Challenges experienced by women high performance coaches and its association with sustainability in the profession

High performance (HP) coaching is a demanding profession (Didymus, 2017). The proportion of woman HP coaches is reported to be in the range of 8.4% - 20% (Bentzen, Lemyre, & Kenttä, 2016a; Kidd, 2013). Mental health concerns in elite sports have recently gained attention, but mainly focusing on athletes (Henriksen et al., 2019). Beyond coach burnout, limited attention has been given to coaches’ mental health. A recent coach burnout review (Olusoga, Bentzen, & Kenttä, 2019) included only one paper that focused exclusively on women. It has been argued that women HP coaches face greater challenges in a male-dominated coaching culture. The purpose of this study was to explore challenges experienced by women HP coaches and their perceived associations with sustainability and mental health. Thirty-seven female HP coaches participated by answering a semi-structured, open-ended questionnaire. All responses were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis, which resulted in two general dimensions: Challenges of Working as a WHPC and Sustainability and Well-being as a WHPC. Overall, results indicate that challenges reported might be common for all HP coaches, but also highlight gender specific elements. Consequently, coach retention and sustainability would benefit from more attention on well-being and mental health among HP coaches

Building Leadership Capacity: Embracing of Inclusive and Culturally Responsive Practices to Promote Succession and Sustainability of Principals in Arctic Canada

This Dissertation-in-Practice (DiP) aims to explore organizational change frameworks to address the problem of practice in the Tundra Education System (TES, pseudonym), which has resulted in inconsistent implementation of inclusion and culturally relevant policies by principals. TES is situated in an Indigenous region of Arctic Canada and about eighty percent of principals are non-Indigenous people. To make a change process relevant to the context of TES, the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) principles, upon which education in TES is built, are integral components of the change implementation processes. Furthermore, the DiP addresses the questions “what”, “why”, and “how” of the intended change using both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. The leadership theories explored in leading the change are transformational and culturally responsive leadership; Critical theory, however, is the overarching theory that frames the change process because its tenets align with the leadership theories and promote social justice, equity, inclusion, and decolonization. For the desired outcomes to be achieved using a composite solution (e.g., implementation of a newly designed TES leadership framework with a mentorship program component), the DiP embraces Nadler Tushman’s congruence model for gap analysis, Deszca et al.’s change path model for leading the change , an integrated framework (e.g., Hirsch’s framework and Deszca et al.’s model) for the change implementation plan, Haiilo’s framework for change communication plan, and Deming’s PDSA model for monitoring and evaluation of the change process. It is envisaged that effective facilitation of the change process by the change agents, and active engagement of all participants, will lead to improved cultural competence, higher retention rate of principals, and knowledge mobilization across TES

Subsurface Imaging and Petrophysical Analysis of the South Georgia Rift Basin, South Carolina

The Triassic-Jurassic South Georgia Rift (SGR) basin, buried beneath Coastal Plain sediments of southern South Carolina, southeastern Georgia, western Florida, and southern Alabama, consists of an assemblage of continental rift deposits (popularly called red beds), and mafic igneous rocks (basalt flows and diabase sills). The red beds are capped by basalts and/or diabase sills, and constitute the target for supercritical CO2 storage as part of a Department of Energy funded project to study feasibility for safe and long-term sequestration. This study addresses key stratigraphic, structural and petrophysical issues critical to determine subsurface suitability for CO2 storage as well as improved understanding of the Triassic basin\u27s evolution and underline characteristics. Also unlike shale-capped CO2 reservoirs, very little is known about the ability of basalts and diabase sills to act as viable seals for CO2 storage. New interpretations from reprocessed SeisData6 Coastal Plain, supported by analysis of well data, substantiate the presence of a buried Triassic basin in South East Georgia that is about 2.2 km deep and 170 km wide. It appears to coincide with the subsurface convergence of the southwest and northeast extensions of the Riddleville and Dunbarton basins that are subsidiaries of the main SGR basin. Contrary to previous study, this basin does not have basalt. Our data show no clear evidence for the Augusta fault that was identified in other studies in the vicinity of the Piedmont-Coastal Plain boundary in Georgia and South Carolina. Petrophysically, the SGR basin manifests distinct porosity-permeability regimes that are influenced by the depositional environments. New results also indicate the presence of thick, confined porous red beds with average porosity as high as 14%. However, the red beds\u27 permeability is generally low and shows large numerical variations both locally and regionally. Low permeability is caused by poor sorting, small pore throats and tectonically induced compaction and diagenesis. Changes in porosity and permeability with depth are highly significant within the SGR basin, and suggest a compacted basin with a history of uplift and erosion. Analyses further show that the basalt flows and diabase sills in the southern South Carolina part of the SGR possess low porosity, high seismic velocity, and density that are favorable to caprock integrity

Desperate to quit: a narrative analysis of burnout and recovery in high-performance sports coaching

This study investigated how the experiences of two elite coaches' contributed to and shaped 4 their stories of burnout and withdrawal from high performance coaching. The coaches whose 5 narratives we explore were both middle-aged head coaches, one in a major team sport at the 6 highest club level, and one in an individual Olympic sport at international level. Through a 7 thematic narrative analysis, based on in-depth interviews, the stories of the two coaches are 8 presented in four distinct sections: antecedents, experiences of coaching with burnout 9 symptoms, withdrawal from sport, and the process of recovery and personal growth. These 10 narratives have implications for high performance coaching, such as the importance of role 11 clarity, work-home inference, counselling, mentoring, and social support as means to 12 facilitate recovery, and the need for additional research with coaches who have left sport, to 13 gain a more comprehensive understanding of the complete burnout-recovery proces

Efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in the Treatment of Social Phobia among Adolescents in Secondary Schools in Oyo State, Nigeria

Social phobia is a mental health problem that has been repeatedly linked with adolescents. This study therefore investigated the efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT) on social phobia among secondary school adolescents in Oyo State, Nigeria. The study adopted a pretest – posttest control group quasi experimental design. The sample comprised of 104 secondary school adolescents identified with some levels of social phobia from the two randomly selected schools among the three senatorial districts of Oyo State. The selected students, grouped by schools and subsequently, treatment groups, were 51 and 53 for the control and experimental groups, respectively. The experimentation spanned a period of eight weeks, with ACT administered to the experimental group and placebo of leadership styles administered to the control group. The Social Phobia Inventory (SPI) was adopted and used for screening and in pretest and posttest stages. A statistical hypothesis was formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance by means of the Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). It was found that treatment with ACT significantly reduced the level of social phobia among school-going adolescents. ACT was therefore recommended for use in relieving school-going adolescents suffering from social phobia

Attitudes towards protective headgear in UK rugby union players

Background/aim Concussions in rugby union pose a major threat to player welfare. Research has found protective headgear offers no significant protection against concussions but suggests a large proportion of players perceive headgear to be effective in preventing concussions. This study aimed to explore UK rugby union players’ attitudes towards wearing protective headgear. Methods 545 rugby union players (85% male) from a range of playing standards completed an online survey. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected on player attitudes towards protective headgear use. Descriptive statistics, multiple regressions and content analysis were used to analyse the responses. Results 37% of players believed that headgear was effective in preventing head injuries. Playing group was found to be inversely associated with headgear effectiveness (∆R2 =0.01, B=−0.13, p=0.02), with youth players holding stronger beliefs that headgear is effective at preventing head injuries compared with all senior groups. The main reasons cited for wearing headgear related to protection from minor injuries (55%) with only 10% of responses related to concussion prevention. Conclusions There appears to be a good awareness in UK players that protective headgear is not effective at preventing concussions. Continued education is vital to ensure players are fully aware of the limitations of headgear, and players who wear it do not engage in overly reckless behaviours as a result

Identification of Optimal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average Model on Temperature Data

Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) processes of various orders are presented to identify an optimal model from a class of models. Parameters of the models are estimated using an Ordinary Least Square (OLS) approach. ARIMA (p, d, q) is formulated for maximum daily temperature data in Ondo and Zaira from January 1995 to November 2005. The choice of ARIMA models of orders p and q is intended to retain persistence in a natural process. To determine the performance of models, Normalized Bayesian Information Criterion is adopted. The ARIMA (1, 1, 1) is adequate for modeling maximum daily temperature in Ondo and Zaira; model parameters are estimated and redundant variables are removed. Causality and the invertibility behavior of some optimal models are also presented

The ‘pandemic play’ themed issue of global studies of childhood: An editorial

This themed issue of Global Studies of Childhood on ‘Pandemic Play’ draws mainly on the ‘Play Observatory’ project, 2020–2022, a 17-month exploration of children’s playworlds during the COVID-19 pandemic. Four articles in the issue are written by researchers from that project. We have also been able to include a further two articles which have come from the UK and Poland respectively, employing arts-based methods which are complementary to the Play Observatory. In this editorial, we will draw some of the key strands in all of the articles together and set out some of the emergent themes which provide a picture of a particular moment in history and our attempts to hear children’s voices on their own experiences

Poor Officiatintg, Lack of Sportsmanship Spirit and Poor Facilities as Triggers of Violence Among Sports Audience in Portharcourt Metropolis, Nigeria

This study examined if poor officiating, lack of sportsmanship spirit and poor facilities are triggers of violence among sports audience in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Nigeria. This study was conducted among the inhabitants of Port Harcourt metropolis in River state. The descriptive survey research design and a sample size of 1,000 participants were used. The multi-stage sampling technique, a structured, validated and modified Likert type questionnaire were employed. The reliability of the instrument was determined through the Crombach Alpha, which gave a value of r = 0.89. The data collected was analyzed using the Chi-square statistics. The study revealed that poor officiating, lack of Spirit of Sportsmanship and poor facility were triggers of violence among sports audience in Port Harcourt metropolis, Nigeria. It was consequently recommended that only competent and knowledgeable officials should be used for matches. Both players and supporters should be educated on the rules of games and trained to accept the decision of referees’ umpires etc. and should not see competition as a do-or-die affair/event

Workers’ Perception of Gender Issues and Women’s Place in the Banking Industry in Nigeria

Women play vital roles in the society but despite the social responsibilities attached to their being, they have since inception, received unequal recognition especially in the allocation of strategic and leadership positions in organizations. This however, is due to some cultural stereotypes, abuse of religion, traditional practices, patriarchal structures and the disequilibrium in the work-life spheres of female employees. All these affect female employees’ upward movement politically, socially, economically and institutionally especially in Nigeria. The theory of gender stratification was adopted in explaining this study. Quantitative and Qualitative data were collected through the use of questionnaires and in-depth interview. The quantitative data were analysed using frequency and percentage distribution while content analysis was used for qualitative data. The sample comprised 257 respondents selected through the use of purposive and simple random sampling techniques. Findings showed that majority of the respondents agreed that there is under-representation of female employees in leadership positions in the banking industry. Majority of the respondents are of the opinion that socio-cultural and religious factors culminated to the marginalization of female employees. Based on these findings, bank management is therefore recommended to apply fairness in the distribution of strategic roles and responsibilities among its employees without gender prejudice. Keywords:  Banking industry, Gender issues, Gender stratification theory, Marginalization, Perceptio