“You have to be mental to jump off a board any way”: Elite divers' conceptualizations and perceptions of mental health

ObjectivesMental health research in elite sport focuses predominantly on mental illness prevalence rates and help-seeking behaviours. Diving has been identified as a sport that generates particular challenges for maintaining mental health, yet has received scant attention from researchers. Therefore, purpose this paper explores what mental health and mental health related behaviours mean for a group of young, elite athletes as conditioned by their peculiar social context as elite athletes.MethodSemi-structured interviews were conducted with purposely sampled eight elite divers aged between 14 and 24 years with between 5 and 16 years of diving experience who have competed in international level diving competitions including Olympic, Common Wealth and World Cup competitions. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis.ResultsAnalysis identified mental health literacy, experiences of mental health, risk factors, and opportunities for support as themes. Mental health generated negative connotations for participants attributable to knowledge development occurring through personal and vicarious experience of mental illness. Limited knowledge of symptoms of mental illnesses was evident. Participants identified a range of risk-factors inherent in their sport performance and culture revealing a performative and gendered dimension to mental health.ConclusionsOur results indicate the need to recognize the performative nature of mental health for elite divers and therefore social and cultural influences alongside biophysical. Greater efforts need to be made to help improve the overall mental health literacy of elite divers so they may be able to seek the support and treatment they need.     

Exercise attitudes and behaviours among retired female collegiate athletes

ObjectivesThe present study explored exercise attitudes and behaviours among retired female collegiate athletes.DesignA survey design incorporating both closed and open-ended questions was adopted.MethodA total of 218 former NCAA Division I female athletes (n = 144 gymnastics; n = 74 swimming/diving) provided details on their current exercise behaviours and their thoughts regarding exercise since retiring from collegiate sport.ResultsNo relations were found between years since retirement and athletes’ current exercise frequency, types of exercise activities, and reasons for exercising. Despite reporting activity levels consistent with recommendations (5 days/week, 1 h per session), retired athletes remained dissatisfied with their activity levels and struggled to integrate exercise alongside occupational, academic and social demands.ConclusionsAthletes may require support in adapting to an independent and less intense exercise regime on retirement. Future research may look to explore exercise attitudes and behaviours among retired athletes from a longitudinal perspective.     

Reciprocal effects of motivation in physical education and self-reported physical activity

ObjectivesThe present study tested whether self-reported school and leisure-time physical activity have a reciprocal relationship with Physical Education (PE)-based motivational regulations described by self-determination theory. Participants were 635 11- and 12-year-old school children from the United Kingdom.Design & MethodA cross-lagged longitudinal design over two time points was employed. Study hypotheses were analyzed using latent factor reciprocal effects models.ResultsFollowing temporal invariance tests, data revealed positive relationships between both types of physical activity and subsequent changes in autonomous motivation, but not the oft-stated reverse relationship. No relationships were observed involving introjected regulation. Theoretically aligned relationships between external regulation and changes in physical activity were observed, but no reverse relationships. Both types of physical activity behavior were negatively associated with changes in amotivation in PE, but surprisingly, amotivation in PE positively predicted changes in leisure-time physical activity.ConclusionsIn general, physical activity participation may help children internalize reasons for partaking in PE and foster self-determination. However, the widespread theory that self-determined PE motives can develop school and leisure-time physical activity participation was not compellingly demonstrated.     

Convergence between measures of work-to-family and family-to-work conflict: A meta-analytic examination

The overlap between measures of work-to-family (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC) was meta-analytically investigated. Researchers have assumed WFC and FWC to be distinct, however, this assumption requires empirical verification. Across 25 independent samples (total N = 9079) the sample size weighted mean observed correlation was .38 and the reliability corrected correlation was .48. The pattern of external correlates for the two types of conflict was also examined. Both forms of conflict had similar (.41) reliability corrected correlations with measures of organizational withdrawal. WFC conflict correlated .41 (k =  15, N = 4714) with job stressors and .17 (k = 13, N = 3312) with non-work stressors whereas FWC conflict correlated .27 with job stressors and .23 with non-work stressors. Correlations between the two forms of work/family conflict and other variables such as organizational commitment, job and life satisfaction, and health were examined. Implications for the discriminant validity of the two types of conflict measures are discussed.     

Time‐limited therapy in a Community Mental Health Team setting

This study examines time‐limited therapy in a Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) setting. This work is a key tension for CMHTs who are under pressure to focus on clients with a serious mental illness as a priority as opposed to clients who might be deemed the ‘psychologically distressed’. The development of CMHTs in the UK is described. Limited research on time‐limited therapy in a CMHT setting is identified. Results suggest that time‐limited therapy has a positive impact on the mental health needs of clients referred to a CMHT by GPs. It is concluded that it is appropriate to justify the use of time‐limited therapy in a CMHT‐based setting. Suggestions for further research are made.     

国外临床决策研究进展（上）

2004年～2010年国际医学决策学会年会,提出许多与临床相关的决策问题,其中包括健康经济学与成本效益分析,临床方法学研究进展,医患双方的临床决策选择,公共卫生服务研究和诊疗策略的关系,临床策略与治疗指南,高新技术与适宜技术等。本文就以上问题,尤其是临床决策研究热点,对国外临床决策研究进展进行总结、探讨和评价,为临床应...     

Self in time and language

Time has been considered a crucial factor in distinguishing between two levels of self-awareness: the “core,” or “minimal self,” and the “extended,” or “narrative self.” Herein, I focus on this last concept of the self and, in particular, on the relationship between the narrative self and language. In opposition to the claim that the narrative self is a linguistic construction, my idea is that it is created by the functioning of mental time travel, that is, the faculty of human beings to project themselves mentally backwards in time to relive, or forward to anticipate, events. Moreover, I propose that narrative language itself should be considered a product of a core brain network that includes mechanisms, such as mental time travel, mindreading, and visuo-spatial systems.     

Why do children lack the flexibility to innovate tools?

Despite being proficient tool users, young children have surprising difficulty in innovating tools (making novel tools to solve problems). Two experiments found that 4- to 7-year-olds had difficulty on two tool innovation problems and explored reasons for this inflexibility. Experiment 1 (N = 51) showed that children’s performance was unaffected by the need to switch away from previously correct strategies. Experiment 2 (N = 92) suggested that children’s difficulty could not easily be explained by task pragmatics or permission issues. Both experiments found evidence that some children perseverated on a single incorrect strategy, but such perseveration was insufficient to explain children’s tendency not to innovate tools. We suggest that children’s difficulty lies not with switching, task pragmatics, or behavioral perseveration but rather with solving the fundamentally “ill-structured” nature of tool innovation problems.     

Changing your mind about things unseen: Toddlers' sensitivity to prior reliability

The goal of this research was to investigate the extent to which young children use the past reliability of another person’s statements to make inferences about the accuracy of that person’s claims about a hidden toy. When children interacted with a previously reliable speaker, both 30- and 36-month-olds searched in the new location of the toy, in line with the speaker’s statement. When children interacted with an unreliable speaker, the 36-month-olds were less likely to rely on her false statement and instead searched either in the original location of the toy or in a neutral location. The 30-month-olds, however, searched in the location indicated by the speaker even when the speaker was unreliable. These results show that by 36 months of age, children begin to use reliability in processing a speaker’s episodic claims and can flexibly update their representations of absent objects depending on the reliability of the speaker.