“When I sleep poorly, it impacts everything”: An exploratory qualitative investigation of stress and sleep in junior endurance athletes

On their journeys toward senior athletic status, junior endurance athletes are faced with a multitude of stressors. How athletes react to stressors plays a vital part in effective adaptation to the demanding, ever-changing athletic environment. Sleep, the most valued recovery strategy available to athletes, has the potential to influence and balance athletic stress, and enable optimal functioning. However, sleep is sensitive to disturbances by stress, which is described by the concept of sleep reactivity. Among athletes, poor sleep quality is frequently reported, but our understanding of the associations between stress and sleep in junior athletes is currently incomplete. The present study therefore investigated the themes of stress and sleep, and the associations between these variables with the use of in-depth semi-structured interviews in six junior endurance athletes (three men and three women, mean age 17.7 ± 0.5 years). Data was analyzed qualitatively based on the Grounded Theory. The qualitative material was supplemented with quantitative data on subjective sleep quality (Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index), sleep reactivity (Ford Insomnia Response to Stress Test), and mental strain (visual analog scale). The main results showed that stress could be differentiated into relevant stressors (encompassing poor performance, uncertainty in relation to training, school, daily hassles, and sleep) and reactions to stress (with sub-categories facilitative and maladaptive). Sleep could be differentiated into sleep benefits (encompassing energy levels and athletic functioning) and sleep quality (with sub-categories satisfactory and inadequate). All athletes identified relevant stressors, and all athletes were aware of the benefits of sleep for athletic functioning. However, athletes formed two distinctive categories based on the interactions between stress and sleep: three exhibited facilitative reactions to stress and good sleep quality, as well as low sleep reactivity, and low mental strain. The remaining participants exhibited maladaptive reactions to stress and poor sleep quality, as well as high sleep reactivity and high mental strain. Conceptualizing sleep quality based on the evaluation of stressors, reactions to stress, degree of mental strain, and the propensity to stress-related sleep disturbance may offer a plausible explanation for why the occurrence of stressors leads to poor sleep quality in some athletes, but not others

Organizational Learning Through Debriefing: The Process of Sharing and Hiding Knowledge

publishedVersio

Viktigheten av søvn og utfordringer med stress hos idrettsutøvere

Journal home page at https://helse-bergen.no/nasjonal-kompetansetjeneste-for-sovnsykdommer-sovno/tidsskriftet-sovn

The Effect from Executive Coaching on Performance Psychology

In this study, the authors explore the effects of an executive coaching programme on important performance psychology variables (self-efficacy, causal attribution, goal setting, and selfdetermination). One hundred and forty-four executives and middle managers from a Fortune high-tech 500 company participated in the experiment over a period of one year. Twenty executives participated in an external executive coaching programme and one hundred and twenty four middle managers participated in a coaching based leadership programme. Findings indicate that there are significant effects of external coaching on psychological variables affecting performance such as self-efficacy, goal setting, intra-personal causal attributions of success and need satisfaction. Findings also indicate that there are significant effects of coaching based leadership on self-efficacy among middle managers. However, the effects regarding coaching based leadership are not as strong as those from external executive coaching

Nøkkelen til akademisk skriving: Øvelse gjør mester

publishedVersio

The Effects of the Coach-Athlete Working Alliance on Affect and Burnout Among High Level Coaches

Research suggests that the numbers of coaches who are suffering from burnout symptoms are considerably high among coaches in elite sport. In this study, the authors explore the effects of the coach-athlete working alliance on positive- and negative affect and burnout in a group of high-level coaches. An online survey, consisting of the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Version, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and the Maslach Burnout Inventory, was completed by a sample of 299 coaches working with elite athletes or junior elite athletes. Data analysis was conducted using structural equation modelling. The model explained 57% of the variance in cynicism, 32% of the variance in reduced sense of accomplishment and 26% of the variance in exhaustion. These effects mainly derived from positive affect and negative affect. However, working alliance showed a significant indirect effect on all three dimensions of burnot through the mediating variables positive affect and negative affect. These results are discussed in a cognitive activation-perspective

Perceived Leadership Self-Efficacy and Coach Competence: Assessing a Coaching-Based Leadership Self-Efficacy Scale

The first purpose of this study was to develop and test the factor structure of a multidimensional Coaching Leadership Self-Efficacy Scale (CLSES). A second purpose was to validate the CLSES through an inspection of its relation to the Coach Competence Scale (CCS). The CLSES was developed to capture important coaching leadership efficacies in five different areas where leaders must perform in their roles as leaders. Coach competencies were measured by a five dimensional validated version of the CCS. Confirmatory factor analyses supported both a first- and second-order model of the CLSES constituting the five dimensions of coaching leadership efficacies: 1) Work facilitator; 2) Supervising growth and development; 3) Creating relationship with customers; 4) Constructive communication; and 5) Creating relationship with employees. Moreover, the CLSES was positively related to the CCS. The present study extends the literature on leadership efficacy in relation to coaching behaviour. The results of the study are discussed together with limitations and suggestions for further research

Unique Predictors of Sleep Quality in Junior Athletes: The Protective Function of Mental Resilience, and the Detrimental Impact of Sex, Worry and Perceived Stress

Since athletic development and functioning are heavily dependent on sufficient recuperation, sleep in athletes is becoming a topic of increasing interest. Still, existing scientific evidence points to inadequate sleep in athletes, especially in females. This may be due to the fact that sleep is vulnerable to disturbances caused by stress and cognitive and emotional reactions to stress, such as worry and negative affect, which may exacerbate and prolong the stress response. Such disturbing factors are frequently experienced by junior athletes aiming for performance development and rise in the rankings, but may be damaging to athletic progression. Based on limited research in non-athletic samples, mental resilience may protect individuals against the detrimental effects of stress on sleep. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the extent to which sex, mental resilience, emotional (negative affect) and cognitive (worry) reactions to stress, and perceived stress, uniquely contributed to sleep quality in a cross-sectional study including 632 junior athletes. A multiple hierarchical linear regression showed that females had poorer sleep quality than males, while the mental resilience sub-components Social Resources and Structured Style were positively associated with sleep quality, providing a protective function and thus preventing sleep quality from deteriorating. Simultaneously, worry, as well as perceived stress, were negatively associated with sleep quality. Together, the independent variables explained 28% of the variance in sleep quality. A dominance analysis showed that perceived stress had the largest relative relationship with sleep quality. Based on these results, close attention should be paid to athletes’ abilities to manage worry and perceived stress, and the potential of mental resilience as a protective factor that could prevent sleep from deteriorating. The latter might be especially relevant for female athletes. Since performance margins are progressively becoming smaller and smaller, every improvement that adequate sleep can provide will be beneficial in terms of improved functioning and athletic performance