Relationship maintenance strategies in the coach-athlete relationship: The development of the COMPASS model

The investigation of relationship maintenance strategies has received considerable attention in various types of dyads including romantic, marital, and familial relationships. No research, however, has yet investigated the use of maintenance strategies in the coach-athlete partnership. Thus, this study aimed to investigate coaches’ and athletes’ perceptions of the strategies they use to maintain relationship quality. Twelve one-to-one interviews with coaches (4 males and 2 females) and athletes (2 males and 4 females) were conducted. The interviews were structured based on the factors within Jowett’s (2007) 3+1C conceptualization of the coach-athlete relationship (i.e., closeness, commitment, complementarity, and co-orientation). Deductive and inductive content analysis revealed seven main categories: Conflict management, openness, motivation, Positivity, advice, support, and social networks. The COMPASS model was developed based on this analysis and was offered as a theoretical framework for understanding how coaches and athletes might maintain the quality of their relationships

Making a national atlas of population by computer

This paper describes the conceptual and practical problems encountered and solved in producing a multi-colour atlas of population characteristics in Great Britain. The atlas itself is in A4 format; it consists of some thirty-four maps of Great Britain in four colours and the same number of regional maps, together with descriptive text. All maps were plotted on a laser plotter with a resolution of 127 microns. The paper describes how mapping of ratios, such as percentages, was found to be highly misleading and describes the novel probability mapping solution adopted, based on the signed chi-square statistic. In addition, the rationale for selecting the class intervals and for selecting colour schemes is described

Researching and enhancing athlete welfare: Proceedings of the Second International Symposium of the Brunel International Research Network for Athlete Welfare (BIRNAW) 2013

Copyright @ 2014 Brunel University. All rights reserved by the authors who assert their rights under the Berne Convention. Copyright rests with Brunel University London. All research designs, concepts, models and theories herein are the intellectual property of the contributing authors. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of Dr Daniel Rhind via Brunel University London.The chapters within this book are based on presentations delivered at the 2nd BIRNAW Symposium which was held at Brunel University London in November 2013.Sport is a cultural phenomenon that touches the lives and captures the imagination of many people. Most people assume that sport is “a good thing” and that participation in sport will bring physical, psychological and social benefits to participants and societies. However, as this body of work shows, this is not necessarily or always the case. Abuse and exploitation can and does occur in sport – a fact that sports enthusiasts and sports organisations have been slow to acknowledge. The Brunel International Research Network for Athlete Welfare (BIRNAW) is a remarkable initiative that brings together researchers and policy makers from a variety of disciplines, organisations and countries. The activities and publications of this group have successfully provided an evidence base that has drawn attention to the issues in a powerful and convincing way. Its impact on the world of sport has been significant and is an excellent example of research informing sport policy and improving the practice of sport. Through the work of those involved in BIRNAW, inspired by the vision of Celia Brackenridge and her colleagues at Brunel University London, awareness has been raised, and safeguarding measures are being put in place to ensure the welfare of athletes. There is still much to be done, but the world of sport, and those athletes whose welfare is now safeguarded, already have much to thank them for

Locating and mitigating risks to children associated with major sporting events

Despite recent efforts to blend sport and human rights, activism for children's rights in sport has historically been marginalised. The positive 'social legacy' of sport events frequently masks more problematic issues, including child exploitation. We argue that harms to children in hosting communities of major sporting events (MSEs) should be a focus for both research and intervention since the plight of such children is currently a political blind spot. The article examines the evidence for four major sources of risk for children associated with such events: child labour, displacement resulting from forced evictions for infrastructure development and street clearance, child sexual exploitation, and human trafficking affecting children. The weakness of the resulting evidence is explained in relation to the methodological and ethical difficulties of conducting research on such hidden and marginal populations and to the fact that risks to children are often masked by adult social problems. It is argued that much more robust research designs, focused specifically on children, are essential in order to verify the many assertions made about risks to children associated with MSEs. Some mitigating interventions are briefly examined and an action plan for risk-mitigation work at future MSEs is proposed. Finally, drawing on wider debates about Centres and Peripheries in social and economic theory, we question whether major international sport organisations might choose to engage with projects like child protection for strategic rather than humanitarian reasons, using them as a kind of ethical fig leaf in order to bolster their power bases against threats from the margins. © 2014 © 2014 Taylor & Francis.The Oak Foundation under Grant code OCAY-13-052

Sport, children's rights and violence prevention: A source book on global issues and local programmes

Copyright @ Brunel University, 2012In line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), UNICEF has been a strong advocate of children’s right to leisure and play. It recognizes the intrinsic value sports have in promoting the child’s health and well-being, education and development, and social inclusion, including by fostering the culture of tolerance and peace. Every child has the right to play safely, in an enabling and protective environment. However, although under-researched, evidence shows that children have been subjected to various forms of violence, abuse and exploitation ranging from undue pressure to achieve high performance, beatings and physical punishment, sexual harassment and assaults, to child labour and trafficking. The violence that children experience can lead to lifelong consequences for their health and development. It can also have devastating consequences. Article 19 of the CRC asserts that all children have the right to be protected from violence, calling on State Parties to take all appropriate measures for the protection of children, including while in the care others. Measures include strengthening child protection systems; increasing awareness and strengthening the protective role of parents, teachers, coaches and others caregivers as well as the media; developing and implementing standards for the protection and well-being of children in sports; implementing sport for development and other international programmes and initiatives; and improving data collection and research to develop an evidence-base of “what works”. Above all, the protection of young athletes starts by ensuring that those around children regard them in a way that is appropriate to their needs and that is respectful of their rights - as children first and athletes second. This book provides an expanded set of evidence and resources to back up the 2010 report from the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence, Italy - Protecting Children from Violence in Sport: A review with a focus on industrialized countries. I am delighted to provide a Foreword as it complements the ongoing work being done by UNICEF in development and humanitarian environments to make sport a safer place for children

The development of a typology of abusive coaching behaviours within youth sport

Copyright @ 2010 Multi-Science Publishing.The purpose of this article was to create the Typology of Coaching Transgressions model (TOCT), which is concerned with abuse, neglect and violence in youth sport. Comments provided by the Justplay Behaviour Management Program from two competitive hockey associations and one large soccer association were analyzed and sorted to assess the utility of the model to capture inappropriate coaching behaviours. A total of 540 comments were examined deductively using the TOCT. Approximately 80% of coaching transgressions were of an indirect nature (i.e., not directed at the athlete specifically), indicating that young athletes are exposed to forms of abuse, neglect, and violence that may create harm in ways not yet fully understood. These findings illuminate the importance of understanding the nature and impact of coaching conduct on youth sport participants

Els sistemes d'informació geogràfica: situació actual i perspectives de futur

Abstract not availabl

Do you want to bet? The prevalence of problem gambling amongst athletes in the UK

This presentation was given as part of the 2011 London Workshop on Problem Gambling: Theory and (Best) Practice by Dr Daniel Rhind from the Sports Sciences subject area at Brunel University. The workshop was organised by Professor Fernand Gobet and Dr Marvin Schiller and hosted by Brunel University on the 13th September 2011

Timing of maternal exposure and fetal sex determine the effects of low-level chemical mixture exposure on the fetal neuroendocrine system in sheep

We have shown that continuous maternal exposure to the complex mixture of environmental chemicals (ECs) found in human biosolids (sewage sludge), disrupts mRNA expression of genes crucial for development and long-term regulation of hypothalamo-pituitary gonadal (HPG) function in sheep. This study investigated whether exposure to ECs only during preconceptional period or only during pregnancy perturbed key regulatory genes within the hypothalamus and pituitary gland and whether these effects were different from chronic (life-long) exposure to biosolid ECs. The findings demonstrate that the timing and duration of maternal EC exposure influences the subsequent effects on the fetal neuroendocrine system in a sex-specific manner. Maternal exposure prior to conception or during pregnancy only, altered the expression of key fetal neuroendocrine regulatory systems such as GnRH and kisspeptin to a greater extent than when maternal exposure was ‘life-long’. Furthermore, hypothalamic gene expression was affected to a greater extent in males than in females, and following EC exposure, male fetuses expressed more “female-like” mRNA levels for some key neuroendocrine genes. This is the first study to show that “real-life” maternal exposure to low levels of a complex cocktail of chemicals prior to conception can subsequently affect the developing fetal neuroendocrine system. These findings demonstrate that the developing neuroendocrine system is sensitive to EC mixtures in a sex-dimorphic manner likely to predispose to reproductive dysfunction in later life