Parental involvement in sport: psychometric development and empirical test of a theoretical model

The purposes of the present multistudy were to develop and provide initial construct validity for measures based on the model of parental involvement in sport (Study 1) and examine structural relationships among the constructs of the model (Study 2). In Study 1 (nparents = 342, nathletes = 223), a confirmatory factor analysis was used to verify the psychometric properties of the measures. Content and construct validity were evaluated, as well individual and composite reliability. Multi-group analysis with two independent samples provided evidence of factorial invariance. In Study 2 (nparents = 754, nathletes = 438), structural equation modeling analysis supported the hypothesised model in which athletes’ perceptions of parents’ behaviours mediated the relationship between parents’ reported behaviours and the athletes’ psychological variables conducive to their achievement in sport. The findings provide support for the parental involvement in sport model and demonstrate the role of perceptions of parents’ behaviours on young athletes’ cognitions in sport.

Self-management of coronary heart disease in angina patients after percutaneous coronary intervention: A mixed methods study.

After having elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) patients are expected to self-manage their coronary heart disease (CHD) by modifying their risk factors, adhering to medication and effectively managing any recurring angina symptoms but that may be ineffective. Objective: Explore how patients self-manage their coronary heart disease (CHD) after elective PCI and identify any factors that may infl uence that. Design and method: This mixed methods study recruited a convenience sample of patients (n=93) approximately three months after elective PCI. Quantitative data were collected using a survey and were subject to univariate, bivariate and multi-variate analysis. Qualitative data from participant interviews was analysed using thematic analysis. Findings: After PCI, 74% of participants managed their angina symptoms inappropriately. Younger participants and those with threatening perceptions of their CHD were more likely to know how to effectively manage their angina symptoms. Few patients adopted a healthier lifestyle after PCI. Qualitative analysis revealed that intentional non-adherence to some medicines was an issue. Some participants felt unsupported by healthcare providers and social networks in relation to their self-management. Participants reported strong emotional responses to CHD and this had a detrimental effect on their self-management. Few patients accessed cardiac rehabilitation.

A revised L-band radio-brightness sensitivity to extreme winds under tropical cyclones: The 5 year SMOS-Storm database

Five years of SMOS L-band brightness temperature data intercepting a large number of tropical cyclones (TCs) are analyzed. The storm-induced half-power radio-brightness contrast (ΔI) is defined as the difference between the brightness observed at a specific wind force and that for a smooth water surface with the same physical parameters. ΔI can be related to surface wind speed and has been estimated for ~ 300 TCs that intercept with SMOS measurements. ΔI, expressed in a common storm-centric coordinate system, shows that mean brightness contrast monotonically increases with increased storm intensity ranging from ~ 5 K for strong storms to ~ 24 K for the most intense Category 5 TCs. A remarkable feature of the 2D mean ΔI fields and their variability is that maxima are systematically found on the right quadrants of the storms in the storm-centered coordinate frame, consistent with the reported asymmetric structure of the wind and wave fields in hurricanes. These results highlight the strong potential of SMOS measurements to improve monitoring of TC intensification and evolution. An improved empirical geophysical model function (GMF) was derived using a large ensemble of co-located SMOS ΔI, aircraft and H*WIND (a multi-measurement analysis) surface wind speed data. The GMF reveals a quadratic relationship between ΔI and the surface wind speed at a height of 10 m (U10). ECMWF and NCEP analysis products and SMOS derived wind speed estimates are compared to a large ensemble of H*WIND 2D fields. This analysis confirms that the surface wind speed in TCs can effectively be retrieved from SMOS data with an RMS error on the order of 10 kt up to 100 kt. SMOS wind speed products above hurricane force (64 kt) are found to be more accurate than those derived from NWP analyses products that systematically underestimate the surface wind speed in these extreme conditions. Using co-located estimates of rain rate, we show that the L-band radio-brightness contrasts could be weakly affected by rain or ice-phase clouds and further work is required to refine the GMF in this context.