Examining associations between self-conscious emotions and implicit and reflective processes among adolescent girls and boys

Objective: Examine the association between self-conscious emotions and adolescents’ implicit attitudes (i.e., automatic evaluations or “gut reactions”) towards sport. Design: In this cross-sectional design, 162 adolescents completed self-report questionnaires and a single category implicit association task. Study protocols transitioned from in-person to online at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Measures: Self-conscious emotions (i.e., fitness-related shame and pride) were assessed using the BSE-FIT (Castonguay et al., 2016), and sport enjoyment (i.e., reflective attitudes) was assessed using four items from Scanlan and colleagues measure of adolescents’ sport experiences (Scanlan et al., 1993). The Single-Category Implicit Association Task using images was used to measure their implicit attitudes towards sport (Karpinski & Steinman, 2006). Results: Based on a structural equation model accounting for age and gender, higher levels of fitness pride related to higher sport enjoyment and higher levels of fitness shame related to less favourable implicit attitudes towards sport. Conclusion: Overall, results might reflect differences in when self-conscious emotions are most relevant, whereby pride is more relevant when reflecting on experiences in sport, however fitness shame is related to implicit attitudes elicited from the sport context. Interventions that target affective judgments of the self may be useful to incorporate into strategies to reduce sport drop out in adolescents.