Facilitating flow experience in physical education settings

Abstract Objective The present study aimed to examine the efficacy of an intervention program for fostering flow in a physical education (PE) setting. Design A cluster-randomized control trial design was employed in the study. Method A total of 135 college students (124 women and 11 men) participated in the study. Three PE classes were randomly allocated to two intervention groups (Class 1 [ n  = 47] and Class 2 [ n  = 41]) and one control group (Class 3: n  = 47). Basketball was used as the major physical activity in both intervention and control conditions, and all participants played basketball in their PE lessons once a week for 10 weeks. The intervention program focused on increasing participants' abilities and awareness relating to the preconditions of a flow state (clear goals, unambiguous feedback, and challenge-skill balance). Participant's flow experience in each PE lesson was measured with the Japanese version of the Flow State Scale-2. Growth curve modeling was conducted on the situational flow scores. Results Both intervention groups' global flow state scores in the first PE lesson (Week 1) were not different from that of the control group; however, both the intervention groups’ global flow state scores increased significantly in later weeks (Weeks 7–10), compared to the control group. Conclusions The present study was the first cluster-randomized control trial with a moderate sample size to foster flow in a PE setting. The findings of the study generally confirmed that the intervention program was successful in promoting flow in PE contexts.