The Development of Motor Creativity in Elementary School Children and Its Retention

ABSTRACT

This article presents a follow-up study regarding whether motor creativity, developed in 3rd-grade children nine 9 years ago with the implementation of a special physical education program, has been retained. It was found that the experimental group continued to show statistically significant superiority in motor creativity. These follow-up findings can be considered far more important than the original ones, because they reveal that if motor creativity is developed in a child, it remains active for a long time, potentially the rest of his or her life, with all the subsequent advantages.     

Discriminative facility in the face of threat: Relationship to psychological distress

Abstract

This study explored whether discriminative facility in dealing with threatening situations is negatively associated with distress. Discriminative facility entails the ability to (1) “accurately” appraise the controllability of stressors and (2) use more problem-focused relative to emotion-focused coping with controllable stressors and at the same time more emotion-focused relative to problem-focused coping with uncontrollable stressors. We conducted a preliminary study to obtain “accurate” appraisals of the controllability of two stressors. In the main study, college students (N = 109) provided information regarding their appraisal of the controllability of the two stressors, how they coped with these two stressors, and their level of both stressor-specific distress and general distress. The relationship between coping strategy (problem- vs emotion-focused) and stressor-specific distress was found to be a function of the controllability of the stressor. Specifically, with controllable stressors, the high use of problem-focused coping was associated with less distress than the high use of emotion-focused coping. The opposite was found to be the case with uncontrollable stressors. More importantly, discriminative facility was negatively related to general distress. The results suggest that discriminative facility in the appraisal of and coping with stressors is an important mediator in the experience of psychological symptoms as a result of stress.     

Enhanced counselling for women undergoing BRCA1/2 testing: Impact on knowledge and psychological distress–results from a randomised clinical trial

This randomised controlled trial evaluated the impact of an enhanced counselling (EC) intervention on knowledge about the heritability of breast and ovarian cancer and distress, as a function of BRCA test result, among high-risk women. Before deciding about whether or not to undergo genetic testing, participants were randomly assigned to the EC intervention (N = 69), designed to promote cognitive and affective processing of cancer risk information (following the standard individualised counselling session), or to the control condition (N = 65), which involved standard individualised counselling followed by a general health information session to control for time and attention. Women in the EC group exhibited greater knowledge than women in the control group, 1 week after the intervention. Further, at the affective level, the intervention was found to be the most beneficial for women testing positive: specifically 1 week after test result disclosure, women in the intervention group who tested positive experienced lower levels of distress than women in the control group who tested positive. The findings suggest that the design of counselling aids should include a component that explicitly activates the individual's cognitive–affective processing system.     

Discriminative Facility in Perceptions of Control and Its Relation to Psychological Distress

This study explored the relationship between discriminative facility and distress. Individuals high in discriminative facility were characterized by high perceptions of primary control and high use of problem- relative to emotion-focused coping with controllable stressors and by low perceptions of primary control, high perceptions of compensatory control, and low use of problem- to emotion-focused coping with uncontrollable stressors. Participants provided information regarding their perceptions of control (control over outcome and control over one's feelings), how they coped, and their level of stressor-specific distress with three stressors, which varied in degree of controllability. They also provided information regarding their level of general distress. Problem-focused coping was found to be adaptive with the two most controllable stressors, but more so when perceptions of primary control were high. Control over one's feelings was helpful with all three stressors, but more so for individuals who had low perceptions of primary control. Finally, individuals high in discriminative facility were found to experience less distress than individuals low in discriminative facility.     

Motor Creativity and Self-Concept

Creative children often have difficulty in forming their self-concept because parents may suppress their creative ideas. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between motor creativity and self-concept. Wyrick's Motor Creativity Test and the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children were administered to a sample of 414 children aged from 6 ± 0.3 years to 7 ± 0.3 years. Factor analysis for the self-concept measures revealed a 4-factor solution. The amount of variance explained by all 4 factors was 30.28% with the first factor explaining most of the variance (18.2%). Correlation analysis related motor creativity with the self-concept factors, and specifically with the first factor. It seems that perceived maternal acceptance has a significant role in explaining children's motor creativity.     

Identification of cognitive profiles among women considering BRCA1/2 testing through the utilisation of cluster analytic techniques

Based on the cognitive-social health information processing model, we identified cognitive profiles of women at risk for breast and ovarian cancer. Prior to genetic counselling, participants (N?=?171) completed a study questionnaire concerning their cognitive and affective responses to being at genetic risk. Using cluster analysis, four cognitive profiles were generated: (a) high perceived risk/low coping; (b) low value of screening/high expectancy of cancer; (c) moderate perceived risk/moderate efficacy of prevention/low informativeness of test result; and (d) high efficacy of prevention/high coping. The majority of women in Clusters One, Two and Three had no personal history of cancer, whereas Cluster Four consisted almost entirely of women affected with cancer. Women in Cluster One had the highest number of affected relatives and experienced higher levels of distress than women in the other three clusters. These results highlight the need to consider the psychological profile of women undergoing genetic testing when designing counselling interventions and messages.     

Identification of cognitive profiles among women considering BRCA1/2 testing through the utilisation of cluster analytic techniques

Based on the cognitive-social health information processing model, we identified cognitive profiles of women at risk for breast and ovarian cancer. Prior to genetic counselling, participants (N = 171) completed a study questionnaire concerning their cognitive and affective responses to being at genetic risk. Using cluster analysis, four cognitive profiles were generated: (a) high perceived risk/low coping; (b) low value of screening/high expectancy of cancer; (c) moderate perceived risk/moderate efficacy of prevention/low informativeness of test result; and (d) high efficacy of prevention/high coping. The majority of women in Clusters One, Two and Three had no personal history of cancer, whereas Cluster Four consisted almost entirely of women affected with cancer. Women in Cluster One had the highest number of affected relatives and experienced higher levels of distress than women in the other three clusters. These results highlight the need to consider the psychological profile of women undergoing genetic testing when designing counselling interventions and messages.