Barry J. Fallon

The changes in psychological characteristics and reactions of elite athletes from injury onset until full recovery

Abstract The purpose of this investigation was to describe the psychological characteristics and reactions of injured athletes and to examine the changes in these reactions throughout their rehabilitation. This study examined 136 elite injured athletes from 25 sports at four phases: upon injury, partial recovery, semi-recovery, and full recovery. Injury appraisal, athletes demographics, and emotional and psychological variables were measured. Duration of injuries ranged from 4 to 99 weeks (M = 19 weeks). Changes were examined through a series of repeated measure MAN-OVAs with polynomial contrasts. Findings were typically as expected: increased confidence and vigor and decreased negative emotional responses over the recovery period. The changes over the recovery period were not always at a constant rate. Confidence of adhering to rehabilitation, passive, and emotion-focused coping, remained stable over time. The initial injury appraisal, regarding anticipated loss of time and the psychological impact of t...

Adolescent Help‐seeking for Major and Minor Problems

Abstract One thousand and twenty-two secondary school aged adolescents identified a major and a minor problem that they experienced in the previous 6 months. The adolescents indicated if they had sought help for their problems, and, if so, from whom. They also indicated how intimate, serious, and stigmatising the problems were as well as the degree to which they were responsible for the cause of the problems. Most problems were in the domains of family, interpersonal relationships, education, and health. Approximately one third of the respondents reported both their major and their minor problem from within the same domain. The majority of adolescents sought help from the nonprofessional help sources of parents and friends. It was possible to identify consistent help-seekers, occasional help-seekers, and the help-avoiders. Neither the type of problem nor the school year level differentiated between the groups. Females were more likely than males to seek help on both occasions.

Organizational practices supporting women and their satisfaction and well-being

Purpose – The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the relationship of the perceived presence of organizational practices designed to support womens career advancement and their work and extra‐work satisfaction and psychological well‐being.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 98 early career women in Australia using anonymously completed questionnaires. Five organizational practices combined into a composite measure were considered; top management support and intervention, policies and resources, use of gender in human resource management, training and development initiatives and recruiting and external relations efforts.Findings – Women reporting more organizational practices supportive of women, with higher levels of job and career satisfaction, and indicated fewer psychosomatic symptoms and less emotional exhaustion. Organizational practices were unrelated to intent to quit or extra‐work satisfactions and physical or emotional well‐being.Research limitations/implications –...

Benefits of mentoring to Australian early career women managers and professionals

Purpose – This study aims to examine potential benefits from a mentor relationship to women managers and professionals in early career.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 98 women business school graduates using an anonymously completed questionnaire. Respondents identified a more senior individual who had a positive influence in the development of their career, provided descriptive characteristics of this relationship and described its character. Three mentor functions were considered: role model, career development and psychosocial.Findings – There were few differences as a function of the gender of the mentor though respondents having female mentors indicated more role modeling and tended to report more psychosocial functions. Respondents reporting more mentor functions also indicated higher levels of job and career satisfaction, more optimistic future career prospects and fewer psychosomatic symptoms.Originality/value – Adds to the understanding of mentoring by including psychologic...

The Effect of Family Structure and Family Functioning on Adolescents' Perceptions of Intimate Time Spent with Parents, Siblings, and Peers

In previous research, family structure variables have been operationalized as family size, birth order, sibling spacing, and sibling density. These structure variables have been linked to parental strictness, reasonableness, and supportiveness [J. S. Kidwell (1981), “Number of Siblings, Sibling Spacing, and Birth Order: Their Effects on Perceived Parent–Adolescent Relationships,” Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 43, pp. 315–333]. Other research has drawn attention to the link between the amount of time adolescents spend with parents and peers and the influence of family relations variables—intensity, duration, and frequency of conflicts. [R. Montemayor (1982), “The Relationship Between Parent–Adolescent Conflict and the Amount of Time Adolescents Spend Alone and with Parents and Peers,” Child Development, Vol. 53, pp. 1512–1519]. More recent research has related family structure (family size, sibling spacing, and gender) effects to the amount of time adolescents spend with parents, a measure of relationship quality, and a set of measures of discipline [R. A. Richardson et al. (1986), “Parent–Child Relationships in Early Adolescence: Effects of Family Structure,” Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 48, pp. 805–811]. To date, the questions asked by researchers have not simultaneously explored whether it is the family relations or the family structure variables that contribute most powerfully to the amount of time that female and male adolescents spend with family members and peers. In this research adolescents were asked to report the amount of time they spend with their mother, father, siblings, and peers, and to respond to a questionnaire that has three factors that define family functioning: Parenting Style (democratic decision making), Intimacy, and Conflict [P. Noller et al. (1992), “Parent and Adolescent Perceptions of Family Functioning: A Comparison of Clinic and Nonclinic Family, Journal of Adolescence, Vol. 15, pp. 101–115]. The analyses revealed that complex and interpretable family structure and family functioning factors differentially influence whether males and females spend time with family members and peers.

Workaholism among Australian female managers and professionals: Job behaviors, satisfactions and psychological health

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine potential consequences of workaholism among 98 women business graduates in early careers. It replicates earlier work based primarily on men.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from women business graduates of a single Australian university using anonymously completed questionnaires. Three workaholism components identified by Spence and Robbins were included: work involvement, feeling driven to work due to inner pressures and work enjoyment. Consequences included several validating job behaviors such as perfectionism and non‐delegation, work and extra‐work satisfactions and indicators of psychological well‐being.Findings – Workaholism components generally had significant relationships with the validating job behaviors, work outcomes and indicators of psychological well‐being but not with extra‐work satisfactions. These findings provided a partial replications of previous conclusions based on primarily male samples.Research limitations/implicat...

A longitudinal study of women directors in Australia

Using social identity theory as a framework, the present study empirically tests the idea that women can maintain positions on corporate boards over a number of years through becoming part of the board’s ingroup. A sample of 32 women directors who were part of a study of corporate directors in 1995 participated in the six‐year follow‐up. A series of hypotheses are tested using nonparametric statistical techniques to test differences in women directors’ personal and board characteristics over the two time periods. Implications of the results are drawn for women seeking to maintain or gain board positions and for the applicability of social identity theory to the research area.

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: implications for social work education:

Children’s rights were a concern of the League of Nations as early as 1924. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration of Rights of the Child in 1959 (United Nations, 1959). While the Declaration set out ideals, it did not have the status of a treaty. During the International Year of the Child in 1979, Poland proposed developing a treaty on children’s rights. The result is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations General Assembly, 1989), the first comprehensive treaty covering the rights of persons up to age 18. By 1993, over 150 nations had ratified the treaty. The non-signatories include the United States, Japan, India and countries not known for human rights Iran, Iraq, Libya and South Africa. The Convention’s 41 substantive articles follow no conceptual model or logical sequence. After defining a child as anyone under 18 years of age (thereby avoiding the issue of rights of the fetus), the Convention describes each right. The remaining articles detail the process for ratification and monitoring adherence to the treaty. This paper first provides a conceptual model for children’s rights as a framework for presenting the contents of the Convention. For countries that are parties to the Convention, the model helps understand issues related to implementation. For countries still considering ratification, the model is a concise way to present the key provisions of the Convention. Next, preliminary data are presented to demonstrate how an assessment of students’ attitudes towards children’s rights is useful to stimulate class discussion and has

Changing and coping, and the stimulus to change from an adolescent perspective: A replication of adult research

The aims of this research is to replicate an adult study, investigate adolescents perceptions of changing and coping, and compare the stimuli to cope with the stimuli to change. Previous findings from the adult research showed that changing and coping were considered conceptually similar. By contrast, the stimuli that prompt change were not associated with the stimuli that prompted coping. In this research structured interviews with 29 female and 32 male adolescents were analysed to investigate perceptions of coping and change. The results show that for the adolescents change was positive. Coping was considered more passive than was the experience of changing. In comparison with adults the adolescents considered change and coping to be less positive and less activity related. Adolescents made more references to developmental causes of change while adults referred more to self-motivated change. There was no association between what the adolescents reported as stimuli to change and the stimuli to cope.

The experience of changing and the relationship between changing and coping: an adult perspective

This qualitative study investigates the definition of change and the relationship between changing and coping. First, the study explored whether the experience of changing was perceived as positive and frequent. Following this, a description of terms and categories defining changing and coping was completed. Finally, a comparison of the stimulus to change and life event stress as the stimulus to cope was completed. Results showed that the perception of change was positive and frequent. The comparison of how respondents change and how they cope resulted in conceptually similar categories indicating a link between changing and effective coping strategies. The final analysis showed that stimuli that prompt change were not associated with the stimuli that prompt coping. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 36th Annual Conference of the Australian Psychological Society, Adelaide, 2001.