Physically active students' intentions and self-efficacy towards healthy eating

This study investigated intentions and self-efficacy of physically active university students towards healthy eating. The application of Planned Behavior theory has shown that attitudes, intention, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms play an important role in shaping people's behavior. 96 students, who participated in physical activities, voluntarily completed the Questionnaire for the Planned Behavior Model and the Health Behavior Questionnaire. The former examines attitudes, intentions, perceived behavioral control, and the lately added attitude strength, and role identity towards the behavior factors. The latter assesses one's efficacy expectations towards healthy eating. The regression showed strong associations between the examined variables, signifying that attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and role identity could account for one's intention towards healthy eating behaviors. On the other hand, one's self-efficacy for healthy eating could be explained from the attitudes, intention, perceived behavioral control, and attitude strength held. Overall, systematic participation in physical activities appeared to be accompanied with a relatively healthier diet, while self-efficacy had a significant association with maintaining the healthy eating behaviors. Possible interpretations, limitations, and implications for health professionals are discussed.     

Combined effect of goal setting and self-talk in performance of a soccer-shooting task

To examine the combined effect of goal setting and self-talk, 41 professional and semiprofessional soccer players from four different teams were tested on a soccer-shooting task. Teams were assigned to one of four conditions: (a) self-talk, (b) goal setting, (c) goal setting plus self-talk, and (d) do your best control. Subjects performed one baseline measurement and three experimental sessions. Analysis showed that performance, compared to the do your best condition, in the combined condition is immediately enhanced, whereas self-talk and goal-setting effects were significant from Session 3. No significant differences in performance were observed among experimental groups, except in Session 2, during which the combined group scored significantly better than the goal-setting group. It seems that, whereas both goal setting and self-talk are effective in enhancing performance, some advantage may be derived from a combined intervention. Findings are discussed in the perspective of past research efforts on goal setting and self-talk.     

The impact of life events on job satisfaction

Employing fixed effects regression techniques on longitudinal data, we investigate how life events affect employees' job satisfaction. Unlike previous work–life research, exploring mostly contemporaneous correlations, we look for evidence of adaptation in the years following major life events. We find evidence of adaptation following the first marriage event, but we find that the birth of the first child has a long-lasting impact on employees' job satisfaction. Our findings also suggest that there is a general boost in job satisfaction prior to first marriage and to a lesser extent prior to the birth of the first child, consistent with evidence of anticipation. Accordingly, our study provides some of the first evidence on the dynamic effect of non-work related factors on job satisfaction and it introduces a novel methodology and a new perspective for investigating the dynamic interaction between the work and life domains.     

The Moderating Effects of Self-Talk Content on Self-Talk Functions

The purpose of the study was to examine whether different types of self-talk serve different functions. Twenty-one female swimming class students were initially tested on an experimental water polo precision task. After a three-day program during which participants practiced self-talk on swimming drills, they were tested again on the experimental task, using attentional and anxiety control self-talk cues. In addition, participants completed a questionnaire assessing perceived functions of self-talk, for each of the two self-talk cues that were used. Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed that according to participants’ perceptions the anxiety control self-talk cue had greater impact on anxiety control than the attentional self-talk cue (p < .01), whereas effects for attention, effort, confidence, and automaticity were similar when using attentional and anxiety control cues. Furthermore, repeated measures MANOVAs for each self-talk cue revealed that both cues mostly assisted concentration to the task (p < .01). The results partially support that the use of different types of self-talk may serve different functions depending on the content of the employed cues.     

Self-talk and Competitive Sport Performance

The purpose of the present study was to test the effectiveness of a 10-week self-talk intervention on competitive performance in young swimmers. Participants were 41 swimmers (M age 14.59, SD = 1.58 years), whose performance was recorded on 2 competitive occasions with a 10-week interval. In-between the 2 competitions, participants in the intervention group followed a self-talk training program. The results showed that the intervention group had greater performance improvements than the control group, thus, supporting the effectiveness of the program in enhancing sport performance in a competitive environment. The findings provide directions for the development of effective self-talk interventions.     

Model Theory and Validity

Synthese - Take a formula of first-order logic which is a logical consequence of some other formulae according to model theory, and in all those formulae replace schematic letters with English...     

Development and validation of the Causes of Re-Injury Worry Questionnaire

Re-injury worry is an important construct in competitive sport that may influence performance and increase the risk of re-injury. However, there are currently no available instruments to measure the causes of re-injury worry. The purpose of this study was to develop the Causes of Re-Injury Worry Questionnaire (CR-IWQ). The study was conducted in three independent research phases to investigate the following: (a) the content relevance, (b) the factor structure and the factorial validity, (c) the concurrent validity, (d) the discriminant validity, and (e) the test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficients; ICC), and the internal consistency of the instrument. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was chosen to examine the factor structure of the CR-IWQ. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine further the factorial validity of the instrument. A number of valid constructs were used to assess the concurrent and discriminant validity of the CR-IWQ. The reliability of the new instrument was examined using Pearson r (ICC) and Cronbach α. Three hundred and seventy athletes with an acute musculoskeletal sport injury in the last year participated in the study. EFA revealed a 12-item model, representing two factors ("Re-injury worry due to rehabilitation" and "Re-injury worry due to opponent's ability"). CFA supported the two-factor model of the CR-IWQ. The concurrent and discriminant validity of the CR-IWQ was confirmed by examining correlations between the CR-IWQ with other constructs. The ICCs and the Cronbach α indices of the CR-IWQ were acceptable. We have demonstrated that the CR-IWQ is a good psychometric instrument that can be used for clinical and research purposes.     

Greek students' attitudes toward physical activity and health-related behavior

A three-wave study over one year with 882 adolescents, aged 10 to 16 years at the initial testing, examined psychosocial variables regarding four health-related behaviors: exercise, eating fruit, smoking, and drug use. Analysis showed that during the stages of the study, high school students' exercise behavior decreased and their smoking behavior increased as well as their willingness to use drugs. It seems that study of physical education and health education during adolescence must take into account the possible differences in psychosocial variables associated with health-related behaviors as well as the different stages of adolescence.