physique (par exemple, augmentation de la diversité des pratiques d’AP), psychologique (par exemple, amélioration de l’image corporelle) et social (par exemple, augmentation de l’influence sur les membres de la famille). Ces résultats pourraient inspirer d’autres organismes de loisirs actifs visant à promouvoir l’AP régulière des femmes et, à terme, leur bien-être physique, psychologique et social.KEYWORDS: Physical activitywomennon-competitive sporting challengeimpactsMOTS-CLÉS: activité physiquefemmesdéfi sportif non compétitifimpacts AcknowledgmentsThe authors wish to thank Juliette Morin and Claudine Gélinas for their collaboration in collecting and analyzing data, to Christine Cyr for her revision of the references and to Arianne Côté for her help in writing and reviewing the article. The authors would also like to thank the organizers of Le Défi des Roses, Marie-Josée Gervais and Chantal Guimond.Disclosure statementThe authors of the manuscript titled ‘A non-competitive sporting challenge: experience shared by a group of women’ declare they have no conflicts of interest to disclose.Notes1. Because many participants had no children or teenagers, the number of respondents for this question was small (i.e. n = 35).2. Participant no. 26 (to preserve the confidentiality of the participants, each of them was assigned a number).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada under Grant [number 892-2019-2001].Notes on contributorsMarie-Claude RivardMarie-Claude Rivard, PhD, is a full professor in the human kinetics department at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. Her research focuses on the evaluation of health and healthy lifestyle initiatives in school, community and outdoor settings.Paule MiquelonPaule Miquelon is currently a full professor of social psychology in the psychology department at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. Her primary line of research focuses on the self-regulation of health behaviors, mainly physical activity. Specifically, she examines how one’s motivation influences the adoption and maintenance of physical activity among adults from the general population and with chronic diseases (e.g., type 2 diabetes and cancer).Jean LemoyneJean Lemoyne, PhD, is full professor in the department of human kinetics at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. His research focuses on motivational models for sport and exercise and on positive approaches to youth sport. Recently, he has received a research grant to study minor hockey in Canada and is conducting multiple research projects in applied sports sciences.