Affective Forecasting and Social Physique Anxiety among Female Athletes: A Pilot Study

Authors: Jessica Wolverton1 & Urska Dobersek2  

1Athletics Department, McDaniel College, Westminster, USA; 2Department of Psychology, University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, IN USA

Corresponding Author:

Jessica Wolverton, M.S.
2 College Hill Westminster, MD 21157
jwolverton@mcdaniel.edu
410-857-2566

Jessica Wolverton, MS is a former collegiate volleyball coach and a current collegiate athletics administrator. Her research focus includes well-being, mental health resourcing, and programming for student-athletes.
Urska Dobersek, Ph.D., CMPC is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Southern Indiana. Her research interests include individuals’ identities, objectification of women, sexual and mate selection, and diet and mental health

Affective Forecasting and Social Physique Anxiety among Female Athletes: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACT

While people make affective forecasts every day, they overestimate the impact of future events on their emotional states — displaying an impact bias. Comparatively few studies examined athletes’ accuracy of specific emotions in aesthetic sports. To remedy this gap, we explored predicted social physique anxiety and self-presentational concerns in an experimental analysis of 156 female collegiate volleyball players between 18 and 23 years of age. Athletes completed a Demographic Questionnaire and the Trait Anxiety Inventory before being randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions (i.e., control, practice, intersquad scrimmage game, or heavy spectator game). After the manipulation, their social physique anxiety levels and self-presentational concerns in sport were assessed. A one-way Analysis of Variance revealed significant differences among the conditions on social physique anxiety, F(3, 152) = 4.70, p = .004, h2 = .09. Specifically, Tukey HSD post-hoc test revealed that athletes in the control condition scored higher on social physique anxiety (M = 2.74, SD = 0.71) compared with intersquad scrimmage game condition (M = 2.15, SD = 0.70), p < .01, d = .83. No other significant differences were observed. Contrary to prior literature, athletes overestimated their forecasted anxiety in the control group and underestimated their forecasted social physique anxiety levels in a game closed to large crowds. Our study extends previous work on affective forecasting, and more importantly, provides additional information on specific emotions in aesthetic sports. Our findings suggest that coaches and sport psychology consultants could potentially reduce athletes’ social physique anxiety and self-presentational concerns by channeling their attention to the task at hand.

Key Words: affective forecasting, social physique anxiety, self-presentational concerns, pilot study

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2023-09-27T11:50:12-05:00September 29th, 2023|Research, Sports Coaching, Sports Health & Fitness, Women and Sports|Comments Off on Affective Forecasting and Social Physique Anxiety among Female Athletes: A Pilot Study

Understanding written message framing, motivation, and performance in competitive cyclists

Authors:1Kimberly S. Fasczewski, 1Paige N. Bramblett, 1Landry K. Bobo,  2James Peterman, 1R. Andrew Shanely

1Department of Public Health and Exercise Science, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, USA

2Fisher Institute of Health, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA

Correspondence:

Kimberly S. Fasczewski, PhD.
Department of Public Health and Exercise Science
Beaver College of Health Sciences, 1179 State Farm Rd
Boone, NC 28608-207
Phone: 828-262-7987
fasczewskiks@appstate.edu

Understanding written message framing, motivation, and performance in competitive cyclists

Abstract

Purpose: An athlete’s motivation and sport performance is impacted by their environment, including the interpersonal relationship between athlete and coach. What messages the coach conveys, and how those messages are received, can impact performance. Conveying messages via controlling message framing (dictating goals and outcomes) or informational/supportive message framing (providing information and recognizing effort) may impact the athlete’s perceptions of the environment and alter motivation, thus impacting performance. Endurance sports, such as cycling, require high amounts of self-determined motivation due to the duration and solo nature of training. Often the primary interaction with the coach is through online written communication. As such, the goal of this study was to explore the impact of written forms of controlling and informational/supportive message framing on motivation and performance in trained cyclists. Methods: Using a crossover design, 11 amateur competitive cyclists (9 Male, 2 Female; age 43.6 ± 10.3 years) were randomly assigned a written training protocol containing either controlling or informational/supportive messages and describing a specific workout with a goal of participation to exhaustion. Perceived competence, perceived autonomy, motivation, and performance (time to exhaustion) were measured for each trial. Results: No significant differences were found in perceived competence, perceived autonomy, motivation, or performance between controlling or informational/supportive conditions. There was a significant correlation between pre-task competence valuation and post-task perceived competence (r = -0.738), and autonomous motivation and time-to-exhaustion (r = -0.674) in the controlling condition. Additionally, a significant correlation was seen between perceived competence and perceived autonomy (r = 0.666) in the informational/supportive condition. Conclusions: A relationship does exist between written message framing and motivation. Motivation and performance may be increased by using informational/supportive messages in written communication with athletes. Application in Sport: Coaches must be aware of the impact communication has on athletes even when using online platforms. These interactions should be considered an important part of the coach-athlete relationship. For optimal athlete motivation and performance, coaches should focus on creating well-designed workouts that include detailed written information using supportive wording.

Keywords: (coaching, endurance athletes, online, Self-Determination Theory, cycling)

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2023-09-13T14:18:59-05:00September 15th, 2023|Research, Sports Health & Fitness|Comments Off on Understanding written message framing, motivation, and performance in competitive cyclists

Purposeful Practice: Constraints and Temperament Impact on Physical Performance of Collegiate Division II Soccer Athletes

Authors: Timothy Hinchman1, Carrie D. Taylor2, Eric J. Lange3, and Michael Meachum4

1 Department of Curriculum and Learning.  Midwestern State University, Wichita Fall, Texas, USA

2 Department of Counseling, Kinesiology, and Special Education, Midwestern State University, Wichita Fall, Texas, USA

3 Life Sciences Department, Tulsa Community College, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

4 Athletic Department, Midwestern State University, Wichita Fall, Texas, USA

Correspondence:

Timothy Hinchman
Midwestern State University
Gordon T. & Ellen West College of Education
3410 Taft Boulevard, Bridwell Hall, Office 330
Wichita Falls, Texas 76308-2099.
timothy.hinchman@msutexas.edu

Dr. Timothy Hinchman is an Assistant Professor at MSU-Texas, where he has been since 2019. He imparts Science and Social Studies Methodology knowledge to aspiring elementary teachers. With an Ed.D. from the University of West Florida and academic roots in Florida State University, he brings a wealth of expertise. Dr. Hinchman’s interests focus on using constraints for increased productivity and creativity. He’s pioneering designed constraints to enhance NCAA Division II athletes’ performance. Collaborative across various fields, including education and art, his emphasis is on STEM/STEAM. Beyond academia, Dr. Hinchman’s passion for Batman and comic books shines. His goal is to present research at a major Comic-Con event. This reflects his dedication to education and diverse pursuits.

Purposeful Practice: Constraints and Temperament Impact on Physical Performance of Collegiate Division II Soccer Athletes

Abstract

This quantitative quasi-experimental study examined differences in mean and median differences of millennial soccer athlete’s performance.  Research indicates that millennials struggle with complex tasks due to their fear of failure. Individual productivity has been shown to be positively influenced by the use of designed constraints. The study employed the C-BMN framework and the GPAI to analyze data pertaining to constraint-type and its influence on the productivity of 18 soccer players.  Individual components teamwork and trapping showed statistical significance during the intervention, while positioning, passing, and dribbling did not.  The overall GPAI showed statistical significance between the control and both constraint types.  A two-mixed ANOVA showed no statistically significant interaction between constraints and temperaments however only 72% of participants completed the temperament assessment. 

Keywords:  Constraints, Temperament, Physical Performance, GPAI

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2023-09-08T11:01:36-05:00September 8th, 2023|Research, Sports Exercise Science, Sports Health & Fitness|Comments Off on Purposeful Practice: Constraints and Temperament Impact on Physical Performance of Collegiate Division II Soccer Athletes

Reliability of a Point-of-Care Device for Saliva Analysis During Aerobic Exercise

Authors: Asher L. Flynn, Tyler Langford, Cody Whitefoot

Department of Sport and Exercise Science, Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, TN, USA

Correspondence:

Asher L. Flynn, PhD, CSCS
6965 Cumberland Gap Parkway
AsherLFlynn@gmail.com
423.869.6828

Asher L Flynn, PhD, CSCS is an Assistant Professor of Exercise Science at Lincoln Memorial University, TN. His research interests focus on fatigue and athlete monitoring in colligate athletes, and aspects of women’s soccer performance.

Tyler Langford, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Exercise Science at Lincoln Memorial University, TN. His areas of research interest include exercise testing and prescription for special populations (incomplete spinal cord injury and older adults) as well as the use of effort perception for exercise prescription.

Cody Whitefoot, PT, DPT, OCS is an Assistant Professor of Exercise Science at Lincoln Memorial University, TN. His research interests include the impact of blood flow restriction (BFR) on aerobic capacity and orthopedic clinical evaluation with a special emphasis on diagnostic testing.

Reliability of a Point-of-Care Device for Saliva Analysis During Aerobic Exercise

Abstract

Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) and Cortisol (C) have been of increasing focus as biomarkers for monitoring acute and chronic stress. Recently there has been an interest in improving point-of-care devices to increase practicality of salivary testing and remove the need for laboratory analysis. A new point-of-care device has been reported to be highly reliable during baseline testing but has yet to be proven reliable up to the expected concentrations from intense exercise (exceeding 1000 U/mL). Following a modified graded exercise test (GXT) which consisted of sAA and C analysis at baseline, 50-, 70-, and 90-percent of heart rate max, the new point-of-care device showed strong to very strong reliability across the concentration spectrum (sAA: r = 0.60; C: r = 0.73). According to the results of this study, this point-of-care device is able to assist the coaching staff in making training decisions based off of the results provided.

Key Words: Alpha-Amylase, Cortisol, Athlete Monitoring, Fatigue

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2023-09-01T16:29:15-05:00September 1st, 2023|Research, Sports Health & Fitness|Comments Off on Reliability of a Point-of-Care Device for Saliva Analysis During Aerobic Exercise

Visual Memory Recovery by Gender in Young Athletes with a Sport-Related Concussion (SRC)

Authors: Hyunsoo Yoo

Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Science and Disorders, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, USA

Correspondence:

Hyunsoo Yoo Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Science and Disorders
Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences
Baylor University

One Bear Place #97332
Waco, TX 76798

Visual Memory Recovery by Gender in Young Athletes with a Sport-Related Concussion (SRC)

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to determine 1) whether there are gender differences in the post-concussion (PC 1-3) recovery process in visual memory after a concussion, and 2) whether there is interaction between two gender groups and the number of concussions.

Method: 75 athletes with sports-related concussion in two groups by gender. The Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) performance was compared between and within subjects from post-concussion test 1 (PC1) to PC3. The visual memory composite scores were obtained from ImPACT.

Results: Two gender groups were significantly different in visual memory: female athletes were higher than male athletes in visual memory composite scores. Two gender groups also exhibited different recovery pattern: female group showed early recovery from PC1 to PC2 as well as from PC1 to PC3, while male athletes showed significant recovery from PC1 to PC3 only. There was no significant interaction between visual memory scores and the number of concussions.

Conclusions: We can conclude that two gender groups differed in visual memory composite scores. Additionally, the timing of the recovery was different by gender. There was no interaction between the visual memory scores and the number of concussions sustained.

Keywords Sports-related concussion (SRC), Visual memory, Gender

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2023-08-25T17:53:25-05:00August 11th, 2023|Research, Sports Health & Fitness|Comments Off on Visual Memory Recovery by Gender in Young Athletes with a Sport-Related Concussion (SRC)
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