Cognitive appraisal of dissertation stress among undergraduate students

The present study examined changes in primary and secondary appraisal, and coping strategies utilized in the final weeks leading to dissertation submission. Sixty volunteer Sports Studies dissertation students (male: n = 29; female: n = 31) completed an adapted Cognitive Appraisal of Health Scale (CAHS: Kessler, 1998), and Brief COPE (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989) on 4 occasions over the 6 weeks before dissertation submission. Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance indicated a significant main effect for gender, with no main effect for changes over time and no significant interaction effect. Results demonstrated that males perceived the dissertation to be significantly more threatening and iess challenging than females. With regard to coping, males used more active coping, positive reframing, planning, and acceptance of the stressor, with lower scores for self-blame, venting of emotions, and behavioral disengagement. The results suggest that, for this student population, the dissertation did not become increasingly stressful in the period before submission. Clear relationships were also evidenced between primary appraisal, secondary appraisal, and coping. Future research should seek to identify factors that moderate the influence of situational stressors on coping responses among undergraduate students

Objective researcher or emotional being?

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by the Faculty of Health & Welling, University of Wolverhampton in Journal of Health and Social Care Improvement on 31/01/2020, available online: https://www.wlv.ac.uk/media/departments/faculty-of-health-education-and-wellbeing/pdf/may-2020-v3-journal.pdf The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.I am a second year PhD student exploring dyadic coping among spousal carers of partners living with dementia. In laying the foundations for my research, I have spent eighteen months attending and supporting two dementia cafés’. During this time, I have focused on better understanding dementia and its implications for spousal carers. I have also focussed on building a rapport with carers of those living with dementia so that they feel comfortable with my presence and to develop their trust in me. This is an important part of researcher integration which is all too often overlooked and can strengthen qualitative research findings (Collins & Cooper, 2014)

Walking on Thin Ice: Exploring Demands and Means of Coping During an Extreme Expedition

The present exploratory study was undertaken with two experienced explorers in order to examine daily events, perceived demands, coping strategies, and mood during a unique 636–675 km ‘‘double solo’’ crossing of Lake Baikal, a frozen lake in Siberia. A 59-year-old female explorer and a 49-year-old male explorer completed a daily survey and written diary during the expedition to collect situational data. Two semi-structured interviews were also completed, one within 24 hours and a second within four months of their return. These interviews sought to identify demands and coping efforts perceived as being most pertinent during their expedition. Guided by the work of Skinner et al. (2003), families of coping were organized around three human concerns (autonomy, relatedness, and competence) and two targets of coping (self or context). Findings illustrate two very different expedition experiences as evidenced by demands faced and coping strategies utilized, which influenced perceptions of workload and emotions experienced. Each explorer brought idiosyncrasies, which, when combined with different expedition experiences, bore influence on coping behaviors (focused on the self or context) and outcomes relative to the concerns of autonomy, relatedness, and competency. In discussing the findings, recommendations are offered for those preparing to undertake expeditions in extreme environments

Stress and Coping Experiences of UK Professional Football Managers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Guided by transactional stress theory, this study aimed to explore elite U.K. soccer coaches’ perceived stressors, the situational properties, appraisals, and coping during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also aimed to explore any variation in stress experiences across football league standards A total of 13 professional first-team male U.K. association football coaches between 38 and 59 years of age (M = 43.00, SD = 6.94) participated in telephone (n = 5) or online (n = 8) semistructured interviews. Informed by the philosophical position of critical realism, Braun et al.’s six-phase approach to thematic analysis was used to generate competitive, organizational, and personal stressor themes. Deductive thematic analysis generated themes reflective of all situational properties of stressors identified by Lazarus and Folkman and an array of appraisal and coping strategies. Future research and recommendations for supporting coach performance and well-being post-COVID-19 pandemic are offered.<br/

COVID-19: A commentary on implications for academy football players athletic identity and wellbeing

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by the Faculty of Health & Wellbeing, University of Wolverhampton in Journal of Health and Social Care Improvement, available online: https://www.wlv.ac.uk/media/departments/faculty-of-health-education-and-wellbeing/pdf/may-2020-v3-journal.pdf The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.On March 23rd, 2020, the UK government instituted a full-scale lockdown in response to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. People would only be permitted to leave their homes for the following purposes: 1. Shopping for basic necessities, as infrequently as possible; 2. One form of exercise a day – for example a run, walk, or cycle – alone or with members of your household; 3. Any medical need, to provide care or to help a vulnerable person; 4. Travelling to and from work, but only where absolutely necessary and where work cannot be completed from home. In the days prior to the start of the lockdown, I left a role at one professional football academy based in the North of England and relocated to start a PhD undertaken in conjunction with another professional football academy based in the Midlands. Through doing so, I have had a unique insight into the response of two English football academies to this unprecedented situation. The present article offers a brief commentary on the potential implications of the COVID-19 lockdown for academy players athletic identity and wellbeing. Observations will be presented along with reference to relevant literature in order to draw lessons from the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK for athletic identity, and prepare for future eventualities which share the characteristics of: i) people staying at home; ii) social distancing; and iii) the closure of places of work; in this instance football academies

Beyond the technical: The role of emotion regulation in lacrosse officiating.

Emotions can influence the performance of referees leading to a need to examine emotions experienced, and regulation strategies used by referees. The present study assessed emotions and emotion regulation strategies of 19 referees officiating at an Under-19 Lacrosse World Championship. Using survey methods and focus group interviews, officials responded to five questions: (a) What emotions were experienced? (b) What events elicited emotions? (c) How did lacrosse officials manage their own emotional states prior to, throughout, and following a competitive game? (d) How did officials manage others' emotional states? (e) What were the perceived consequences of these strategies? Results indicate that emotions fluctuated throughout the tournament as referees encountered intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion-eliciting events. These fluctuations are suggested to come from a progressively diminished capacity for emotion regulation. Participants used emotion regulation strategies that could be classified into Gross' (1999) families of emotion regulation strategies, often relying on suppression, emotion contagion, and preventative refereeing. Collectively, the results offer new insights into referee emotion regulation at international events

Using mentors to facilitate the delivery of a longitudinal coping intervention amongst national junior netball players

This study evaluates the utility of mentors in facilitating a longitudinal intervention designed to enhance the coping skills of junior national netball players (mentees). Mentors used information packs to develop five coping competencies amongst mentees including: planning and organization; goal setting; emotional intelligence; problem solving and communication. On completion of the intervention, semi-structured interviews were completed with eight mentees and eight mentors to ascertain their experiences with Mentoring. Results identified factors that helped and hindered mentoring during the five stages of Kram’s (1983) behavioral model of mentoring. These included the interpersonal skills and roles adopted by mentor and mentee and opportunities for mentoring. These findings are discussed with the objective of better understanding the role of mentors in implementing coping interventions. To conclude, practical suggestions are offered in order to increase accessibility to mentors and enhance the mentor experience

Does the Brief Self-Control Scale Assess Relatively Stable Individual Differences in Self-Control Among Endurance Athletes?

Endurance athletes are a population where self-control in the form of following training plans, race plans, and pacing schedules is key to performing successfully. A valid and stable measure of self-control has theoretical and applied value through the ability to identify athletes who might be susceptible to poor self-control. The present study reports the test-retest stability of the Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS). 132 endurance athletes (18-65 years) completed the 13-item BSCS on two occasions, separated by two weeks. Stability was measured by calculating the test-retest differences for each questionnaire item, with a stable item showing 90% of respondents’ test-retest differences within a reference value of ±1. Analyses revealed seven items to be stable with the question, Q11 = “I am able to work effectively toward long-term goals”, demonstrating greatest stability (96.3%). In contrast, six items showed relatively poor stability with test-retest difference scores ranging from 83.4-89.4%. Chi-square tests of independence revealed no associations with categorical levels of age, gender, sport, and training habits. In the context of the current findings, we argue that the six unstable items do not represent dispositional self-control behaviours among endurance athletes. Future researchers are encouraged to assess the stability of individual items rather than favoring a summary statistic, particularly when developing trait measures

Inconsistency of decision-making, the Achilles heel of referees

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Sports Sciences on 12/12/2016, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2016.1265143 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.This study assessed whether decisions made by six qualified referees were consistent when watching the live 2016 televised Champions League Final. Referees were paired off into three separate rooms. Two referees watched the game with no supporters present. Two watched the game surrounded by Real Madrid supporters, and the remaining two watched the game surrounded by Athletic Madrid supporters. Referees were asked to decide whether each decision made by the on-field referee was either correct or incorrect. Results identified two types of refereeing inconsistency. The first type was a systematic tendency of the supporting crowds (both rooms) to influence the adjudicating referees to make fewer incorrect (disagree with the on-field referee) decisions (8 and 5) than referees in the “no supporters” room (19) (χ2 = 11.22 [df = 2], P = 0.004). The second type of inconsistency was the home advantage “bias”, where the surrounding crowd influenced the adjudicating referees to favour their team, by disagreeing with the decision made by the on-field referee (χ2 = 6.0 [df = 2], P = 0.0498). One explanation for these inconsistencies is that referees adopt a coping strategy of “avoidance”, i.e., when faced with difficult decisions, referees simply avoid making unpopular decisions by waving “play on”