right before the competition starts. They find comfort and confidence in this approach. I have also often met athletes who are superstitious. They believe that if they imagine adversity or problems, these problems are likely to occur, so they prefer not to. This is somewhat akin to not listening to the
Search Results
Dare to Prepare for Reality: Helping National Orienteering Team Athletes Handle Adversity
Kristoffer Henriksen
Longitudinal Analysis of Race-Management Strategies in a World-Class 200-m Freestyle Swimmer: A Case Study
Camille Loisel, Robin Pla, and Ludovic Seifert
influence it, such as the level of adversity, the level of competition (international [Int] or national [Nat] race), the performance (FINA points), or the type of race (heats, semifinals, or finals). The aim of this case study was to conduct a longitudinal analysis to investigate whether several race
Exploring Elite Athlete Experiences of Growth: Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Well-Being
Erin Howard-Cook and Karen Howells
identified the pandemic as an adversity ( Gupta & McCarthy, 2021 ). Adversity, defined as “negative life circumstances that are known to be statistically associated with adjustment difficulties” ( Luthar & Cicchetti, 2000 , p. 858), in this instance, involved elite athletes experiencing significant changes
Achievement Despite Adversity: A Qualitative Investigation of Undrafted National Hockey League Players
Jordan D. Herbison, Luc J. Martin, and Mustafa Sarkar
lack of clarity regarding certain concepts and constructs in the field ( Howells et al., 2017 ). For example, investigators have used the terms “stressors,” “adversity,” and “trauma” to describe a range of similar negative events or experiences (e.g., injury, poor performance) encountered by athletes
Sport Psychology Consultants’ Perspectives on Facilitating Sport-Injury-Related Growth
Ross Wadey, Kylie Roy-Davis, Lynne Evans, Karen Howells, Jade Salim, and Ceri Diss
in priorities, and/or a richer existential and spiritual awareness. Examining the application of this phenomenon in the context of sport, researchers have started to explore the potential for positive change following adversity in athletic samples (for a recent review, see Howells, Sarkar
Lifetime Stressor Exposure and Psychophysiological Reactivity and Habituation to Repeated Acute Social Stressors
Ella McLoughlin, Rachel Arnold, Paul Freeman, James E. Turner, Gareth A. Roberts, David Fletcher, George M. Slavich, and Lee J. Moore
acute stressor ( Lam et al., 2019 ). This study used the Stress and Adversity Inventory (Adult STRAIN; Slavich & Shields, 2018 ) to assess the frequency, exposure timing, duration, and severity of stressors over the entire life course. The results suggested that greater lifetime stressor exposure was
“Bouncing Back” from Adversity: Athletes’ Experiences of Resilience
Nick Galli and Robin S. Vealey
The purpose of this study was to explore athletes’ perceptions and experiences of resilience. Ten high-level athletes were interviewed regarding the most difficult adversities that they had ever had to overcome in sport. Richardson and colleagues’ (Richardson, Neiger, Jensen, & Kumpfer, 1990) resiliency model served as a guiding theoretical framework in the process of data collection and analysis. Inductive analysis (Patton, 2002; Thomas, 2006) was used to explore the data for key themes and patterns of relationships. Five general dimensions emerged that described the resilience experience of the athletes. These dimensions include breadth and duration, agitation, sociocultural influences, personal resources, and positive outcomes. A conceptual model of the resilience process as experienced by the athletes in this study is presented as a preliminary framework for future studies of resilience in sport.
Childhood Adversities and Socioeconomic Position as Predictors of Leisure-Time Physical Inactivity in Early Adulthood
Laura Kestilä, Tomi Mäki-Opas, Anton E Kunst, Katja Borodulin, Ossi Rahkonen, and Ritva Prättälä
Background:
Limited knowledge exists on how childhood social, health-related and economic circumstances predict adult physical inactivity. Our aim was a) to examine how various childhood adversities and living conditions predict leisure-time physical inactivity in early adulthood and b) to find out whether these associations are mediated through the respondent’s own education.
Methods:
Young adults aged 18−29 were used from the Health 2000 Study of the Finnish. The cross-sectional data were based on interviews and questionnaires including retrospective information on childhood circumstances. The analyses were carried out on 68% of the original sample (N = 1894). The outcome measure was leisure-time physical inactivity.
Results:
Only a few of the 11 childhood adversities were related with physical activity in early adulthood. Having been bullied at school was associated with physical inactivity independently of the other childhood circumstances and the respondent’s own education. Low parental education predicted leisure-time physical inactivity in men and the association was mediated by the respondent´s own education. Respondents with only primary or vocational education were more likely to be physically inactive during leisure-time compared with those with secondary or higher education.
Conclusions:
There is some evidence that few specific childhood adversities, especially bullying at school, have long-lasting effects on physical activity levels.
