Athlete Lifestyle Support of Elite Youth Cricketers: An Ethnography of Player Concerns Within a National Talent Development Program

The 15-month ethnography reported here investigated the culturally and contextually relevant lifestyle concerns for which national-level youth cricketers seek support and the personal meanings ascribed to them. Players discussed lifestyle challenges and support, with five themes emerging: (a) players appreciating lifestyle support, (b) adapting to the new environment, (c) managing competing demands, (d) educational choices and professional contracts, and (e) identity negotiation in critical moments. The challenges impacted players' sense of self, well-being, and ultimately performance. The findings suggest lifestyle practitioners should support players through counseling approaches, strong player relationships, and environment immersion with a view to impacting performance.     

Self-care for academics: a poetic invitation to reflect and resist

In newspapers and blogs, on Twitter, and in academic papers, stories of struggling academics abound. Substance abuse, depression, failed relationships, and chronic illness are the casualties of a neoliberal university sector that values quantity over quality and demands ever more for ever less. Within the academic literature a growing counter-movement has called for resistance, collective action, and slow scholarship. Much of this work, however, has focused on strategies that can be applied within academia. Little has been written about the activities that academics do outside the university; activities that have no purpose other than enjoyment, rest, and renewal; activities that represent the valuing of the self as a human being, rather than a means of production; activities that could best be defined as self-care. Using reflective practice to construct a poem comprising three voices, this paper explores those activities. This poetic representation is an effort to create time and space for the authors, and a manifesto to encourage other academics to demand and protect the time, space, and reflective practice that are essential to both personal wellbeing and quality research and education.     

The Gender Difference in the Association Between Early Onset of Drinking and Problem Drinking Between the U.S. and Japan

Using comparable survey data from the GENACIS Project, collected from representative samples of people aged 20 to 70 years old in the U.S. (n = 2,598) and Japan (n = 1,734), this study examined, across these two diverse societies, the gender difference in the association between the early onset of drinking and the development of drinking problems. The results of this study suggest that there does not appear to be a cross-national causal relationship between the early onset of drinking and problem drinking because of significant country and gender variations in this association and because there is no association found among Japanese females. As hypothesized, the early onset of drinking predicted problem drinking among males more strongly than among females in both countries.     

Maternal Executive Functioning and Scaffolding in Families of Children with and without Parent-Reported ADHD

Parental scaffolding robustly predicts child developmental outcomes, including improved self-regulation and peer relationships and fewer externalizing behaviors. However, few studies have examined parental characteristics associated with a parent’s ability to scaffold. Executive functioning (EF) may be an important individual difference factor associated with maternal scaffolding that has yet to be examined empirically. Scaffolding may be particularly important for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) symptoms due to their core difficulties with inattention, disorganization, EF, and self-regulation, their need for greater parental structure, and higher-than-average rates of parental EF deficits. Yet, little research has examined child ADHD in relation to parental scaffolding. This cross-sectional study examined: (1) the association between maternal EF (as measured by the Hotel Test, Barkley’s Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale, and Digit Span) and observed scaffolding, (2) the association between parent-reported child ADHD/DBD symptoms and scaffolding, and (3) the interaction between child ADHD/DBD symptoms and maternal EF in predicting scaffolding. In a sample of 84 mothers and their 5–10 year-old biological children (62% male) with and without parent-reported ADHD, we found that maternal EF, as measured by Digit Span and the Hotel Test, predicted observed maternal scaffolding. However, child ADHD/DBD symptoms did not significantly predict maternal scaffolding controlling for child age, maternal education, and maternal EF, nor did the interaction of maternal EF and parent-reported child ADHD/DBD symptoms. Working memory and task shifting may be key components of parental EF that could be targeted in interventions to improve parental scaffolding.     

深谋远虑:前瞻行为研究的回顾与展望

前瞻行为是一个自我发起、未来导向以及试图改变现状的积极行为,能够为个人与组织带来正面的影响.本文旨于回顾前瞻行为的本质、前导因素、动机历程以及结果效应,也特别回顾笔者近期针对前瞻行为所进行的研究.首先,关于前瞻一词可以从不同的角度进行理解,包括个别差异观点、行为观点与历程观点.由于过去文献多从行为观点进行研究,本文的回顾亦以行为观点为主轴.其次,本文逐一回顾目前文献所提出的三个关于促进前瞻行为的动机历程:能力、缘由与情绪.再者,笔者讨论各种能够促发前瞻行为的前导因素,包括个人因素、环境因素,以及两者间的交互作用如何影响前瞻行为的展现.笔者也基于过去的研究发现,总结前瞻行为所能导致的结果,包括工作态度与绩效.最后,在近期研究的介绍中,笔者介绍了三个根据个别差异的观点所进行的研究.此研究路线旨在了解人格特质对前瞻行为的影响,并且勾勒情境所扮演的调节效应.全文最终总结前瞻行为的研究现状,以及提出未来可能探索的研究方向.     

The Ukrainian orthodox question in the USSR

Abstract

This research compares the treatment of religion, especially minority faiths, by constitutional courts in Russia and Hungary, with the goal of testing an assumption in the literature that such courts in former communist countries protect human and civil rights, including religious freedom. We found that the ability of constitutional courts to fulfil this function depends on the degree of their independence from governments, with the Hungarian Constitutional Court having offered more effective protection for minority religions than its counterpart in Russia. This outcome in Russia has led minority religions to seek redress with the European Court of Human Rights, where they have experienced considerable success.     

Book Review

Abstract

Berg, I.A. (1993) Memory rehabilitation for closed-head injured patients. Groningen: University of Groningen. xii + 178pp. ISBN 90-9006642-X (pbk). £15.00/$25.00.     

Psychological support needs of patients with head and neck cancer and their caregivers: A qualitative study

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the psychological support needs of patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) and their caregivers. The appropriate timing, length, format and content of sessions were also investigated.

Design: Eighty-three patients with HNC and 73 of their caregivers completed questionnaires at diagnosis. Follow-up questionnaires were mailed to patients six months later.

Main outcome measures: Free text-comments to open-ended questions in the questionnaires were analysed using an inductive thematic approach with coding and theme development directed by the content of responses. This was used to determine psychological support needs both at diagnosis and at six month follow-up.

Results: Patients described ‘just being there’, empathy, maintaining normality and practical support as helpful from family/friends. They desired information, honesty, positivity and empathy from clinical staff. Formal psychological support was desired by approximately 40% of patients and caregivers, particularly early after diagnosis and during treatment. Most participants desired face to face sessions, providing individualised information and coping strategies.

Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that psychological interventions for patients with HNC and their caregivers should be delivered early after diagnosis in face to face sessions, presenting honest and factual information about the disease and coping strategies.     

Gender,sexual orientation,and disordered eating

Abstract

While most patients with bulimia nervosa are heterosexual women, a significant number of men with bulimia nervosa are gay males, suggesting that gay men, more than heterosexual men, may be at risk for developing eating disorders. This study compared the food-related attitudes and behaviors of heterosexual men and women in contrast with those of lesbians and gay men, attempting to find whether one's sexual orientation may contribute to differential risk. Two thousand employees were randomly selected from a large health care corporation, of whom 805 returned a completed questionnaire including Stunkard and Messick's (1985) Dietary Restraint and Disinhibition Scales. A stratified random sample was drawn to include demographically comparable groups of 25 lesbians, 50 gay men, 75 heterosexual women, and 75 heterosexual men. Women were less satisfied with their appearance at their present weight and expressed more restraint and more negative feelings after bingeing than did men. Heterosexual women were most dissatisfied with their weight, although heterosexual men were more objectively overweight. Gay men and heterosexual women were similar in disordered eating patterns and disinhibition, contrasting with lesbians and heterosexual men.