The Relationship Between Coaching Behaviours and Sport Anxiety in Athletes

Previous research has identified the relationship between athlete sport anxiety and various sport outcomes (e.g., performance and dropout). For the majority of athletes involved in sport, the coach is an influential element of the competitive experience. Two hundred and twenty-eight athletes from 15 sports, completed the Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS) and the Coaching Behavior Scale for Sport (CBS-S). The predictive ability of athletes' perceived frequency of seven coaching behaviours (physical training, mental preparation, goal setting, technical skills, competition strategies, personal rapport and negative personal rapport) on four forms of sport anxiety (total anxiety, somatic anxiety, concentration disruption and worry) was examined. Results indicate that negative personal rapport was a significant predictor of all measured forms of sport anxiety while competition strategies was a significant predictor for total anxiety, concentration disruption, and worry. Other behaviours were not significant. The findings suggest that negative rapport between coach and athlete is an important contributor to athlete anxiety. In addition, behaviours that the coach demonstrates relative to competition can be influential in reducing athlete anxiety.

The Benefits of Sampling Sports During Childhood

Sampling may promote prolonged engagement in sport by limiting physical injuries (Fraser-Thomas et al., 2005). Overtraining injuries are a concern for young athletes who specialize in one sport and engage in high volumes of deliberate practice (Hollander, Meyers, & Leunes, 1995; Law, Côté, & Ericsson, 2007). For instance, young gymnasts who practice for over 16 hours a week have been shown to have higher incidences of back injuries (Goldstein, Berger, Windier, & Jackson, 1991). A sampling approach in child-controlled play (e.g. deliberate play) rather than highly adult-controlled practice (e.g. deliberate practice) has been proposed as a strategy to limit overuse and other sport-related injuries (Micheli, Glassman, & Klein, 2000). In summary, sampling may protect against sport attrition by limiting sport related injuries and allowing children to have early experiences in sport that are enjoyable. Psychosocial Benefits of Sampling Only a small percentage of children who participate in school sports ever become elite athletes. Therefore, the psychosocial outcomes of sport participation are particularly important to consider. Recent studies with youth between the ages of 11 to 17 have found that those who are involved in a variety of extracurricular activities (e.g. sports, volunteer, arts) score more favourably on outcome measures such as Grade Point Average (GPA; Fredricks & Eccles, 2006a) and positive peer relationships (Fredricks & Eccles, 2006b) than youth who participate in fewer activities. These patterns are thought to exist due to each extracurricular activity bringing its own distinct pattern of socialization experiences that reinforce certain behaviours and/or teach various skills (Fredricks & Eccles, 2006b; Rose-Krasnor, Bussen, Willoughby, & Chambers, 2006). This contention is corroborated by studies of children and youths' experiences in extracurricular activities indicating that youth have unique experiences in each activity that contribute to their development (Hansen, Larson, & Dworkin, 2003; Larson, Hansen, & Moneta, 2006). This has led Wilkes and Côté (2007) to propose that children who sample different activities (through their own choice or by virtue of parental direction), have a greater chance of developing the following five developmental outcomes compared to children who specialize in one activity: 1) life skills, 2) prosocial behaviour, 3) healthy identity, 4) diverse peer groups and 5) social capital.

Considering Efficacy of an Outdoor Environmental Education Program: Facilitating Elementary Students’ Environmental Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviours

Various sources have sought to consider the educational interventions that foster changes in perception of and attitudes toward nature, with the ultimate intent of understanding how education can be used to encourage environmentally responsible behaviours. With these in mind, the current study identified an outdoor environmental education program incorporating these empirically supported interventions, and assessed its ability to influence environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours. Specifically, this study considered the following research questions: 1) To what degree can participation in this outdoor education program foster environmental knowledge and encourage pro-environmental attitudes and self-reported pro-environmental behaviours? 2) How is this effect different among students of different genders, and those who have different prior experiences in nature? Two motivational frameworks guided inquiry in the current study: the Value-Belief-Norm Model of Environmentalism (VBN) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The study employed a quantitative survey methodology, combining contemporary data measuring knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours with archived data collected by program staff, reflecting frequency of environmentally responsible behaviour. Further, a single qualitative item was included for which students provided “the first three words that [came] to mind when [they] think of the word nature.” Terms provided before and after the program were compared for differences in theme to detect subtle or underlying changes. Quantitative results indicated no significant change in student knowledge or attitudes through the outdoor environmental education program. However, a significant change in self-reported behaviour was identified from both the contemporary and archived data. This agreement in positive findings across the two data sets, collected using different measures and different participants, lends evidence of the program’s ability to encourage self-reported pro-environmental behaviour. Further, qualitative results showed some change in students’ perceptions of nature through the program, providing direction for future research. These findings suggest that this particular outdoor education program was successful in encouraging students’ self-reported environmentally responsible behaviour. This change was achieved without significant change in knowledge or environmental attitudes, suggesting that external factors not measured in this study might have played a role in affecting behaviour.

Youth Sport Coaches’ Reflections on Leadership Behaviours During Games and Practices

Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2016-10-03 07:59:09.638

Character in Context: Informing Character Education Programming

The Positive Youth Development (PYD) perspective is a strength-based conceptualization of youth. It highlights the importance of mutually beneficial relationships between youth and their environment to develop the “Five Cs”, key assets that include character. Character has long been a subject of programming due to its focus on helping children lead moral, empathic, and prosocial lives. There are, however, many limitations in character research, including poorly operationalized definitions of character; a failure to examine the developmental and broader social context in which character exists; and a lack of evaluation of more practical character programming. The goal of this dissertation was to address these gaps in knowledge and inform the character education programming literature. The first study examined the relationships among age, gender, the school social context, and character. Moral character was negatively associated with grade, and being a girl was positively associated with moral character. The relationships between positive peer interactions at school and character (fairness, integrity) were stronger among students who reported low initial moral character when positive peer interactions was high. In the second study, the Build Character: Build Success Program, a character education program, was evaluated over six months to examine its effects on character behaviours, victimization, and school climate. No program effects were found for students in grades 1 to 3, but a slight decrease in victimization in one experimental school was found for students in grades 4 to 8. This lack of general program effects may be due to the short-term nature of the intervention, which may not have been long enough to result in measurable behaviour change. Implementation data indicated that teachers did not teach all program elements, which also may have influenced the results of the program evaluation. The present dissertation contributes to knowledge about character and its programming by: introducing new measures to operationalize character, discovering developmental patterns in character in school-aged children, highlighting gender differences in character, examining character within its broad social context, and evaluating short-term character education programming.

What's so funny? An evaluation of the relations among humour use, mirth, and depressive symptomatology

Humour production and showing mirth (i.e., smiling and laughing) confer prosocial advantages. However, there is a paucity of literature evaluating how humour manifests in psychopathology. Humour and mirth may be especially relevant in depression, wherein profound impairments are evident in emotional and social functioning. Chapters 2 and 3 present correlational and predictive relations of depressive, social anxiety, and social anhedonia symptoms with humour styles, and consider the role of motivational systems and expressivity of positive affect as they relate to humour. As expected, symptoms and avoidance-based motivation were positively related to maladaptive humour styles and negatively related to adaptive humour styles. Interestingly, the pattern of relations shifted when considered among individuals in a depressive episode; acutely depressed individuals generally shy away from any humour style rather than gravitating toward specific styles. In a mediation model, the inverse relation between depressive symptoms and affiliative humour was fully mediated by approach-based motivation and expressivity of positive emotions. Chapters 4 and 5 examined subjective and observed mirth responses (facial affect and laughter) demonstrated by depressed and healthy comparison groups. Relative to non-depressed individuals, depressed persons reported less enjoyment, lower ratings of funniness, and fewer instances and shorter durations of positive facial affect and laughter when viewing humourous videos. There was no significant change in retrospective ratings of enjoyment and funniness at a one-week follow-up. The pattern of responsivity by depressed persons shifted when they viewed humourous videos while hearing others laughing. Both groups demonstrated more mirth when hearing others laugh; there were no differences between groups on mirthful behaviours. The one exception was that the total duration of laugher produced by depressed individuals was shorter than that produced by individuals in the healthy comparison group. This research project demonstrates that facets of depressive symptomatology are differentially associated with humour use and depressed individuals show blunted emotional responsivity to humourous stimuli. However, the pattern of reduced affective responsivity is context specific in that it fluctuates in response to hearing others’ laughter. These findings have important implications for the conceptualization of depression and the subsequent avenues for the treatment of individuals with depression.