Parent coaching at 6 and 10 months improves language outcomes at 14 months: A randomized controlled trial

Previous studies reveal an association between particular features of parental language input and advances in children's language learning. However, it is not known whether parent coaching aimed to enhance specific input components would (a) successfully increase these components in parents' language input and (b) result in concurrent increases in children's language development. The present randomized controlled trial assigned families of typically developing 6‐month‐old infants to Intervention (parent coaching) and Control (no coaching) groups. Families were equivalent on socioeconomic status, infants' gender, and infants' age. Parent coaching took place when infants were 6 and 10 months of age, and included quantitative and qualitative linguistic feedback on the amount of child‐directed speech, back‐and‐forth interactions, and parentese speech style. These variables were derived from each family's first‐person LENA recordings at home. Input variables and infant language were measured at 6, 10, and 14 months. Parent coaching significantly enhanced language input as measured by two social interaction variables: percentage of speech directed to the child and percentage of parentese speech. These two variables were correlated, and were both related to growth in infant babbling between 6 and 14 months. Intervention infants showed greater growth in babbling than Control infants. Furthermore, at 14 months, Intervention infants produced significantly more words than Control infants, as indicated by LENA recordings and parent report via the MacArthur‐Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory. Together, these results indicate that parent coaching can enrich specific aspects of parental language input, and can immediately and positively impact child language outcomes. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/7wqR28gPiwo     

From Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) to Cognitive Behaviour Coaching (CBC)

This article focuses on how the principles and practice of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) can be adapted to the field of coaching to become cognitive behaviour coaching (CBC) and the current empirical status of CBC is discussed. The centrepiece of CBC practice is the ABCDE model of identifying psychological blocks and their removal. Typical tools and techniques used in CBC are outlined and ten key questions to ask in coaching are advanced. What CBC can offer coaches is discussed and, finally, suggestions are made to point out when coaching should really be counselling.     

Using video docuseries to explore male professional football head coaches’ well-being experiences throughout a season

Football coaches have disclosed how their work environment is unpredictable and demanding, comprising a multitude of stressors which can impede well-being. Additionally, the masculine culture within football often promotes suppression of voice, causing internalisation of thoughts and isolation. Due to professional football head coaches being a seldom-heard group, little is known about how they experience well-being within their given context (i.e., ecological niche). The present study utilised football docuseries and a bioecological framework to explore how four male professional head coaches experienced well-being whilst working in one of the top European football leagues (Premier League, La Liga). Four docuseries were sampled and resulted in the analysis of 31 episodes (M^duration = 46.6 min, SD = 4.5 min). The study implemented an adapted interpretative phenomenological analysis approach to illuminate convergences and divergences in contextual accounts. These accounts resulted in five group experiential themes: ‘I belong to the game’; ‘he belongs to the game’; ‘you need the right people around you’; ‘it’s difficult to describe the manager without describing the person’; and ‘people are trying to stab you’. The findings indicate that football coaches may experience identity conflicts and become deeply absorbed in their work. This impacts not only their well-being but also their family’s, who they often turn to for social support. Consequently, by unveiling nuanced challenges to coaches’ well-being, organisations may be better informed to offer more aligned and bespoke well-being support systems.     

Lessons Learned: Providing Supportive Accountability in an Online Anxiety Intervention

Technology-delivered interventions have the potential to help address the treatment gap in mental health care but are plagued by high attrition. Adding coaching, or minimal contact with a nonspecialist provider, may encourage engagement and decrease dropout, while remaining scalable. Coaching has been studied in interventions for various mental health conditions but has not yet been tested with anxious samples. This study describes the development of and reactions to a low-intensity coaching protocol administered to N = 282 anxious adults identified as high risk to drop out of a web-based cognitive bias modification for interpretation intervention. Undergraduate research assistants were trained as coaches and communicated with participants via phone calls and synchronous text messaging. About half of the sample never responded to coaches’ attempts to schedule an initial phone call or did not answer the call, though about 30% completed the full intervention with their coach. Some anxious adults may choose technology-delivered interventions specifically for their lack of human contact and may fear talking to strangers on the phone; future recommendations include taking a more intensive user-centered design approach to creating and implementing a coaching protocol, allowing coaching support to be optional, and providing users with more information about how and why the intervention works.     

Beyond Smiling: The Evaluation of a Positive Psychological Intervention Aimed at Student Happiness

The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a positive psychological intervention (PPI) aimed at increasing happiness of students in a tertiary educational institution. A convenience sample (n = 20) was drawn from the entire population of academic third year students in the field of Industrial/Organisational psychology (n = 109). The majority of the participants were Sesotho speaking (45%), black (95%), female (90%), and 21 years of age (45%). A single group pre-, post-, and post-post-test design was used. The PPI stretched across eight months and was presented in two phases: (a) a three day self-development workshop and (b) six sessions of individual coaching. The intervention focused on facilitating development on two levels, namely a psychological (engagement, meaning, person-environment fit, autonomy, competence, relatedness and authenticity), and emotional (pleasure, affect balance and life satisfaction) level. Data were collected using the Satisfaction with Life Scale, Positive and Negative Affect Scale, Orientations to Happiness Questionnaire, Basic Psychological Needs Scale, the Authentic Self Inventory and Person-Environment Fit scale. The results indicated that the overall happiness of a student increased through developing individuals on both an emotional and psychological level. The PPI affected all the aspects conceptualised in this study, except for two components of authenticity. Therefore, a multi-dimensional approach towards PPIs aimed at happiness of students in a tertiary educational environment may contribute to happy students.     

Cognitive-behavioral,solution-focused life coaching: Enhancing goal striving,well-being,and hope

Research is in its infancy in the newly emerging field of coaching psychology. This study examined the effects of a 10-week cognitive-behavioral, solution-focused life coaching group programme. Participants were randomly allocated to a life coaching group programme (n =?28) or a waitlist control group (n =?28). Participation in the life coaching group programme was associated with significant increases in goal striving, well-being and hope, with gains maintained up to 30 weeks later on some variables. Hope theory may explain such positive outcomes. Life coaching programmes that utilize evidence-based techniques may provide a framework for further research on psychological processes that occur in non-clinical populations who wish to make purposeful change and enhance their positive psychological functioning.     

Executive coaching enhances goal attainment,resilience and workplace well-being: a randomised controlled study

In a randomised controlled study, 41 executives in a public health agency received 360-degree feedback, a half-day leadership workshop, and four individual coaching sessions over 10 weeks. The coaching used a cognitive-behavioural solution-focused approach. Quantitative and qualitative measures were taken. This is the first published randomised controlled study in which coaching was conducted by professional executive coaches external to the organisation. Compared to controls, coaching enhanced goal attainment, increased resilience and workplace well-being and reduced depression and stress. Qualitative responses indicated participants found coaching helped increase self-confidence and personal insight, build management skills and helped participants deal with organisational change. Findings indicate that short-term coaching can be effective, and that evidence-based executive coaching can be valuable as an applied positive psychology in helping people deal with the uncertainly and challenges inherent in organisational change. Practical impactions are discussed and recommendations are made for the effective measurement of coaching outcomes.     

Parental Emotion Coaching: Associations With Self-Regulation in Aggressive/Rejected and Low Aggressive/Popular Children

This study investigated associations between maternal and paternal emotion coaching and the self-regulation skills of kindergarten and first-grade children. Participants were 54 children categorized as either aggressive/rejected or low aggressive/popular by peer reports. Findings indicated a statistical trend for fathers of low aggressive/popular children to engage in more emotion coaching than fathers of aggressive/rejected children. Paternal emotion coaching accounted for significant variance in children's regulation of attention. Maternal emotion coaching moderated the relation between children's status and regulation of emotion. Findings suggest that interventions focused on parental emotion coaching may prove beneficial for increasing the self-regulation and attention skills of children with social and conduct problems.     

The mediational role of perceived stress in the relation between optimism and burnout in competitive athletes

Abstract

Burnout has been highlighted as an important issue, not only in occupational settings but also among athletes. Optimists appear to be more resistant to burnout, which might be partly explained by lower levels of stress. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between optimism and burnout symptoms in 217 athletes (139 males and 78 females, aged 16 to 19 years), while also examining stress as a mediator in this relationship. The results showed that optimism had a significant negative relationship with both stress and burnout. Mediation analyses indicated that perceived stress fully mediated the links between optimism and two symptoms of burnout, emotional/physical exhaustion and sport devaluation, and partly mediated the link between optimism and a third symptom, reduced sense of accomplishment. The findings indicate that individual factors, such as optimism, may play an important role in the development of burnout by virtue of their association with stress. Future research should, therefore, investigate the longitudinal effects of optimism on stress and burnout.     

Managers' Implicit Assumptions About Personnel

ABSTRACT— Effective managers recognize both positive and negative changes in employee performance and take appropriate remedial action when required. Managers' assumptions about the rigidity or malleability of personal attributes (e.g., ability and personality) affect their performance of these critical personnel management tasks. To the extent that managers assume that personal attributes are fixed traits that are largely stable over time, they tend to inadequately recognize actual changes in employee performance and are disinclined to coach employees regarding how to improve their performance. However, a growth-mindset intervention can lead managers to relinquish their fixed mindset and subsequently provide more accurate performance appraisals and helpful employee coaching. Implications for performance evaluation procedures and avenues for future research are outlined.