Nick Galli

Psychological resilience in sport: A review of the literature and implications for research and practice

The ability to respond positively to setbacks, obstacles, and failures is essential for any successful athlete. Although resilience has been studied in general psychology for several decades, it is only recently that researchers and practitioners have begun to explore the construct within the sport context. The purpose of this article is to review the current state of resilience scholarship in sport, and to offer guidelines for future research and interventions in this area. Studies of resilience in sport to date have either used experimental designs to investigate resilience to performance failure, or qualitative interview designs to understand the thoughts and beliefs of athletes who have successfully overcome adversity. Researchers who wish to study sport resilience in the future should think carefully about how they operationalise the construct. Furthermore, knowledge will be enhanced by the development of a sport-specific resilience measure and the use of more sophisticated qualitative approaches and advanced statistical modelling procedures. Sport practitioners can learn from resilience-building programmes developed in other settings as they, craft evidence-based interventions to enhance resilience in athletes.

Stress-related growth following sport injury: Examining the applicability of the organismic valuing theory

This study explored the applicability of organismic valuing theory (OVT) to stress‐related growth (SRG) following sport injury. Specifically, the direct and indirect relationships between need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness), SRG, and subjective well‐being (i.e., positive affect) were examined. Previously injured athletes (n = 520), ranging from 18 to 59 years of age (Mage = 23.3 years; standard deviation = 6.5), completed three measures: needs satisfaction scale, stress‐related growth scale, and positive affect scale. Structural equation modeling with maximum likelihood estimation revealed a significant positive relationship between competence and relatedness and SRG, and between SRG and positive affect. In line with OVT, SRG was also found to mediate the relationship between need satisfaction (competence and relatedness) and subjective well‐being. The findings offer preliminary support for the applicability of OVT in aiding our understanding of the antecedents and consequences of SRG. Future avenues of research are discussed, together with recommended methodologies to further extend and refine knowledge and understanding of the phenomenon of SRG following sport injury.

Personality and psychological correlates of eating disorder symptoms among male collegiate athletes.

Despite a proliferation of research on disordered eating in female athletes, few studies have included male athletes. The purpose of this study was to determine which of five personality and psychological variables of interest (i.e., perfectionism, self-esteem, optimism, reasons for exercise, and appearance orientation) best predicted eating disorder status (i.e., symptomatic or asymptomatic) in male athletes. Two hundred three male athletes (Mage=20.29, SD=1.64) from three National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I institutions participated. More athletes were asymptomatic (80.8%) than symptomatic (19.2%). None of the variables significantly predicted symptomatic status. These findings contrast the literature on predictors of disordered eating symptomatology among female athletes, and suggest the need for further research to identify other potential predictors of eating disturbance among male athletes.

Should Coaches Serve as the “Weight Police” for Athletes?

With some Division I coaches earning over

Psychosocial predictors of drive for muscularity in male collegiate athletes.

2 million a year, ten times the amount of the typical university president’s salary, it is inevitable that feelings of power and privilege will arise. Coaches are given the authority to regulate all aspects of an athlete’s life—training and competition regimens, curfews, dress code, and nutritional intake. While coaches have a background in most of the aforementioned categories, when did coaches become expert dietitians? Clearly nutrition plays a key role in successful sport performance. However, this focus has led to harmful practices such as mandatory weigh-ins, public humiliation, and the pressure to gain or lose unhealthy amounts of weight. In football, coaches frequently try to “fatten players up.” Players are often urged to gain weight quickly by ingesting calorie-laden shakes. The average weight of National Football League (NFL) players has increased drastically over the last 30 years. A recent study suggested that over half of the players in the NFL are currently obese (Harp & Hecht, 2005). Although muscle mass was not accounted for, this study indicates that players may be at an increased risk for the development of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes. This disturbing trend likely extends to high school and college settings. The recent death of lineman Thomas Herrion highlights the concern that many players are simply becoming too big. As the largest players on the fi eld, linemen such as Herrion are at particular risk for the development of obesity-related illnesses. In response to coaches’ instructions to gain weight, players’ eating behaviors might begin to resemble those of individuals suffering from binge-eating disorder. While not as well known as eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder is characterized by the consumption of large quantities of food in a single sitting, a lack of control over what or how much is eaten, rapid eating, eating even when not hungry, eating until uncomfortably full, and feelings of disgust or shame after eating. While players might not have a full-blown eating disorder, such eating behaviors certainly place them at an increased risk for obesity-related illnesses. A further concern regarding the rapid growth of football players is the increasing risk of injury. Coaches encourage weight gain with visions of improved individual and team performance, but might not consider the potentially negative consequences. Not only are players increasing in size, but they are also maintaining or increasing their strength, speed, agility, and power. This adds up to a potentially devastating impact during games, as players collide with greater force than ever before. As long as bigger is perceived as better, coaches are unlikely to be concerned with the potential for such outcomes. In contrast to football players, wrestlers at the high school and college level are often encouraged by coaches to lose weight, a practice called “cutting weight,” in order to compete in lower weight classes. Weight loss by wrestlers is often rapid, with as much as 10 to 15 pounds being lost in a matter of a few days. Wrestlers will resort to dangerous methods to promote weight loss, including food and fl uid restriction, laxative use, “sweating it out” in saunas or steam rooms for extended periods of time, and exercising in suits that prohibit heat loss. The 1997 deaths of three college wrestlers, following bouts of fl uid restriction and excessive exercise, brought national attention to the dangerous measures taken by wrestlers to “make weight.” (Davis et al., 2002). All three of these wrestlers died while in the presence of their coaches. While all coaches might not openly persuade wrestlers to engage in dangerous weightcutting practices, many do turn a “blind eye” in hopes of being able to fi ll all weight classes and fi eld the best team possible. However, no evidence exists to suggest that rapidly dropping weight brings wrestlers a performance advantage—if anything, rapid weightcutting hurts wrestling performance by promoting dehydration, fatigue, or light-headedness. Football and wrestling are not the only sports in which athletes seek to manipulate their weight in order to improve performance. Coaches of female sports also enforce strict body weight requireShould Coaches Serve as the “Weight Police” for Athletes?

Case studies of developing resilience in elite sport: Applying theory to guide interventions

The purpose of this study was to examine the simultaneous relation of general and sport-specific pressures about body weight and shape, negative affect, and body satisfaction to drive for muscularity (DM) in male collegiate athletes. Participants were 183 male athletes who were drawn from three NCAA Division I institutions and represented 17 different sports. As hypothesized, after controlling for BMI and sport type, sport-specific pressures, negative affect, and body satisfaction were significant predictors, and accounted for 15-34% of the variance in muscularity-oriented body image and muscularity behaviors; general pressures however were not significantly related. These findings offer insight into the personal and social antecedents of DM in male athletes, and serve as a starting point for future research on DM in this population.

Development and validation of the intuitive exercise scale

ABSTRACT Resilience, or the ability to bounce back and subsequently flourish following adversity, is an area of research rapidly gaining attention in sport psychology. While recent resilience research in sport has investigated factors involved in the process of exhibiting individual and team resilience, practitioner-focused literature on “how to” utilize resilience research when consulting with athletes has yet to be explicated. The purpose of this article is to describe sport psychology consultant experiences developing resilience with elite athletes using theory. Based on the framework and case studies, suggestions are provided for facilitating resilience in athletes.

What's in it for me? An intervention to increase physical activity among adolescents in physical education.

Up to 80% of individuals with eating disorders engage in dysfunctional exercise, which is characterized by exercising in excessive quantities often past the point of pain as well as compulsive feelings and negative affect when exercise is disrupted (Cook, Hausenblas, Crosby, Cao, & Wonderlich, 2015). Intuitive exercise involves an awareness of the senses while moving and attending to ones bodily cues for when to start and stop exercise, rather than feeling compelled to adhere to a rigid program (Reel, 2015). The purpose of this study was to design a measurement tool to evaluate the construct of intuitive exercise in research, treatment, and prevention settings. The 14-item Intuitive Exercise Scale (IEXS) was developed and validated in the current study with completed surveys from 518 female and male adult participants. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify four latent constructs, including emotional exercise, exercise rigidity, body trust, and mindful exercise, which were supported via confirmatory factor analysis (CFI=0.96; SRMR=0.06). The IEXS demonstrated configural, metric, and scalar invariance across women and men. Correlations with measures of intuitive eating, exercise dependence, and exercise motivation supported convergent and discriminant validity.

From core belief challenge to posttraumatic growth in para sport athletes: moderated mediation by needs satisfaction and deliberate rumination

JOPERD • Volume 78 No. 1 • January 2007 A sk a physical educator to compare the physical activity levels of elementary children to high school adolescents, and she will likely explain that the difference is remarkable. Younger children are typically much more active throughout the day than older adolescents. In fact, research has shown that there is a decrease in the amount of physical activity among children as they age (Sallis, 1993). As a result, some adolescents are becoming unhealthy and overweight, which leads to even less motivation to participate in physical activity. The only physical activity or exercise that most adolescents are exposed to during the day is their physical education class in high school. When the physical education program is effective and adolescents are active, it is possible to observe changes in physical fi tness indicators, overall health, and academic performance in school (AAHPERD, 1999). The problem is that some states require students to enroll in physical education for only one semester, and when the class ends, the students typically stop their physical activity and all benefi ts are lost. Therefore, without the needed self-motivation, students discontinue their daily activity and their lifestyle becomes too sedentary. How can educators persuade their students to maintain an active lifestyle? In most cases, physical education teachers are not equipped with the knowledge of how to provide motivational interventions that encourage students to continue to be physically active after and outside of their classes. In the sport psychology literature, there are many types of motivational interventions that can easily be transferred from a sport context to an educational setting. In addition, numerous studies provide evidence that motivational interventions do work with adolescents (Carron, Hausenblas, & Estabrooks, 2003). Unfortunately, at the school level, physical education and sport psychology rarely come together for a common goal, such as maintaining the desire to be active and physically fi t. The purpose of this article is to present two intervention strategies that have been used in high school physical education classes to motivate students to be more physically active during and beyond their experience in class. Review of the physical activity literature suggests a need to identify critical psychosocial mediators of physical activity behavior change in adolescents (Lewis, Marcus, & Pate, 2002). Personal investment theory provides a useful conceptual framework to study the physical activity behavior of adolescents, because the meaning, or sub-jective experience, of physical activity plays a signifi cant role in determining activity choices and continued motivation to be active (Maehr & Braskamp, 1986). Using this theory as What’s in It for Me? An Intervention to Increase Physical Activity Among Adolescents in Physical Education

An Investigation of Body Image in Athletes With Physical Disabilities

Abstract Purpose: To examine how deliberate rumination and psychological need satisfaction interact to facilitate posttraumatic growth for para sport athletes with acquired disability. Methods: Utilizing a sample of 70 para sport athletes, the hypothesized mediating role of deliberate rumination was examined via a simple mediation model. The interaction between needs satisfaction and deliberate rumination and their effect on posttraumatic growth was examined utilizing a moderated mediation procedure. Results: Disruption to one’s core beliefs was significantly associated with posttraumatic growth. This relationship, was in part, explained by the deliberate rumination engaged in soon after the trauma. Needs satisfaction, while a significant predictor of posttraumatic growth, did not moderate the indirect effect. Conclusions: Although deliberate rumination at both timeframes and needs satisfaction were independently associated with posttraumatic growth, they did not interact in the hypothesized manner to influence posttraumatic growth. There remains a need to better understand how the experience of posttraumatic growth is achieved amongst individuals with acquired disability, and the role that para sport may play in this process. Implications for rehabilitation The disruption to one’s core beliefs caused by acquiring a physical disability is not only a natural experience but also a necessary antecedent to posttraumatic growth. As such, rehabilitation practitioners ought to normalize these types of challenges when working with individuals with acquired disability. Practitioners may help to facilitate growth outcomes by encouraging individuals to deliberately ruminate about their acquired disability. That is, practitioners can help those with acquired disability to seek meaning and understanding about their disability or the precipitating event. For those who struggle to deliberately ruminate in the immediate disability aftermath, practitioners may encourage para sport participation to potentially prompt constructive cognitive processing. Individuals with acquired disabilities would also be well served by rehabilitation practitioners and para sport organizations that provide opportunities for basic psychological needs satisfaction. Specifically, individuals with acquired disabilities should be given the opportunity to demonstrate physical competence, make meaningful relationships, and feel a sense of volitional control over their rehabilitation or para sport participation. For example, practitioners and para sport organizations could establish mentorship programs wherein individuals with more recent disabilities can be mentored by those with greater disability experience.