A Comparison Between Injured and Uninjured Football Players on Selected Psychosocial Variables

The psychological impact of athletic injury on 916 NCAA Division I football players from 42 institutions was examined. The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) (Radloff, 1977), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), and the Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1970) were used to assess depression, self-esteem, and trait anxiety, respectively. The Levenson (1974) Locus of Control Scales were used to measure perceptions of three dimensions of control (internal control, powerful others, and chance). Injured student-athletes reported significantly higher levels of depression and life stress than uninjured student-athletes. The findings, which were consistent with previous research, suggested that injury can be a significant stressor for student-athletes

Norms and Factorial Invariance of the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS)

This study examined the factorial invariance of the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS; Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder, 1993) and developed norms for its future use. A sample of 2,856 participants was assembled from multiple administrations of the AIMS over the past 10 years. The total sample was divided into two samples: a derivation sample (n = 1,462) and a validation sample (n = 1,394). The samples were stratified to insure equivalence in gender and varsity athlete/non-athlete composition. No significant differences were detected between the derivation and validation samples in AIMS item mean scores or demographic variables (all ps>.10). Results indicated that a multidimensional model in which three highly correlated first order factors (social identity, exclusivity, and negative affectivity) are subordinate to a higher order athletic identity factor demonstrated factorial invariance across genders and athletic statuses. Confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) methods were performed on the derivation sample data to examine four AIMS models (the original uni-dimensional model and three multidimensional models, designated Models A, B, C, and D) that have been previously proposed and investigated in the literature. The results of these analyses, which are described in the Appendix, supported the development of a new higher-order model, Model E, which consists of seven items. The findings suggested that a 7-item composite AIMS score is appropriate for assessing athletic identity in both men and women. Applications of the AIMS with student-athletes were discussed

Effects of Transferable Skills Workshops on the Career Self-Efficacy of College Student-Athletes

This study was designed to investigate the effects of two types of transferable skills workshops on the career self-efficacy of intercollegiate student-athletes. Participants were 79 college student-athletes (45 males [30 football players and 15 basketball players] and 34 females [14 softball players and 20 soccer players]) enrolled at a small NCAA Division III institution. Student-athletes (N=79) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) a control condition that involved viewing a video on sports nutrition, (b) an unaugmented transferable skills workshop that was based on the model suggested by Petitpas and Schwartz (1989), and (c) an augmented transferable skills workshop similar to the unaugmented workshop but including completion of a self-report inventory designed to help athletes identify sport-related skills that can transfer to other domains. All participants completed the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Short-Form (COSE-SF; Betz & Taylor, 200 I) before and after the workshops. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) with COSE-SF pretest scores as a covariate revealed that the augmented transferable skills workshop produced significantly greater increases in career self-efficacy than the unaugmented transferable skills workshop and the control condition. Paired samples t-tests indicated that both transferable skills workshops, but not the control condition, produced statistically significant gains in career self-efficacy. The results suggest that both transferable skills workshops can have a positive influence on the career self-efficacy of student-athletes and that a standardized transferable skills inventory can be a helpful tool in enhancing the ability of student-athletes to identify transferable skills that can increase their career self-efficacy. The career self-efficacy level of student-athletes who participated in the transferable skills workshops increased significantly compared to that of the control group. In addition, participants who completed the TSI as part of their transferable skills workshop showed higher levels of career self-efficacy than student-athletes who did not complete the TSI

Adding mindfulness practice to exercise therapy for female recreational runners with patellofemoral pain:a randomized controlled trial

Context Considering current models that highlight the role of psychological components in pain management, mindfulness practice may be an effective strategy in the management of pain. Objective To examine the effects of adding an 8-week mindfulness program to exercise therapy on the perceptions of pain severity, knee function, fear of movement, and pain catastrophizing of female recreational runners with patellofemoral pain (PFP). Design Randomized controlled clinical trial. Setting University laboratory. Patients or Other Participants Thirty female runners (age = 28.3 ± 7.08 years) with PFP were randomly assigned to the exercise or mindfulness-exercise group. Intervention(s) The exercise-only group followed a protocol (18 weeks, 3 sessions/wk) that featured training modifications to help control injury-related symptoms. The mindfulness-exercise group received an 8-week mindfulness intervention in addition to the exercise protocol. The mindfulness component started 4 weeks before the exercise component; therefore, the 2 components overlapped during the first 4 weeks of the intervention. Main Outcome Measure(s) Usual pain, pain during stepping, and pain during running were assessed using visual analog scales. Functional limitations of the knee were assessed using the Knee Outcome Survey. Fear of movement, pain catastrophizing, and coping strategies were measured via the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia, the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, and the Coping Strategies Questionnaire, respectively. These outcomes were assessed at baseline, at week 9, and after 18 weeks. Results Pain during running, pain during stepping, and functional limitations of the knee were less for the mindfulness-exercise group than for the exercise-only group (P values < .05). The mindfulness-exercise group reported greater perceived treatment effects than the exercise-only group (P < .05). Pain catastrophizing was less and coping strategies were more favorable for mindfulness-exercise participants than for exercise-only participants (P values < .05). Conclusions Mindfulness practice can be an effective adjunct to exercise therapy in the rehabilitation of PFP in recreational female runners

College Adjustment of Football Players: Predictors of First Semester Adjust to College among NCAA Division III Intercollegiate Football Players

This study examined predictors of first-semester adjustment to college among 48 first-year intercollegiate football players. Participants completed measures oflife stress, social support, quality of their relationship with parents, quality of their roommate relationship, sport satisfaction, athletic identity, and adjustment to college near the end of the first semester. The predictor variables accounted for 43% of the variance in adjustment to college, with quality of the roommate relationship and sport satisfaction emerging as significant (p < .05) predictors of adjustment. The results highlight the role of social and sport-related factors in how well first-year intercollegiate football players adjust to college. Recommendations for facilitating positive adjustment were provided. The more favorably participants perceived the relationship with their roommates and the more satisfied they were with their involvement in football, the better their adjustment near the end of the first semester of college. Contrary to the hypothesized pattern of results, however, factors found previously to relate to adjustment to college in the general student body (i.e., life stress, social support, and relationship with parents) were not associated with the football players' adjustment to college. Social support did not moderate the relationship between life stress and adjustment, and athletic identity did not moderate the relationship between sport satisfaction and adjustment. The failure of life stress, social support, and parent relationship to predict adjustment to college among first-year intercollegiate football players is surprising in light of research documenting associations between these variables and adjustment to college for the general student population (Compas et al., 1986; Holmbeck & Wandrei,1993; Prancer et al., 2000; Pratt et al., 2000; Wintre & Yaffe, 2000)

Identity Foreclosure, Athletic Identity, and College Sport Participation

A study was conducted with 502 college students (246 non-athletes, 90 intramural athletes, and 166 intercollegiate athletes) to investigate the relationship between self-identity variables (i.e., identity foreclosure and athletic identity) and college sport participation. The researchers used two scales, the foreclosure subscale of the Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (OM-EIS, Adams et al., 1979) and the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS, Brewer et al., 1993). Results indicated that identity foreclosure and athletic identity increase with level of sport participation. Identity foreclosure was significantly lower for upperclass students than for underclass students among non-athletes, but not among intramural and intercollegiate student-athletes. No gender differences were found. These findings suggested that intercollegiate student-athletes may commit to the role of "athlete" without exploring alternative identities. Implications of the results for the academic and career development of student-athletes were discussed. "The results of this study imply that college student-athletes may identify strongly with the athlete role to the extent that they fail to explore alternative identities." - p.

Phase-coherent detection of an optical dipole force by Doppler velocimetry

We report phase-coherent Doppler detection of optical dipole forces using large ion crystals in a Penning trap. The technique is based on laser Doppler velocimetry using a cycling transition in $^{9}$Be$^{+}$ near 313 nm and the center-of-mass (COM) ion motional mode. The optical dipole force is tuned to excite the COM mode, and measurements of photon arrival times synchronized with the excitation potential show oscillations with a period commensurate with the COM motional frequency. Experimental results compare well with a quantitative model for a driven harmonic oscillator. This technique permits characterization of motional modes in ion crystals; the measurement of both frequency and phase information relative to the driving force is a key enabling capability -- comparable to lockin detection -- providing access to a parameter that is typically not available in time-averaged measurements. This additional information facilitates discrimination of nearly degenerate motional modes.Comment: Related manuscripts at http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~mbiercuk

Ultrasensitive force and displacement detection using trapped ions

The ability to detect extremely small forces is vital for a variety of disciplines including precision spin-resonance imaging, microscopy, and tests of fundamental physical phenomena. Current force-detection sensitivity limits have surpassed 1 $aN/\sqrt{Hz}$ (atto $=10^{-18}$) through coupling of micro or nanofabricated mechanical resonators to a variety of physical systems including single-electron transistors, superconducting microwave cavities, and individual spins. These experiments have allowed for probing studies of a variety of phenomena, but sensitivity requirements are ever-increasing as new regimes of physical interactions are considered. Here we show that trapped atomic ions are exquisitely sensitive force detectors, with a measured sensitivity more than three orders of magnitude better than existing reports. We demonstrate detection of forces as small as 174 $yN$ (yocto $=10^{-24}$), with a sensitivity 390$\pm150$ $yN/\sqrt{Hz}$ using crystals of $n=60$ $^{9}$Be$^{+}$ ions in a Penning trap. Our technique is based on the excitation of normal motional modes in an ion trap by externally applied electric fields, detection via and phase-coherent Doppler velocimetry, which allows for the discrimination of ion motion with amplitudes on the scale of nanometers. These experimental results and extracted force-detection sensitivities in the single-ion limit validate proposals suggesting that trapped atomic ions are capable of detecting of forces with sensitivity approaching 1 $yN/\sqrt{Hz}$. We anticipate that this demonstration will be strongly motivational for the development of a new class of deployable trapped-ion-based sensors, and will permit scientists to access new regimes in materials science.Comment: Expanded introduction and analysis. Methods section added. Subject to press embarg

Development and Validation of the Behavioral Tendencies Questionnaire

At a fundamental level, taxonomy of behavior and behavioral tendencies can be described in terms of approach, avoid, or equivocate (i.e., neither approach nor avoid). While there are numerous theories of personality, temperament, and character, few seem to take advantage of parsimonious taxonomy. The present study sought to implement this taxonomy by creating a questionnaire based on a categorization of behavioral temperaments/tendencies first identified in Buddhist accounts over fifteen hundred years ago. Items were developed using historical and contemporary texts of the behavioral temperaments, described as “Greedy/Faithful”, “Aversive/Discerning”, and “Deluded/Speculative”. To both maintain this categorical typology and benefit from the advantageous properties of forced-choice response format (e.g., reduction of response biases), binary pairwise preferences for items were modeled using Latent Class Analysis (LCA). One sample (n1 = 394) was used to estimate the item parameters, and the second sample (n2 = 504) was used to classify the participants using the established parameters and cross-validate the classification against multiple other measures. The cross-validated measure exhibited good nomothetic span (construct-consistent relationships with related measures) that seemed to corroborate the ideas present in the original Buddhist source documents. The final 13-block questionnaire created from the best performing items (the Behavioral Tendencies Questionnaire or BTQ) is a psychometrically valid questionnaire that is historically consistent, based in behavioral tendencies, and promises practical and clinical utility particularly in settings that teach and study meditation practices such as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

Identification of 12 new susceptibility loci for different histotypes of epithelial ovarian cancer.

To identify common alleles associated with different histotypes of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), we pooled data from multiple genome-wide genotyping projects totaling 25,509 EOC cases and 40,941 controls. We identified nine new susceptibility loci for different EOC histotypes: six for serous EOC histotypes (3q28, 4q32.3, 8q21.11, 10q24.33, 18q11.2 and 22q12.1), two for mucinous EOC (3q22.3 and 9q31.1) and one for endometrioid EOC (5q12.3). We then performed meta-analysis on the results for high-grade serous ovarian cancer with the results from analysis of 31,448 BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers, including 3,887 mutation carriers with EOC. This identified three additional susceptibility loci at 2q13, 8q24.1 and 12q24.31. Integrated analyses of genes and regulatory biofeatures at each locus predicted candidate susceptibility genes, including OBFC1, a new candidate susceptibility gene for low-grade and borderline serous EOC