Psychophysiological assessment of stress under ecological settings: A systematic review

Stress can negatively impact one’s health and well-being, however despite the recent evolution in stress assessment research methodologies, little agreement still exist about stress conceptualization and assessment. In an attempt to summarize and reflect on this evolution this paper aimed to systematically review research evidence of ecological approaches on psycho-physiological stress assessment. Thus, a literature search of electronic databases was conducted spanning 22 years (1990 – 2012) and 55 studies were reviewed. Studies were considered for inclusion if they contemplated both psychological and physiological measures of stress under ecological settings. This review focused on five themes: methodologies terminology; research population; study design; measurement and technology. Findings support the need to use a common methodology terminology in order to increase scientific rigor. Additionally, there seems to be an increasing tendency for the use of these methods by multidisciplinary teams among both clinical and non-clinical populations aiming to understand the relationship between stress and disease. Most of the studies reviewed contemplated a time-based protocol and different conceptualizations of stress were found resulting in the use of different subjective measures. Findings reinforce the importance of combining subjective and objective measures while also controlling for possible time or situation dependent confounders. Advances in technology were evident and different assessment techniques were found. The benefits and challenges of ecological protocols to assess stress are discussed and recommendations for future research are provided, aiming to overcome previous limitations and advance scientific knowledge in the area

The Relationship Between Mindfulness and Life Stress in Student-Athletes : The Mediating Role of Coping Effectiveness and Decision Rumination

The role of dispositional mindfulness on stress in student-athletes and factors that mediate this relationship has yet to be examined. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between the facets of mindfulness and life stress in student-athletes and whether these relationships are mediated through coping effectiveness and decision rumination. Participants were 202 student-athletes who completed validated measures of dispositional mindfulness, student-athlete life stress, decision rumination and coping effectiveness in sport. Results indicated that the acting with awareness and non-judging facets of mindfulness were negative predictors of life stress, whereas the observe facet was a positive predictor of life stress. Mediation analyses revealed that these relationships were mediated through coping effectiveness and decision rumination. Findings provide new insight into the role dispositional mindfulness plays on student-athlete perceptions of life stress and implications for practitioners are discussed

INVESTIGATING THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE BIG-FIVE AND DISPOSITIONAL COPING IN SPORT

Introduction It has been recommended (Allen, Greenlees, & Jones, 2011) that future research should consider how personality traits interact in determining specific types of sport related coping. Accordingly, this study aimed to explore what combinations of the Big-Five personality taxonomy are associated with sport-related coping. Methods Data was collected among four hundred UK athletes (male n = 237, female n = 163), aged between 18-48 years (Mage = 22,97 SD =7,0). Participants completed the Big-Five Inventory (BFI; John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991) and the 37-item Dispositional Coping Inventory for Competitive Sport (DCICS;Hurst, Thompson, Visek, & Gaudreau, 2011). Results Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted for each coping subscale. At step one demographic variables were entered, at step two the Big-Five personality traits were added, and at step 3 two-way interaction effects were included. For task-oriented coping, the inclusion of a two-way interaction effect (R2adj = .255) showed a significant effect for the interaction between extraversion and neuroticism (β = -.19, P < .001), alongside neuroticism and openness (β = .15, P < .01). For distraction coping, the inclusion of a two-way interaction showed a significant interaction (R2adj = .380) for agreeableness and conscientiousness (β = .20, P < .001). Finally, for disengagement coping a significant two-way interaction effect (R2adj = .403) was found for extraversion and neuroticism (β = -.10, P < .05). Discussion Findings revealed that athletes who were low neurotic in conjunction with high extraversion and openness were more likely to report task-oriented coping. Distraction-oriented coping was preferred by athletes low in both conscientiousness and agreeableness traits. Finally, low extraversion and high neuroticism was associated with greater use of disengagement-oriented coping. The current findings reinforce the need to investigate the interactive effects of personality dimensions upon sport-related coping. Doing so would assist applied practitioners to maximise the potential of coping-related interventions by targeting particular personality profiles

A mobile sensing approach to stress detection and memory activation for public bus drivers

Experience of daily stress among bus drivers has shown to affect physical and psychological health, and can impact driving behavior and overall road safety. Although previous research consistently supports these findings, little attention has been dedicated to the design of a stress detection method able to synchronize physiologic and psychological stress responses of public bus drivers in their day-to-day routine work. To overcome this limitation, we propose a mobile sensing approach to detect georeferenced stress responses and facilitate memory recall of the stressful situations. Data was collected among public bus drivers in the city of Porto, Portugal (145 hours, 36 bus drivers, +2300 km) and results supported the validation of our approach among this population and allowed us to determine specific stressor categories within certain areas of the city. Furthermore, data collected through-out the city allowed us to produce a citywide ”stress map” that can be used for spotting areas in need of local authority intervention. The enriching findings suggest that our system can be a promising tool to support applied occupational health interventions for public bus drivers and guide authorities’ interventions to improve these aspects in ”future” cities

Understanding Social Networks and Social Support Resources with Sports Coaches

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordObjectives:Research on social support with sports coaches is limited, yetthe benefits of social support withinother occupationshave been widely reported. This study explored male and female sports coaches’ social network structures, the social support resources available to coaches, and the situations in which coaches use social support. Design:Cross-sectional. Method:Data were collected with male (n=6) and female (n=7) British coaches (Mage=34.20, 30SD=13.37; Mexperience=13.20, SD=10.41) using semi-structured interviews and interviewee-aided sociograms.Interview data and sociograms were analyzed using abductive thematic analysis and social network analysisto create ego-network diagrams. The ego-network diagrams were created toprovide information on the locality and influence of coaches’ social network members. Results:The ego-network diagrams highlight that the structure of coaches’ social networks encompassessupport from peers, friends, family, and miscellaneous (e.g., media). The diagrams also demonstrate that support from friends tended to be perceived as most influential. The coaches called on their network for appraisal (e.g., affirmation), emotional (e.g., venting), informational (e.g., training), and or instrumental support (e.g., cooking dinner )for a variety of situations,such as training (e.g., drill ideas) and issues with athletes (e.g., venting about a misbehaving player). Conclusion:Given the pertinenc eof coaches’ social networks and resources for performance and psychological well-being, coach education programs should include a focus onthe importance of building relationships. Longitudinal research methods are warranted to, for example, explore the dynamic functions of coaches’ social support. This will develop a more comprehensive base from which interventions can be developed

VOCE Corpus: Ecologically Collected Speech Annotated with Physiological and Psychological Stress Assessments.

Public speaking is a widely requested professional skill, and at the same time an activity that causes one of the most common adult phobias (Miller and Stone, 2009). It is also known that the study of stress under laboratory conditions, as it is most commonly done, may provide only limited ecological validity (Wilhelm and Grossman, 2010). Previously, we introduced an inter-disciplinary methodology to enable collecting a large amount of recordings under consistent conditions (Aguiar et al., 2013). This paper introduces the VOCE corpus of speech annotated with stress indicators under naturalistic public speaking (PS) settings. The novelty of this corpus is that the recordings are carried out in objectively stressful PS situations, as recommended in (Zanstra and Johnston, 2011). The current database contains a total of 38 recordings, 13 of which contain full psychological and physiologic annotation. We show that the collected recordings validate the assumptions of the methodology, namely that participants experience stress during the PS events. We describe the various metrics that can be used for physiologic and psychological annotation, and we characterise the sample collected so far, providing evidence that demographics do not affect the relevant psychological or physiologic annotation. The collection activities are on-going, and we expect to increase the number of complete recordings in the corpus to 30 by June 2014

The Impact of an Outdoor and Adventure Sports Course on the Wellbeing of Recovering UK Military Personnel: An Exploratory Study

UK military personnel have faced increased demands over the last three decades; these have affected their wellbeing and caused multiple physical and mental health problems. Currently, bespoke rehabilitation systems may recommend participation in sports programmes. Although research attention has been drawn to the short-term positive effects of these programmes, their long-term impact on psychological wellbeing is unknown. To address this gap, the current study explored the long-term impact of a sports programme on UK military personnel’s ability to make changes in their day-to-day life through the lens of psychological wellbeing. For this purpose, UK military personnel (n = 97) completed an online survey aiming to provide a quantitative and qualitative picture of their experiences of an outdoor and adventure sports programme, underpinned by the basic psychological needs theory, six months following completion. Findings suggest that 75% of respondents found that the course was useful for facilitating adaptive changes. Content analysis suggests that elements of the course seem to satisfy their basic psychological needs of competence, relatedness and autonomy. Activities initiated six months after the course are mostly aligned with improved psychological wellbeing. Useful theoretical and applied implications are discussed

Stressors, coping, and well-being among sports coaches : A systematic review

Abstract Objectives Sports coaching can be an inherently stressful occupation because coaches must fulfill multiple roles and cope with various expectations. Further, stress and well-being have implications for coach performance. The objective of this study was, therefore, to conduct a systematic review of literature on stressors, coping, and well-being among sports coaches. Design A systematic review using PRIMSA guidelines. Method Thorough and systematic literature searches of PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science were conducted. To be eligible for inclusion, papers had to be published in the English language between January 1994 and March 2016 and as full papers in peer-reviewed journals. Results The final sample consisted of 38 studies that were conducted with 4188 sports coaches. This sample consisted of 19 qualitative, 17 quantitative, and two mixed methods studies. The findings demonstrate that coaches experience a variety of stressors relating to their performance and that of the athletes they work with in addition to organizational, contextual, interpersonal, and intrapersonal stressors. The findings also highlight that coaches use a variety of coping strategies (e.g., problem solving, social support, escaping the stressful environment) to reduce the negative outcomes of stress. Five studies that were included in this review focused on coaches’ well-being and found that basic psychological needs satisfaction, lack of basic psychological needs thwarting, and self-determined motivation are needed for coaches to be psychologically well. Conclusion Future research should address gaps in extant literature by using longitudinal study designs to explore coaches’ appraisals of stressors, coping effectiveness, social support, and well-being among the unique sports coaching population

Sustained positive behaviour change of wounded, injured and sick UK military following an adaptive adventure sports and health coaching recovery course

INTRODUCTION: A rising trend has occurred in the physical and mental health challenges faced by recovering UK service personnel. To support these individuals, bespoke inclusive multiactivity and adventurous training courses (MAC) have been developed. This study investigated the MAC's influence on participants' ability to sustain day-to-day changes that facilitate positive mental health and psychological need satisfaction. METHODS: The 146 UK service personnel who participated in this study attended a five-day MAC 12 months ago. To investigate how the supportive experience influenced participants' lives, quantitative and qualitative data were collected via an online survey. Open-ended questioning and abductive analysis were conducted to understand mechanisms, influential aspects of the course and positive behaviour change. RESULTS: Positive behaviour changes were reported by 74% of the respondents. These changes align with positive psychological well-being (98%). Impactful elements of the course experienced by participants mostly aligned with the three basic psychological needs of autonomy (34%), competence (36%) and relatedness (61%). CONCLUSIONS: Recovery support programmes that encompass health coaching adventurous activities, such as the MAC, can initiate long-term positive behaviour change for recovering military personnel. In this specific context, the concurrence of the self-determination theory concepts that underpin the course delivery and participant outcomes is a powerful endorsement of implementation fidelity

Stress appraisal, coping, and work engagement among police recruits: an exploratory study.

This study investigated the influence of stress appraisal and coping on work engagement levels (Absorption, Vigour, and Dedication) of police recruits. Participants were 387 men, ages 20 to 33 yr. (M = 24.1, SD = 2.4), in their last month of academy training before becoming police officers. Partially in support of predictions, work engagement was associated with Stressor control perceived, but not Stress intensity experienced over a self-selected stressor. Although the three dimensions of work engagement were explained by Stressor control and coping, Absorption was the dimension better explained by these variables. Police recruits reporting higher Absorption, Vigour, and Dedication reported using more Active coping and less Behavioural disengagement. Results showed that stress appraisal and coping are important variables influencing work engagement among police recruits. Findings suggested that future applied interventions fostering work engagement among police recruits should reinforce perceptions of control over a stressor as well as Active coping strategies