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This study highlights how sport psychology professionals can assist sport administrators in evaluating and strengthening youth sport programs. A sport psychology research team provided expertise to two sport administrators to develop a survey to examine their athletes’ experiences participating in the programs. The study examines the relationship between athletes’ perceptions of the climate (caring, task, and ego involving) to their intrinsic motivation, caring behaviors, and future intention to participate in the sport. Volleyball clinic (Sample 1: N = 71) and basketball summer camp (Sample 2: N = 138) participants completed the survey. Canonical correlation analyses for each sample revealed one significant function indicating that the athletes’ perceptions of a caring/task-involving climate, along with low perceptions of an ego-involving climate, were associated with higher levels of intrinsic motivation, caring behaviors, and future desire to participate. Sport administrators can use this information for coach training, parent education and overall program evaluation.

Internationally, very little research has been done into peer aggression and victimization in sports clubs. For this exploratory study, 98 coaches from various sports were interviewed in depth about their views on peer aggression and victimization and their ways of handling these issues. To put the coaches’ views and practices in perspective, they were contrasted with those of a reference group of 96 elementary school teachers and analyzed qualitatively. The interviews demonstrated that sports coaches currently were unaware of the construct of peer aggression, were unable to estimate the actual extent of peer aggression and victimization at their clubs, and were likely to overestimate their own impact, control, and effectiveness in handling the issue. This study underlines the need for coaches to develop their skills in recognizing and handling peer aggression and victimization and the need to develop sports-club-specific observation instruments and peer aggression programs.

Research has indicated positive effects of mindfulness training as a performance-based intervention and of yoga on mindfulness. This study examined the effects of a 10-week yoga intervention on mindfulness and dispositional flow of elite youth swimmers using a mixed methods design. No significant changes in mindfulness and dispositional flow were identified. Qualitative data suggested that the 10-week yoga intervention had a positive impact on a range of physiological, cognitive, and performance parameters that included elements of mindfulness and flow. Methodological considerations for future research are discussed.

In response to the recent literature regarding the development of applied sport psychologists’ service philosophies (Lindsay, Breckon, Thomas, & Maynard, 2007), three neophyte psychologists take an autoethnographical approach to detailing how they developed their current philosophies. Using vignettes and personal accounts of their experiences they describe how reflection on their beliefs and values about people, behavior, sport, and change has underpinned their development as practitioners. The three authors detail how their delivery has developed from an approach that initially relied heavily on one framework into a more client-led approach that is more congruent with their beliefs and how this has in turn enhanced their effectiveness as practitioners. The implications of this reflective process for other neophytes is explored in relation to the experiences of the three authors.

The present study explored the relationship of neurocognitive performance and symptoms to coping responses at 3 and 8 days postconcussion. A total of 104 concussed athletes (M = 16.41, SD = 2.19 years) completed the Immediate Post Concussion Assessment Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) at baseline and the ImPACT and Brief Cope inventory at 3 and 8 days postconcussion. Concussed athletes reported more frequent use of selfdistraction, behavioral disengagement, religion, and self-blame 3 days postconcussion compared with 8 days. Concussed athletes reported more use of avoidance coping at 3 days than 8 days (Wilks’s Lambda =.95, F [1, 100] =4.71, p = .032, η²=.046) post-injury. Total symptoms were also a significant (p = .001) predictor of avoidance coping 3 days postconcussion and decreased visual memory was associated with increased avoidance coping (p = .03) 8 days post-injury. Time since injury likely impacts neurocognitive performance, symptomology, and coping. Clinicians should be aware of higher reported symptoms early and lingering visual memory deficits 1-week post-injury.

This study examined whether adolescent athletes’ levels of sport burnout would be predicted by their level and type of both passion and athletic identity. Female high-school-aged athletes (N = 186) completed a series of questionnaires to measure study variables. The results of three hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that athletes’ levels of harmonious passion served as negative predictors for all three dimensions of burnout, while obsessive passion positively predicted scores only on the exhaustion subscale. In addition, the subdimensions of athletic identity contributed a unique amount to the prediction of some aspects of burnout. These results indicate that both passion and athletic identity are important correlates or predictors of burnout levels, with harmonious passion offering the most protective effects.

The following study explored coaching behaviors and youth coaches’ justifications for their actions by comparing more effective and less effective coaches from an underserved setting. Reasons for their coaching behaviors were also explored. In-depth interviews and ethnographic observations were conducted with 12 coaches from 6 different youth sports. Support for each theme from the analysis was compared between the 6 more effective and 6 less effective coaches. Less effective coaches tried to create a sense of family within the team, but used very negative, militaristic coaching strategies that were not developmentally appropriate. Less effective coaches justified the negative approach because of the perceived dangers in the inner city and attempted to toughen their players through harsher methods. More effective coaches challenged players while being supportive, attempted to develop close relationships along with a positive team climate, and promoted autonomy and the transfer of life skills from sport to life. More effective coaches appeared to be more open to coach training and others’ ideas—they could be described as lifelong learners. The results from this study not only reveal how more and less effective coaches differ, but provide possible insight as to why they differ. The study provides unique insights for researchers and coaching educators interested in particularly underserved settings and in developing less effective coaches.