Women Athletes' Personal Responses to Sexual Harassment in Sport

The examination of sexual harassment in sport has become an active research field within the past two decades. It is especially important for sport psychology consultants to understand this issue because they have professional opportunities to influence both individual and organizational responses to it. This article uses interview data from an investigation of sexual harassment in sport to examine the personal responses of 25 elite female athletes to their experiences of sexual harassment. The athletes reacted with disgust, fear, irritation, and anger when the sexually harassing incidents occurred. They also demonstrated individual, internally focused responses to the harassment rather than collective, externally focused ones. This suggests that sport organizations have much work to do on both education and organizational change if sexual harassment is to be challenged and eradicated. The findings also indicate that sport psychology consultants have a role to play in equipping athletes with the necessary skills to avert or confront sexual harassment in sport.     

Measures of Mentoring,Department Climate,and Graduate Student Preparedness in the Responsible Conduct of Psychological Research

Drawing upon two independent national samples of 201 and 241 psychology graduate students, this article describes the development and psychometric evaluation of 4 Web-based student self-report scales tapping student socialization in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) with human participants. The Mentoring the Responsible Conduct of Research Scale (MRCR) is composed of 2 subscales assessing RCR instruction and modeling by research mentors. The 2 subscales of the RCR Department Climate Scale (RCR-DC) assess RCR department policies and faculty and student RCR practices. The RCR Preparedness scale (RCR-P) and the RCR Field Integrity scale (RCR-FI) measure respectively students' confidence in their ability to conduct research responsibly and their belief in the RCR integrity of psychology as a discipline. Factor analysis, coefficient alphas, correlations, and multiple regression analyses demonstrated each of the scales had good internal consistency and concurrent and construct validity.     

Gender Agreement in the Processing of Spoken French

The two experiments presented in this paper tested the effects of gender agreement on lexical decisions by presenting grammatically congruent and incongruent noun phrases in different context-target combinations. In the first experiment, a condition in which the target noun was directly preceded by a gender-marked determiner was contrasted with a condition in which an invariable adjective intervened between the determiner and the target. In the second experiment we compared the effects of gender marking in the latter condition with a condition in which both the determiner and the intervening adjective carried an overt gender mark. It was shown first, that lexical decision times to target nouns were longer for incongruent context-target combinations than for a congruent baseline condition. Second, the magnitude of the congruency effect was stronger when the target noun was preceded by a determiner plus an invariable adjective than by a determiner only. Third, the magnitude of the effect did not vary according to whether or not the intervening adjective carried a phonetically realized mark of gender. These results are discussed in terms of the automaticity of syntactic processes, and the crucial role of determiners in setting agreement features for the entire noun phrase when processing languages such as French.     

Predictors of Secondary School Completion Among Refugee Youth 8 to 9 Years After Resettlement in Melbourne,Australia

Being able to attend school and achieve an education is one of the most desired opportunities among resettled refugee young people. However, turning educational aspirations into reality is not straightforward. There is a large body of research documenting the barriers associated with educational achievement among refugees who resettle as teenagers, both in Australia and internationally. No studies, however, have identified the factors that predict completion of secondary school among resettled refugee youth over time. This paper reports the predictors of completion of secondary school among a cohort of 47 refugee youth resettled in Melbourne, Australia. Eight to 9 years after resettlement, 29 (62 %) had completed secondary school and 18 (38 %) had left school prior to completing year 12. Age on arrival and experiences of discrimination in Australia were significant predictors of secondary school completion. Older refugee youth (on arrival) and those who reported experiences of discrimination over the first 8 to 9 years in Australia were significantly less likely to complete secondary school. This longitudinal study confirms that, as a group, refugee youth are particularly at risk of not completing secondary school education, which can have an impact on their wellbeing and long-term socio-economic standing in their settlement country. Our study provides further evidence of the negative impact of discrimination on the educational outcomes of disadvantaged young people.     

Sharpen Your Pencils: Preliminary Evidence that Adult Coloring Reduces Depressive Symptoms and Anxiety

Adult coloring books have flooded the market with titles alluding to therapeutic value, yet it is unclear whether they fulfil that promise. Here, we tested whether adult coloring was related to improvements in psychological outcomes. Female university students (n = 104) were randomly assigned to a coloring intervention or a logic-puzzle control group. Participants completed an inventory of psychological measures (depressive symptoms, stress, anxiety, flourishing, resilience, mindfulness) and then participated in a 1-week intervention of either daily coloring or logic-puzzles. Following the intervention, participants again completed the inventory of psychological measures. Coloring participants showed significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms and anxiety after the intervention, but control participants did not. We conclude that daily coloring can improve some negative psychological outcomes and that it may provide an effective, inexpensive, and highly accessible self-help tool for nonclinical samples.     

Efficacy of written modeling and vicarious reinforcement in increasing use of problem-solving methods by distressed individuals

The authors evaluated an application of social cognitive theory principles intended to increase adherence to a problem-solving intervention. The study included 132 adult volunteers who wanted to reduce their distress levels. All participants received group training in problem-solving methods. Before attempting to solve at least 1 distressing problem in their lives over the next 3 weeks, participants were randomly assigned to either (a) a modeling with vicarious reinforcement condition in which they received 3 personal anecdotes written by individuals who had successfully applied problem-solving methods to a real problem or (b) a control condition in which they received a fact sheet about problem solving. Word counts of problem-solving writing, self-reports of adherence, and observer ratings of adherence showed that participants in the vicarious reinforcement condition demonstrated significantly higher adherence than did those in the control condition. These results provide support for the effectiveness of symbolic modeling and vicarious reinforcement in increasing adherence to problem-solving methods by individuals who want to decrease their distress.