Balancing demands and resources in sport:adaptation and validation of the demand-induced strain compensation questionnaire for use in sport

Too high demands, combined with a lack of resources, are often detrimental to athletic health and well-being. However, a valid and reliable instrument to investigate different dimensions of demands and resources in sport is currently unavailable. Therefore, the present study examines the psychometric properties of an existing and well-validated survey instrument on demands and resources at task-level that was adapted to sport. This instrument, the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation Questionnaire for Sport (DISQ-SPORT), was empirically tested among 1,101 athletes (416 females and 685 males) from a variety of sports and in different languages. Results supported the proposed six-factor structure of the instrument, consisting of physical, cognitive, and emotional demands and resources. Internal consistencies of all subscales were satisfactory and the instrument was invariant across type of sport, competitive level and language. Continued evaluation of the psychometric properties of the DISQ-SPORT, especially in terms of content validity and test-retest stability, is nevertheless warranted. Theoretical and practical implications as well as areas for future research are discussed.</p

The impact of shiftwork on work-home conflict, job attitudes and health

The present study was designed to test the impact of rotation and timing of shifts on work-home conflict, job attitudes, health and absenteeism among the military police. A total of 3122 employees participated in the study. Discriminant analysis was used to examine the relationships between rotation and timing of shifts on the one hand, and the outcome measures on the other. Whether employees had fixed dayshifts, fixed non-day shifts including weekends, or rotating shifts with or without weekends, could be predicted on the basis of the experienced work-home conflict, job attitudes, health and absenteeism. Each of the two parameters of shiftwork differentially affected the experience of the outcome measures. Rotation was most clearly related to unfavourable job attitudes (namely job satisfaction, cynicism, turnover intentions and professional efficacy), whereas timing was most clearly related to increased work-home conflict. The results suggest that fixed non-day shifts including weekends (i.e., during highly valuable times) should be avoided in order to minimize the conflict between work and home and that rotation rosters should be designed with a high degree of individualization and flexibility. These seem to be the most promising ways to reduce the negative consequences of shiftwork for employees, their families and organizations

The sound of stress recovery:an exploratory study of self-selected music listening after stress

Background: Empirical support for the notion that music listening is beneficial for stress recovery is inconclusive, potentially due to the methodological diversity with which the effects of music on stress recovery have been investigated. Little is presently known about which recovery activities are chosen by individuals for the purpose of stress recovery, and whether audio feature commonalities exist between different songs that are selected by individuals for the purpose of stress recovery. The current pre-registered study investigated whether audio feature commonalities can be extracted from self-selected songs for the purpose of stress recovery. Furthermore, the present study exploratorily examined the relationship between audio features and participants’ desired recovery-related emotions while listening and after listening to self-selected music. Methods: Participants (N = 470) completed an online survey in which they described what music they would listen to unwind from a hypothetical stressful event. Data analysis was conducted using a split-sample procedure. A k-medoid cluster analysis was conducted to identify audio feature commonalities between self-selected songs. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between audio features and desired recovery emotions. Results: Participants valued music listening as a recovery activity to a similar extent as watching TV, sleeping, or talking to a significant other. Cluster analyses revealed that self-selected songs for the purpose of stress recovery can be grouped into two distinct categories. The two categories of songs shared similarities in key, loudness, speechiness, acousticness, instrumentalness, liveness, musical valence, tempo, duration, and time signature, and were distinguished by danceability, energy, and mode. No audio features were significantly associated with participants’ desired recovery emotions. Conclusions: Although a comprehensive portrait of the relationship between audio features and stress recovery still warrants further research, the present study provides a starting point for future enquiries into the nuanced effects of musical audio features on stress recovery.</p

Het nieuwe normaal? Een visie op toekomstbestendig hybride werken ten gunste van de werk-privé balans en productiviteit

In dit artikel werd middels een literatuurverkenning onderzocht hoe hybride werkvormen, waarbij werknemers afwisselend substantieel thuiswerken en op kantoor werken, toekomstbestendig gemaakt kunnen worden met het oog op de werk-privébalans en productiviteit. De pre-corona literatuur betreft voornamelijk beperkt thuiswerken (maximaal één dag per week). Dit type thuiswerken blijkt positief samen te hangen met productiviteit. De bevindingen voor de werk-privébalans zijn minder eenduidig. De literatuur over substantieel (minimaal twee dagen per week) thuiswerken levert vooralsnog geen hard bewijs, maar we concluderen voorzichtig dat er geen aanwijzingen zijn voor consistent nadelige effecten op de werk-privébalans.Tussen substantieel thuiswerken en productiviteit lijkt voornamelijk een positieve relatie te bestaan. Voor substantieel thuiswerken in het kader van hybride werken formuleren wij de volgende aandachtspunten voor werkgevers: (1) het is aan te bevelen een balans te vinden tussen organisatiebeleid dat een raamwerk biedt voor hybride werken en het faciliteren van maatwerk op team- en individueel niveau; (2) faciliteer substantieel thuiswerken wanneer dat praktisch mogelijk is en er behoefte aan is; (3) geef werknemers voldoende autonomie om te kiezen wanneer er wordt thuisgewerkt, maar waarborg tegelijkertijd face-to-facecontact voor teamcohesie en -creativiteit; (4) substantieel thuiswerken vraagt om een adequate thuiswerkplek waar een werknemer geconcentreerd en prettig kan werken

Sedentary work and participation in leisure–time physical activity

Objective: Demanding psychosocial work characteristics, such as high job demands, can have a detrimental impact on leisure–time physical activity (LTPA), with adverse consequences for employee health and well-being. However, the mechanisms and moderators of this crossover effect are still largely unknown. We therefore aimed to identify and test potential mediating and moderating factors from within and outside the work environment. Based on the previous research, we expected job demands to be negatively related to LTPA through fatigue. In addition, we expected that job control and worktime control would attenuate the relationship between job demands and fatigue. Furthermore, we hypothesized that autonomous exercise motivation and spontaneous action planning would attenuate the relationship between fatigue and LTPA. In addition to these cross-sectional hypotheses, we expected the same effects to predict a change in LTPA in the following year. Methods: To investigate these assumptions, a preregistered longitudinal survey study was conducted among a large sample of Dutch employees in sedentary jobs. Participants reported on the constructs of interest in 2017 and 2018 (N = 1189 and 665 respectively) and the resulting data were analyzed using path analyses. Results: Our cross-sectional analyses confirm a weak indirect, negative association between job demands and LTPA, via fatigue. However, this finding was not observed in our longitudinal analyses and none of the other hypotheses were confirmed. Conclusion: This study shows that, among employees with relatively healthy psychosocial work characteristics (i.e., high job control), the evidence for an impact of these work characteristics on participation in LTPA is limited

Balancing Demands and Resources in Sport: Adaptation and Validation of the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation Questionnaire for Use in Sport

Too high demands, combined with a lack of resources, are often detrimental to athletic health and well-being. However, a valid and reliable instrument to investigate different dimensions of demands and resources in sport is currently unavailable. Therefore, the present study examines the psychometric properties of an existing and well-validated survey instrument on demands and resources at task-level that was adapted to sport. This instrument, the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation Questionnaire for Sport (DISQ-SPORT), was empirically tested among 1,101 athletes (416 females and 685 males) from a variety of sports and in different languages. Results supported the proposed six-factor structure of the instrument, consisting of physical, cognitive, and emotional demands and resources. Internal consistencies of all subscales were satisfactory and the instrument was invariant across type of sport, competitive level and language. Continued evaluation of the psychometric properties of the DISQ-SPORT, especially in terms of content validity and test-retest stability, is nevertheless warranted. Theoretical and practical implications as well as areas for future research are discussed

Balancing demands and resources in sport: adaptation and validation of the demand-induced strain compensation questionnaire for use in sport

Too high demands, combined with a lack of resources, are often detrimental to athletic health and well-being. However, a valid and reliable instrument to investigate different dimensions of demands and resources in sport is currently unavailable. Therefore, the present study examines the psychometric properties of an existing and well-validated survey instrument on demands and resources at task-level that was adapted to sport. This instrument, the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation Questionnaire for Sport (DISQ-SPORT), was empirically tested among 1,101 athletes (416 females and 685 males) from a variety of sports and in different languages. Results supported the proposed six-factor structure of the instrument, consisting of physical, cognitive, and emotional demands and resources. Internal consistencies of all subscales were satisfactory and the instrument was invariant across type of sport, competitive level and language. Continued evaluation of the psychometric properties of the DISQ-SPORT, especially in terms of content validity and test-retest stability, is nevertheless warranted. Theoretical and practical implications as well as areas for future research are discussed

The Impact of Cognitive and Physical Effort Exertion on Physical Effort Decisions : A Pilot Experiment

Research suggests that cognitive fatigue has a negative impact on physical activity participation. However, the mechanisms underlying this effect are yet unclear. Using an effort-based decision-making paradigm, we examined whether individuals weigh physical effort-costs more strongly when they are cognitively or physically fatigued. Twenty university students visited the lab on three occasions. On each visit, participants underwent a manipulation that was designed to either induce cognitive fatigue (i.e., 2-back task), physical fatigue (i.e., handgrip exercise), or served as a control condition (i.e., documentary watching). After the manipulations, participants performed an effort-based decision-making task in which they decided for 125 offers whether they accepted the offer to exert the required level of physical effort to obtain rewards that varied in value. The probability to accept offers declined with increasing effort requirements whereas the general probability to accept offers was not reduced by any of the experimental conditions. As expected, the decline in accepted offers with increasing effort requirements was stronger after prolonged exertion of physical effort compared to the control condition. Unexpectedly, this effect was not found after exerting cognitive effort, and exploratory analyses revealed that the impact of physical effort exertion on physical effort-based decisions was stronger than that of cognitive effort exertion. These findings suggest that people weight future physical effort-costs more strongly after exerting physical effort, whereas we could not find any evidence for this after exerting cognitive effort. We discuss multiple explanations for this discrepancy, and outline possibilities for future research

Prevalence and clustering of health behaviours and the association with socio-demographics and mental well-being in Dutch university students

The college years represent a vulnerable period for developing health-risk behaviours (e.g., physical inactivity/unhealthy eating habits/substance use/problematic internet use/insufficient sleep). This study examined current health behaviour levels (RQ1), health behaviour classes (RQ2) and between-class differences in socio-demographics (RQ3) and mental well-being (RQ4) among Dutch university students (n = 3771). Participants (Mage = 22.7 (SD = 4.3); 71.2% female/27.3% male/1.5% other) completed an online survey (Oct-Nov 2021). Descriptive statistics (RQ1), Latent Class Analysis (RQ2), and Kruskal-Wallis/Chi-square tests (RQ3-4) were used. RQ1: Prevalence rates suggest that a subsequent proportion of the student sample engages in health-risk behaviours. RQ2: Four classes were identified: class 1 (n = 862) “Licit substance use health-risk group”, class 2 (n = 435) “Illicit and licit substance use health-risk group”, class 3 (n = 1876) “Health-protective group” and class 4 (n = 598) “Non-substance use health-risk group”. RQ3: Class 1 represents relatively more international students and students in a steady relationship. Class 2 represents relatively more older/male/(pre-)master students and students living with roommates/in a steady relationship/with more financial difficulty. Class 3 represents relatively more younger/female students and students living with family/with lower Body Mass Index (BMI)/less financial difficulty. Class 4 represents relatively more younger/non-Western/international/bachelor students and students living with children/single/part of LGBTIQ+ community/with higher BMI. RQ4: Class 3 has significantly higher mental well-being while class 4 has significantly lower mental well-being, relative to the other classes. Above findings provide new insights which can help educational institutes and governments better understand the clustering of students’ health behaviours and between-class differences in socio-demographics and mental well-being

Dimensions of work-home culture and their relations with the use of work-home arrangements and work-home interaction

This study examined the associations of workhome culture with (a) demographic and organizational characteristics, (b) the use of workhome arrangements, and (c) negative and positive workhome interaction, among 1,179 employees from one public and two private organizations. Substantial support was found for a 2-factor structure of a workhome culture measure differentiating between ‘‘support’’ (employees’ perceptions of organization’s, supervisors’, and colleagues’ responsiveness to workfamily issues and to the use of workhome arrangements) and ‘‘hindrance’’ (employees’ perceptions of career consequences and time demands that may prevent them from using workhome arrangements). This 2-factor structure appeared to be invariant across organizations, gender, and parental status. Significant relationships with organizational characteristics, the use of workhome arrangements, and workhome interaction supported the validity of these two cultural dimensions. It is concluded that if employers want to minimize workhome interference, to optimize positive work home interaction, and to boost the use of workhome arrangements, they should create a workhome culture that is characterized by high support and low hindrance.