Jennifer Mactavish

Building on strengths and resilience: leisure as a stress survival strategy

Exploring the ways in which leisure contributes to managing, relieving, or counteracting stress has become an increasingly popular area of study in recent years. Findings from a multi-year study of stress and coping among diverse residents of a western Canadian city are reported in this paper. In particular, the key findings presented are specific to the role of leisure in stress-coping, with an emphasis on those that are relevant to guidance and counselling. The participants in the study included: (a) Aboriginal individuals with diabetes, (b) individuals with physical disabilities, (c) older adults with arthritis, (d) gays and lesbians, and (e) a group of professional managers. Grounded in a qualitative framework, data were collected using a focus group method, while phenomenology was adopted as the analytical framework. Our findings demonstrated leisures role as a palliative coping strategy. This strategy incorporates two elements: a positive diversion or ‘time-out’ from stress-inducing situations and thoughts, and a context for rejuvenation and renewal. Leisure also provided opportunities for promoting life balance, whereby the intentional creation of a leisure space became an oasis for personal renewal (physical, psychological, emotional) that facilitated resilience and the capacity to proactively cope with or counteract stress. Implications of the findings for guidance and counselling are discussed.

Gender-Based Analyses of Coping with Stress among Professional Managers: Leisure Coping and Non-Leisure Coping

Despite the growth of leisure and stress-coping research, gender-based analyses of leisure stress-coping have been performed rarely. The purpose of the present study was to examine how female and male managers cope with stress, using data collected from a series of focus groups. The focus group questions were designed to elicit information about the range of methods these individuals used to cope with stress and the contribution of leisure (generally and leisure travel in particular) to this process. The results demonstrated that female and male managers rely on a broad range of coping methods—including leisure specific strategies—as life-survival techniques. Although sharing a number of common stress-coping themes (e.g., socialization through leisure, deflecting stress-inducing thoughts through leisure, feeling rejuvenated through leisure, leisure as personal space, humour/laughter, spiritual coping, altruistic leisure coping, leisure travel), there also were themes unique to female managers (e.g., preventative role of leisure/exercise) and male managers (e.g., playing hard in leisure). These unique gender-based variations in stress-coping appear to be linked to differences in life circumstances and stressors women and men face in work, domestic, and leisure domains, and the gendered nature of womens and mens life experiences.

Patterns of Family Recreation in Families that Include Children with a Developmental Disability

Grounded in the naturalistic paradigm, the present exploratory study employed survey ( n = 65) and interview (n = 16) methods to examine patterns of family recreation in families including children with developmental disabilities. Statistical analyses were conducted on the quantitative data, while a key theme and constant comparative method was used to analyze the qualitative data. Three patterns (all family, sub-unit, and equal combination) were identified as characteristic of the family recreation of the families included in this study. The sub-unit pattern predominated and typically involved mothers in activities with their children with a developmental disability or all of their children. Furthermore, family recreation was family-initiated, informal, and occurred with equal frequency in home and community settings. Variations in patterns of family recreation associated with child (e.g., age, birth order) and family (e.g., income, employment status) specific characteristics were also presented.

Boosting in athletes with high-level spinal cord injury: knowledge, incidence and attitudes of athletes in paralympic sport

Autonomic dysreflexia (AD) is unique to individuals with spinal injuries (SCI) at T6 or above and can be voluntarily induced. Although AD improves wheelchair racing performance in some athletes, it also elicits exaggerated blood pressure, which could be dangerous. The International Paralympic Committee considers AD doping and banned its use. Purpose. The purpose of this study is to evaluate AD knowledge, incidence and attitudes (KIA) of Paralympians with SCI. Methods. An existing questionnaire was modified to include questions of AD KIA, validated by three experts and piloted with a small sample. It was administered on-line, mailed to members of a scientific network and distributed during the Beijing Paralympic Games. Fisher Exact test was used to evaluate differences across gender, injury and education. Results. Of 99 participants, 54.5% had previously heard of AD while 39.4% were unaware; 16.7%, all males, had used AD to enhance performance. Participants reported that AD was (1) useful for middle (78.6%) and long distance (71.4%), marathon (64.3%) and wheelchair rugby (64.3%); (2) somewhat dangerous (48.9%), dangerous (21.3%) or very dangerous (25.5%) to health. Results were not influenced by age, injury level or injury duration. Conclusions. Findings indicate the need for educational programmes directed towards enhancing the AD knowledge of rehabilitation professionals, coaches and trainers working with SCI individuals.

Integrating ceasing participation with other aspects of leisure behavior: a replication and extension.

This study was a replication and extension of the work originally done by Jackson and Dunn (1988) and later replicated by McGuire et al. (1989) on a model of leisure decision-making. The intent of ...

Social Exclusion and Resilience as Frameworks of Stress and Coping among Selected Non-dominant Groups

Despite the growth of stress and coping research and its implications for health policy and practice, one major gap in this research area is that its conceptualizations and measurements are mostly ethnocentric, and give limited attention to the diversity of our society. As a step towards bridging this gap, the purpose of the present study was to reveal lay peoples views and perspectives on lived experiences and the meanings of stress and coping with stress among selected non-dominant groups of individuals (n = 78) in a Western Canadian city. The frameworks of social exclusion and resilience were used conceptually and analytically to ground the examination and synthesize findings about stress and coping across three target groups: Aboriginal individuals with diabetes, individuals with disabilities, and gays and lesbians. As qualitative methods, focus groups were employed as the data collection technique, and phenomenology as an analytic framework. Overall, findings highlighted the interconnected nature of various aspects of social exclusion (for example, economic exclusion, institutional exclusion, cultural exclusion) that reflect the stressful lives of participants unique to their disadvantaged and vulnerable positions in society, mostly due to the prevalence of poverty, poor living conditions, discrimination and oppression, as well as unbalanced/unequal power relations in society. The findings also suggest that human strengths and resilience are core elements of stress-coping which encompass a wide range of valued meanings such as social or collective, spiritual, cultural, attitudinal and transformative/developmental. These findings imply the need for a more culturally or sub-culturally appropriate approach to health policies and practices in order to support people (particularly non-dominant and often marginalized groups) in effectively addressing life adversities/stresses and enabling proactive and culturally relevant coping.

The Medallion Program: Using the Generic Sport Model to Train Athletes with Mental Disabilities

Abstract Through this program, Special Olympians are provided the opportunity to engage in sport-specific training at the level required to improve athletic performance. Through this program, Special Olympians are provided the opportunity to engage in sport-specific training at the level required to improve athletic performance.

Cognitive Predictors of Performance in Well-Trained Table Tennis Players With Intellectual Disability.

Evidence-based classification systems in Paralympic sport require knowledge of the underlying effect of impairment in a specific sport. This study investigated the relationship between cognition and tactical proficiency in 88 well-trained table tennis players with intellectual disability (ID; 29 women, 59 men, M ± SD IQ 59.9 ± 9.6). Data were collected at 3 competitions sanctioned by the International Federation for Para-Athletes with Intellectual Disabilities (INAS). A generic cognitive test consisting of 8 neuropsychological subtests was used to assess cognitive abilities relevant to sport (reaction time, processing speed, and decision speed; spatial visualization; fluid reasoning; memory; executive functioning; and visual processing). The backward stepwise-regression analysis model revealed that 18% of the variance in tactical proficiency was attributed to spatial visualization and simple reaction time. Applications of these findings resulted in an evidence-based classification system that led to the reinclusion of athletes with ID in Paralympic table tennis and provide the basis for future research in this important area.