Testing of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire for Children on a Russian Sample of Young Athletes

Studies on mental imagery of movements (MIM) in adult and young athletes have been conducted both abroad and in Russia (Kaminsky, & Veraksa, 2014; Kaminsky, & Veraksa, 2016; Bjorkstrand,& Jern, 2013; Cooke et al: Veraksa et al., 2014). In studies conducted on mature athletes, it has been shown that the use of mental imagery can increase the efficiency of learning new motor skills and improve exercise techniques. These motor skills include the process of self-learning, for example, in golf (Bell et al., 2009) or high jump (Olsson et al., 2008), and the ability to predict the actions of a partner, for example, in tennis (Robin et al., 2007). In addition, it has been shown in a number of studies that the combination of physical activity and MIM is more conducive to efficient movement performance than just motor training (Malouin et al., 2009), and that MIM can increase the strength of the lower leg, abs, arms, calves, etc. (Reiser et al., 2011). It has also been demonstrated that professional athletes use mental imagery more frequently and regularly during training (Arvinen-Barrow et al., 2007).

There are a lot of studies that demonstrate the importance of MIM for training young athletes. For example, the research of M. Guerrero and colleagues (Guerrero et al., 2015), conducted with children 8 to 14 years old, showed that through imagery, it is possible not only to achieve improvement in the performance of sports tasks, but also to increase the efficiency of a team. A study by M. Afrouzeh and colleagues (Afrouzeh et al., 2013) conducted on 36 young volleyball players (M_age = 13 years) investigated the effects of a 7-week PETTLEP model. The participants were divided into three groups: the first group engaged in 15 minutes of mental imagery of their movements using the PETTLEP model before training three times a week; the second group practiced 15 minutes of traditional movement imagery before training three times a week; and the third group (control) did not practice any mental imagery before training. The results showed that the athletes who practiced pitching while applying the PETTLEP model mastered the skill better than athletes in the second and control groups. There were also significant differences between the second and third groups: athletes who used traditional mental representation learned the pitching technique better than athletes who did not use any mental imagery before training.

To identify the most effective and frequently used mental images and ways of their representation by young athletes, our Canadian colleagues developed the Movement Imagery Questionnaire for Children (MIQ-C).

The MIQ-C (Martini et al., 2016) is a modification of the third version of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire (MIQ-3). It was designed for children aged 7 to 12 years, the period when a child begins to develop a mental image of what is involved in their movements.

Due to the fact that there is no Russian-language method for assessing children's ability to get a mental image of their movements, we considered it relevant to test the MIQ-C method on a Russian sample of young athletes.

The main objectives of our work were: 1) to translate the MIQ-C into Russian and to conduct the first adaptation of it; 2) to conduct the main adaptation of the MIQ-C on the sample of 112 Russian athletes; 3) to analyze the results and compare them with the Canadian study.

Methods

In the preliminary stage, the MIQ-C methodology was translated into Russian and adapted for five athletes (3 girls and 2 boys) age 7 to 12 years old, who were involved in such sports as orienteering (2), table tennis (1), volleyball (1), and acrobatics (1). As a result, some words were replaced with words that are more understandable for a Russian sample but do not distort the meaning of the task: for example, the phrase “glass of mud” was replaced with “a glass with cloudy water.” In addition, a more detailed description of what “kinesthetic representation” means was added.

In the main stage, young athletes performed the tasks of the MIQ-C. It consists of four exercises. Each exercise is aimed at the work of a certain muscle group.

The task. Standing in the initial position (the initial positions differ in the four exercises), the child should imagine a certain movement without actually performing it, and then assess the difficulty of the mental representation of this movement on a 7-point scale (from 1 = "very difficult" to 7 = "very easy"). Each movement should be represented in three different ways: from the first person perspective (perception of the movement from a position that actualizes the result of direct interaction with specific properties of the environment [Kaminsky, & Veraksa, 2016]); from the third person perspective (perception of the movement from a position which reflects the individual's consciousness of himself as part of objective reality (Kaminsky, & Veraksa, 2016); and kinesthetically (perception of muscle activity).

Before the testing, each child was given a detailed discussion of the instructions, as well as a practice session, during which the athlete answered questions about his or her own ways of representing this movement using the example of a mental representation of kicking a football. Also, the rules for scoring the sensation were explained by using pictures of glasses filled with different liquids, with varying degrees of transparency. For example, if the child presented the image of kicking the ball as if looking through a glass of cloudy water, he/she should choose a value from 1 to 3 (i.e., from "very difficult" to " a bit difficult").

Sample: 112 athletes from Moscow and the Moscow region age 7 to 12 years old (M = 9.47; SD = 1.34) participated in the study: 70 boys and 42 girls. They were from both individual and team sports: handball (38), volleyball (30), swimming (13), sambo (7), wrestling (15), and tennis (9).

Results

To verify the reliability-consistency of the MIQ-C questions, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was estimated. The coefficient of 0.918 indicated a good consistency of the questions.

The results obtained for both the Russian and Canadian samples are given in Table 1. The scores for the Russian sample were generally higher than those obtained for the Canadian sample. For example, the mean scores of first-person MIM in our study ranged from 5.75 to 6.41; in the Canadian sample, from 4.97 to 5.42. The scores of the third-person MIM in the Russian sample ranged from 5.63 to 6.26; in the Canadian sample, from 5.41 to 5.96. The scores related to the representation of muscle movements in our study ranged from 4.88 to 5.94; in the Canadian sample they ranged from 4.69 to 4.90.

There were no significant differences by gender and age in either sample.

Table 1

Measures of mental imagery of movements in Russian and Canadian samples

To test the hypothesis that mental representation of muscle activity (kinesthetic imagery) will be more difficult for children than first- or third-person perspective imagery, we used the ANOVA method.

According to the results, our hypothesis was confirmed. Kinesthetic representation had the lowest scores compared to the first- and third-person perspective imagery, regardless of the age of the children. The highest scores of MIM for all modalities (first person, third person, and kinesthetic imagery) were observed in children aged 9-10.

Discussion

After the primary validation of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire for Children, we tested its reliability-consistency. The MIM scores of Russian and Canadian children involved in sports were compared. In both the Canadian and Russian studies, kinesthetic imagery scores were lower than first- and third-person representations. But generally, it can be concluded that Russian children athletes rated their MIM ability higher than the Canadian children did. There may be a few reasons for this. First, Russian children may overestimate their mental representation abilities. Second, there may be a social desirability factor that causes Russian children to overestimate their scores, as they are worried that these scores may affect the coach's attitude. Thirdly, it is possible that some Russian sports schools pay attention to the formation of mental imagery in children, which contributes to the development of their MIM skill.

The study also confirmed the hypothesis that kinesthetic imagery is the most difficult type of mental imagery for children. Children generally have a less developed representation of their bodies than adults do (Nikolaeva et al., 2012). However, the period from 7 to 12 years of age is precisely the most sensitive for developing a more complete awareness of one’s body schema (Gurfinkel et al., 1991). Also, at this time the development of cognitive schemas, including mental imagery ability, is being developed. It can be assumed that because of the frequent use of mental imagery of movements, young athletes begin to analyze their bodily sensations in more detail, and their kinesthetic imagery increases. Although the young athletes were quite successful in achieving first and third person perspectives of MIM, they still needed an explanation of the difference between the two types of imagery, unlike mature athletes for whom this is not an issue.

Conclusion

The reliability of the Russian version of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire for Children (MIQ-C) was tested on a sample of 112 young athletes and compared with Canadian results. The assumption that kinesthetic representations of muscle activity would be more difficult for children than first- and third-person perspective imagery was confirmed. Despite the fact that no significant differences by gender and age were found, the highest rates of ability to use all three modes of MIM were observed in children age 9-10 years. This may be due to the greater predisposition at this age to form cognitive schemas and begin using them. This assumption requires further verification.

Limitations

It is necessary to expand the sample by choosing athletes from those sports that were not represented at this stage of the study, and to test the validity of the Russian version of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire for Children on that expanded sample.

Ethics Statement

The study and consent procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of Faculty of Psychology at Lomonosov Moscow State University (Approval No: 2017/735). The parents of all children who participated in the study gave informed consent for them to participate.

Author Contributions

A.V. designed and directed the project, and developed the theoretical framework; A.Y. performed the experiments, performed the analysis, drafted the manuscript, and designed the figures; and A.V. and A.Y. aided in interpreting the results and worked on the manuscript. Both authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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