How can stress resilience be monitored? A systematic review of measurement in humans
- Authors: O’Donohue, Josephine , Mesagno, Christopher , O’Brien, Brendan
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Current Psychology Vol. 40, no. 6 (2021), p. 2853-2876
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Stress resilience studies focus on resilience operationalised within the context of stressors. Currently, there is no clear operationalisation of stress resilience in humans. To identify and critically examine measures used to assess stress resilience. A systematic review of English and non-English articles using PubMed (including MEDLINE), Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, ScienceDirect, and CINAHL was conducted. No date limits were set. Search terms included stress resilience, resilience to stress, stress resilient, and humans. Studies were selected based on pre-determined eligibility criteria. Empirical, quantitative research studies that measured individual stress resilience in humans were eligible for inclusion in this review. Two researchers conducted independent extraction of articles based on predefined fields, focusing on types of measures used. A narrative synthesis was used to present the findings, structured around the types of instruments used and conceptual focuses of these measures. We identified a number of measures, both self-report and performance based. We highlight the heterogeneity in operationalisation of stress resilience and suggest that, in future, researchers’ state operationalised definitions of stress resilience overtly to decrease confusion. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Forced retirement transition : a narrative case study of an elite Australian Rules football player
- Authors: Demetriou, Andreas , Jago, Andrew , Gill, Peter , Mesagno, Christopher , Ali, Lutfiye
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology Vol. 18, no. 3 (2020), p. 321-335
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Retirement from elite sport is a complex and often-problematic process. The current study explores a negative case study of an athlete recently retired from a team sport (Australian Rules Football) in order to generate knowledge on how to improve the retirement process. Three semi-structured interviews were undertaken less than 5 years post retirement, and archival career records were gathered from online sources. Data were coded to construct a narrative account of the participant’s career and retirement. Narrative analysis also revealed that the retirement transition from elite sports for this athlete was problematic and caused considerable personal distress. We suggest that the means of improving retirement transition and reducing harm to players include fostering alternative life narratives and increasing self-complexity, utilising norm appropriate communication strategies, and recognising retirement as a potential grieving period for loss of community. © 2018, © 2018 International Society of Sport Psychology.
Exercise, mood, self-efficacy, and social support as predictors of depressive symptoms in older adults : Direct and interaction effects
- Authors: Miller, Kyle , Mesagno, Christopher , McLaren, Suzanne , Grace, Fergal , Yates, Mark , Gomez, Rapson
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Frontiers in Psychology Vol. 10, no. (2019), p. 1-11
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Background: Depression is a chronic condition that affects up to 15% of older adults. The healthogenic effects of regular exercise are well established, but it is still unclear which exercise-related variables characterise the antidepressant effects of exercise. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which exercise-related variables (exercise behaviour, exercise-induced mood, exercise self-efficacy, and social support) can predict depressive symptoms in a cohort of community-dwelling older adults. Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional analysis of questionnaire data from a sample of 586 community-dwelling older Australians aged 65 to 96 years old. Participants completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, modified CHAMPS Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Adults, Four-Dimension Mood Scale, Self-Efficacy for Exercise Scale, and Social Provisions Scale - Short Form. Bivariate correlations were performed, and hierarchical multiple regression was subsequently used to test the regression model. Results: Exercise behaviour, exercise-induced mood, exercise self-efficacy, and social support were all negatively associated with depressive symptoms (r = -0.20 to -0.56). When the variables were entered as predictors into the hierarchical multiple regression model, social support was the strongest predictor of depressive symptoms (beta = -0.42), followed by exercise-induced mood (beta = -0.23), and exercise self-efficacy (beta = -0.07). Exercise behaviour did not explain any additional variance in depressive symptoms. A modest interaction effect was also observed between exercise-induced mood and social support. Conclusion: These findings indicate that social support is the strongest predictor of depressive symptomology in community-dwelling older adults, particularly when combined with positive exercise-induced mood states. When addressing the needs of older adults at risk of depression, healthcare professionals should consider the implementation of exercise programmes that are likely to benefit older adults by improving mood, enhancing self-efficacy, and building social support.
Imagery training for reactive agility : performance improvements for decision time but not overall reactive agility
- Authors: McNeil, Dominic , Spittle, Michael , Mesagno, Christopher
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology Vol. , no. (2019), p. 1-17
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: This study investigated the effects of imagery training on reactive agility and whether reacting to unpredictable stimuli could be improved using imagery. Forty-seven female athletes (Mage = 21.51, SD = 2.32) were randomly assigned to either a three-week physical training, imagery training, or control condition. Physical training condition involved physically rehearsing the reactive agility task, whereas the imagery training condition involved imagining the presenting stimulus and performing the reactive agility task. The control condition did no reactive agility training. A 3 (training conditions) x 7 (reactive agility performance components) mixed-model MANOVA was conducted to examine changes in reactive agility performance from the training interventions. Physical training improved decision time components and overall reactive agility performance. Imagery training improved Stimulus-Decision Time and Stimulus-Foot performance, but not overall reactive agility performance. No performance improvements occurred for the control condition. Findings support imagery use for the decision time variables associated with lightstimulus reactive agility performance. The lack of overall reactive performance improvement may indicate that imagery training is not effective for all components of perceptual-motor performance. Performance change inconsistencies appear to indicate that participants may not have generated unpredictable stimuli during imagery. Future investigation as to whether imagery improvements translate to sport-specific reactive tasks is needed.
When you watch your team fall apart - coaches' and sport psychologists' perceptions on causes of collective sport team collapse
- Authors: Wergin, Vanessa , Mallett, Clifford , Mesagno, Christopher , Zimanyi, Zsuzsanna , Beckmann, Jurgen
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Frontiers in Psychology Vol. 10, no. JUN (2019), p. 1-15
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Collective team collapse occurs when multiple players of a sport team experience a sudden and extreme underperformance within a game and are unable to return to their initial performance level. The occurrence of such a team collapse event commonly leads to the loss of the game or championship. A recent study investigated athletes' perceptions of the phenomenon and proposed a process model of causes of collective sport team collapse. The main goal of this study was to apply this process model to the data collected from coaches and sport psychologists. A further goal was to explore differences in perceptions of causes of team collapse among athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists of various professional German sport teams. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate seven coaches' and four sport psychologists' perceptions. Following an abductive approach, a deductive content analysis was used to explore if the data supported the process model of collective sport team collapse. Perceived antecedents and critical events causing team collapse were similar among the three participant groups. Coaches and sport psychologists differed from athletes in their perception of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes of team collapse. Coaches tended to report behavioral factors, such as immobility or the blaming of other players, as critical factors maintaining team collapse. Sport psychologists reported cognitive factors, such as individualization or a lack of accountability between the players, to be relevant for team collapse maintenance. Overall, the data of this study supported the general structure of the process model of collective sport team collapse; however, minor amendments to the temporal cascade of causes of team collapse are introduced. Future research is encouraged to examine this model, to provide guidance to teams, coaches, and sport psychologists in dealing with collective sport team collapse. The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01331/full#supplementary-material