Relationships Among Values, Achievement Orientations, and Attitudes in Youth Sport

This research examines the value-expressive function of attitudes and achievement goal theory in predicting moral attitudes. In Study 1, the Youth Sport Values Questionnaire (YSVQ; Lee, Whitehead, & Balchin, 2000) was modified to measure moral,competence, and status values. In Study 2, structural equation modeling on data from 549 competitors (317 males, 232 females) aged 12–15 years showed that moral and competence values predicted prosocial attitudes, whereas moral (negatively) and status values (positively)predicted antisocial attitudes. Competence and status values predicted task and ego orientation, respectively, and task and ego orientation partially mediated the effect of competence values on prosocial attitudes and of status values on antisocial attitudes, respectively. The role of sport values is discussed, and new research directions are proposed

Applied Research Automatic Self-Talk Questionnaire for Sports (ASTQS): Development and Preliminary Validation of a Measure Identifying the Structure of Athletes’ Self-Talk

The aim of the present investigation was to develop an instrument assessing the con­tent and the structure of athletes’ self-talk. The study was conducted in three stages. In the first stage, a large pool of items was generated and content analysis was used to organize the items into categories. Furthermore, item-content relevance analysis was conducted to help identifying the most appropriate items. In Stage 2, the factor struc­ture of the instrument was examined by a series of exploratory factor analyses (Sample A: N = 507), whereas in Stage 3 the results of the exploratory factor analysis were retested through confirmatory factor analyses (Sample B: N = 766) and at the same time concurrent validity were assessed. The analyses revealed eight factors, four pos­itive (psych up, confidence, anxiety control and instruction), three negative (worry, disengagement and somatic fatigue) and one neutral (irrelevant thoughts). The find­ings of the study provide evidence regarding the multidimensionality of self-talk, suggesting that ASTQS seems a psychometrically sound instrument that could help us developing cognitive-behavioral theories and interventions to examine and modify athletes’ self-talk

Preliminary Exploration of Bystander Intention to Stand Up for a Female-Peer Targeted in Sexual Harassment in Greek Academia

University students’ intentions to stand up for a female-peer victimized in a sexual harassment incident by peer and/or professor as perpetrator were explored using the planned behavior theory. The participants were 296 Greek male and female undergraduate students. Using a standard planned behavior theory questionnaire, hypothetical scenarios of sexual harassment conveyed through (a) unwanted verbal comments of sexual content, (b) unwanted physical contact, and (c) gender based taunting, were presented to participants. In all scenarios, bystander intention to stand up was predicted. Specifically, we found that it is more likely for a student-bystander to intervene when perceiving a strong social pressure as significant others would also stand up for a victim; his/her self-control beliefs are strong over the behavior to stand up; and when his/her attitude is negative and unfavorable toward the witnessed conduct. In both peer- and professors-as-perpetrator scenarios, female students, more than males, held significantly more negative attitudes towards sexual harassment and stronger intentions to intervene. Considering female students’ well-being, findings are related to the characteristics of the Greek society and the lack of protective laws and policies against sexual harassment in Greek academia

From the lab to the field: effects of self-talk on task performance under distracting conditions

This study explored the effectiveness of self-talk strategies on task performance under conditions of external distraction in laboratory and field experiments. In the laboratory experiment, 28 sport science students (mean age 21.48 ± 1.58 years) were tested on a computer game requiring attention and fine execution following a baseline assessment and a short self-talk training. In in the field experiment, 28 female basketball players (mean age 20.96 ± 4.51years) were tested on free-throwing, following a baseline assessment and a six-week intervention. In both settings the final assessment took place under conditions of external distraction (non-continuous, sudden, loud noise). Analyses of covariance showed that participants of the self-talk group performed better than participants of the control group. Findings suggest that self-talk can counter the effects of distraction on performance, and indicate that the attentional effects of self-talk is a viable mechanism to explain the facilitating effects of self-talk on performance

Ectopic spleen: An easily identifiable but commonly undiagnosed entity until manifestation of complications

AbstractINTRODUCTIONEctopic spleen is an uncommon clinical entity as splenectomy for treatment of ectopic spleens accounts for less than 0.25% of splenectomies. The most common age of presentation is childhood especially under 1 year of age followed by the third decade of life.PRESENTATION OF CASEThe present report refers to a patient with torsion of a pelvic spleen treated with splenectomy. The patient exhibited a period of vague intermittent lower abdominal pain lasted 65 days followed by a period of constant left lower quadrant pain of increasing severity lasted 6 days. On the first 65 days, vague pain was attributed to progressive torsion of the spleen which resulted in venous congestion. On the last 6 days, exacerbation of pain was attributed to irreducible torsion, infraction of the arterial supply, acute ischemia, strangulation and rupture of the gangrenous spleen. Diagnosis was made by CT which revealed absence of the spleen in its normal position, a homogeneous pelvic mass with no contrast enhancement, free blood in the peritoneal cavity, and confirmed by laparotomy.DISCUSSIONClinical manifestations of ectopic spleen vary from asymptomatic to abdominal emergency. Symptoms are most commonly attributed to complications related to torsion. Operative management, including splenopexy or splenectomy, is the treatment of choice in uncomplicated and complicated cases because conservative treatment of an asymptomatic ectopic spleen is associated with a complication rate of 65%.CONCLUSIONAlthough an ectopic spleen can be easily identified on clinical examination, it is commonly misdiagnosed until the manifestation of complications in adulthood