School Smoking Policy Characteristics and Individual Perceptions of the School Tobacco Context: Are They Linked to Students’ Smoking Status?

The purpose of this study was to explore individual- and school-level policy characteristics on student smoking behavior using an ecological perspective. Participants were 24,213 (51% female) Grade 10–11 students from 81 schools in five Canadian provinces. Data were collected using student self-report surveys, written policies collected from schools, interviews with school administrators, and school property observations to assess multiple dimensions of the school tobacco policy. The multi-level modeling results revealed that the school a student attended was associated with his/her smoking behavior. Individual-level variables that were associated with student smoking included lower school connectedness, a greater number of family and friends who smoked, higher perceptions of student smoking prevalence, lower perceptions of student smoking frequency, and stronger perceptions of the school tobacco context. School-level variables associated with student smoking included weaker policy intention indicating prohibition and assistance to overcome tobacco addiction, weaker policy implementation involving strategies for enforcement, and a higher number of students smoking on school property. These findings suggest that the school environment is important to tobacco control strategies, and that various policy dimensions have unique relationships to student smoking. School tobacco policies should be part of a comprehensive approach to adolescent tobacco use

The effect of self-efficacy on coping behaviours, performance, and emotions in youth swimmers

This study investigated how self-efficacy and coping influences performance and performance related emotions in high performance youth swimmers. Lazarus' (1991. 1999) Cognitive Relational-Motivational Theory holds that how people cope with stress is a process that can subsequently influence both performance and emotions. Problemfocused (i.e. efforts to change a situation), emotion-focused (i.e. emotional control), and avoidance (i.e. withdrawal) coping are three coping functions frequently investigated in sport (Crocker & Graham, 1995; Gaudreau & Blondin, 2002). Self-efficacy, the belief that one can generate the necessary actions to achieve a desired outcome (Bandura, 1997), is another significant predictor of performance (Bandura, 1997). Self-efficacy can be viewed as a potential factor influencing the appraisal of a stressful situation and can play a significant role in the selection of coping options. To date, there has only been one exploratory study looking at the influence of self-efficacy on coping behaviors in sport (Haney & Long, 1995). The purpose of the current study was to examine a model that linked self-efficacy beliefs to coping, performance, and emotions in youth swimmers recruited at provincial championships in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. One hundred seventy-seven participants (aged 14-18 years) volunteered to complete questionnaires prior to and following their race. The pre-race questionnaires included a stress thermometer and self-efficacy scale specific to swimming. The post-race instruments included the Coping Functions Questionnaire (Kowalski & Crocker, 2001) and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). It was expected that self-efficacy would be positively correlated to problemfocused coping and that a positive link would be found between problem-focused coping and performance. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that self-efficacy would positively correlate with performance and that a positive goal/time discrepancy would be associated to positive emotions. Results did not support the expected model. Correlational analysis found a positive relationship between self-efficacy and performance discrepancy (r = .24, p<.05) and between performance discrepancy and positive affect (r = .37, p<.05). Subsequent Regression analysis found that performance discrepancy (P= .321, p<.05) and emotion-focused coping (P= .243, p<.05) were significant predictor of positive affect (r = .22, p<.05). Nevertheless, the relationships between self-efficacy and problem-focused coping failed to reach significance. In addition, coping did not correlate with performance. No age or gender differences were found. One of the challenges of linking self-efficacy, coping, and swimming performance was the difficulty of creating the necessary psychological conditions to validate the different hypotheses. While selfefficacy is a good predictor of performance when goals are fixed, coping occurs only when individual goals are at stake. Future research should look at various ways to assess the relationship between coping and self-efficacy.Education, Faculty ofKinesiology, School ofGraduat

Stress and well-being in breast cancer survivors : the influence of personality, socio-demographics, cancer-related characteristics, and physical activity levels

Cancer is now considered to be one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in Canada, with breast cancer emerging as the most common type of cancer diagnosed in Canadian women (Canadian-Cancer-Society, 2009). As breast cancer patients move to long-term survivorship, they face new challenges that extend beyond end of treatment (Deimling et al, 2003) which can have direct influences on quality of life (Ferrell et al., 1995). Previous research has often failed to use stress frameworks to examine stress relationships faced by breast cancer survivors (BCS) and has seldom investigated the effect of specific cancer-related stressors and their meaning on quality of life. To address these limitations, the current study investigated the influence of stress-related variables on quality of life of BCS post-treatment using Lazarus’ framework. Moreover, the direct and indirect effects of individual characteristics, including physical activity and personality trait, as well as cancer-related characteristics on stress-related variables were investigated. The final sample included 365 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, had completed treatment, and were between the age of 29 and 90 years (Mage = 61.58, SD = 11.36). Structural equation modeling techniques were used to test a hypothesized model based on Lazarus’ framework. The measurement and structural models testing the most global hypothesized model showed good model fit (RMSEA .90, TLI > .90), whereby direct and indirect effects of stressors, physical activity, and optimism on quality of life were shown. Together, these constructs explained 61% and 70% of the variance in physical and mental health respectively, highlighting the direct effect of stressors on quality of life above and beyond the role of cognitive appraisal. Experiencing more stressors was significantly associated with reporting lower levels of quality of life. Furthermore, personality had a direct effect on mental health whereas being physically active was positively associated with physical health. Overall, findings provided partial support for Lazarus’ model and highlighted some of the potential benefits of physical activity for cancer survivors. These results could be used to guide the design of interventions aimed at increasing physical and mental health in breast cancer survivors.Education, Faculty ofKinesiology, School ofGraduat