To investigate predictors of mental health help-seeking as well as identify topics for which college student-athletes are most likely to seek help. Student-athletes ( = 328) from three Division II and III universities. Participants completed a survey packet on stigma, attitudes, and intentions toward seeking mental health services as well as willingness to seek help for specific topics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe draw on the concept of the shared mental model to explain the cross-level direct and moderating effects of team trust on the relationship between coach transformational leadership and cohesion. Using hierarchical linear modelling, we analysed 597 national level high school and university volleyball players to test our research model. Our results revealed that, (a) at the individual level, coach transformational leadership has a positive effect on athletes' perceptions on cohesion and (b) team trust, a group-level construct, is positively related to social cohesion and moderates the coach transformational leadership-cohesion relationship.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFQual Res Sport Exerc Health
September 2017
Athletes are expected to distinguish themselves from their peers, make sacrifices for the good of the game, play through pain and injury, and push physical and mental limits on the path to achieve their goals. Collectively, these expectations are known as the 'sport ethic' and while they are considered part of sport culture, athletes who overconform to them engage in behaviours that pose potentially serious health risks. To explore athlete identity and deviant overconformity, this study was designed within a psychocultural life story framework using a constructivist-interpretivist paradigm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite reports that there has been a positive trend in perception and treatment of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals in recent years (Griffin, 2012 ; Loftus, 2001 ), sport, in general, is still an uncertain, and sometimes even hostile, environment for LGB athletes (Anderson, 2005 ; Waldron & Krane, 2005 ). To gain more information on coach understanding and perceptions of the team environment, 10 high school head coaches in the United States were interviewed to explore their experiences coaching openly LGB athletes. Qualitative analyses revealed four primary themes associated with coach experiences: team environment dogmas and observations, fundamental beliefs contributing to perceptions of LGB athletes, types and timing of sexual orientation disclosure, and differential LGB athlete characteristics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe field of sport psychology is dynamic and growing. To continue building credibility with the public and allied professionals, effective and ethical practice is crucial. Advances in technology have allowed sport psychology professionals to consult with athletes from a distance, but practitioners must be mindful of their competency to use technology, confidentiality concerns, and the suitability of technology for their clients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCsikszentmihalyi (1990) suggested that certain types of people might be better psychologically equipped to experience flow. The purpose of this study was to determine if differences exist in one's ability to experience flow based upon factors such as cultural background, gender, years of specialized training, skill level, and sport event type. The English and Chinese versions of the Dispositional Flow Scale-2 were used to assess trait flow in American (N = 160) and Chinese collegiate athletes (N = 341).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGoal setting difficulty has been shown to contribute to athletic performance (Burton et al., 2000). However, the potential mediating mechanism of goal difficulty on performance is unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrior research has found that intercollegiate athletes consume more alcohol and experience more negative alcohol-related consequences than nonathletes, but no measure of sport-related reasons for alcohol use currently exists. The purpose of this study was to develop such a measure, which the authors termed the Athlete Drinking Scale (ADS). An exploratory factor analysis supported the existence of 3 subscales: Positive Reinforcement, Team/Group, and Sport-Related Stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPercept Mot Skills
December 2003
To identify the relations between new stadiums and home team performance and attendance for professional baseball (MLB) (n=14), basketball (NBA) (n=13), and football (NFL) (n=25) teams in the USA since 1950 dependent t tests assessed significance of increases in attendance in both MLB and the NBA and a significantly improved home winning percentage in MLB following the building of new stadiums. Implications include a better understanding of the rationales used by owners, fans, and players for building new stadiums.
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