Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Life After Sport: A Program Development Plan For Student-Athletes, Loryn Shawn Frame

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

College athletics stakeholders have had growing concerns regarding student-athletes’ transition out of collegiate athletics. Research specific to student-athletes following college athletics has explored mental health, role identity, and occupational participation. This program development plan addresses occupational therapy’s role in assisting student-athletes transition out of collegiate athletics. The needs assessment conducted with West Virginia University athletic staff revealed two gaps in programming: athletic identity including leisure exploration, and a program to help student-athletes who want to enter health professional programs. Life After Sport comprises two programs, one to help student-athletes transition into a health professional program, titled Athletes in Medicine (AIM), …

Self-Efficacy Of Professional Athletes, Peter Voelker

Master of Arts in Sport Management

The purpose of this study was designed to use the definition of self-efficacy by Bandura (2002) as well as previous research on the topic of self-efficacy to investigate self-reported performance evaluations of professional athletes. The initial literature review included studies that investigated athletes participating in a wide range of sports at different age and experience levels. The parameters and methods of each study differed, but all took a qualitative or mixed methods approach. Based on these previous studies, this study suggested a qualitative approach using a questionnaire based on the Strength Self-Efficacy Scale developed by Tsai et al. (2013). The …

The Peter Principle In Nfl Coaching Hires: An Analysis Of Success Of Nfl Head Coaching Hiring Based On Experience, Sam Malone-Povolny

Master of Science in Kinesiology

The NFL is a massive professional sports organization with worldwide impact for its players and coaches. NFL head coaches come from all walks of life but end up falling into two categories once hired: Either a former head coach is hired to helm a new team or a rising assistant coach is brought in to inject some new ideas. Whichever category they fall into, the team members become a reflection of the coach’s ideas and values. And, how well the team does in terms of on-field success is often the main dictation of the coach’s future with the franchise. Using …

If Stress Is The Lock Is Communication The Key, Riley Romero, Bailey Julian, Danielle Carter

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project was meant to analyze the possible issues high school student-athletes may face academically as well as mentally while in school. This issue is important to note because there is an increase in students participating in sports and the offered school support should reflect the growing population. An argument that was found was the possible overlook of the mental well-being of the student-athletes if they are academically succeeding or are accomplished athletes. The primary stakeholders perspectives chosen were current high school student-athletes because they are able to provide insight into the current issues that student-athletes …

Promoting Well-Being Among Intercollegiate Student-Athletes: A Gratitude Intervention Using Positive Psychology, Laura Kruger

Dissertations and Theses

Intercollegiate student-athletes face rising stress and pressures which challenge their well-being and mental health, and sometimes with alarming concerns. Over the years, supportive services and resources specifically available to student-athletes have not evolved at the same pace as student-athlete needs. Also, barriers and stigmas hinder student-athletes from readily accessing supportive mental health services. The high stress of student-athletes can contribute to the development of negative mental health symptoms and impairs positive well-being. Evidence supports how outreach initiatives help student-athletes. Positive psychology, including gratitude as a positive psychological state, has shown benefits to well-being. This experimental study design researched if the …

County Youth Athletics Response To Covid-19 Pandemic, Elise Schaller

Dissertations

Problem: To ensure safe participation in youth athletics and prevent COVID-19 transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Louis County Department of Public Health (DPH) implemented Youth Sports Guidelines on October 14, 2020. This project aimed to identify level of adherence to precautions listed in the guidelines at six county public high school athletic events.

Methods: An observational descriptive study design was used to monitor guideline adherence at high school athletic events. Two observers tallied violations by participants and spectators to Youth Sports Guidelines at St. Louis County public high school athletic events. Six high-frequency contact (basketball and wrestling) events …

Exploring Occupational Therapy With Athletes Using Principles Of Lifestyle Redesign® To Support Academic Success And Life Balance., Michaela M. Dendinger

Occupational Therapy Capstone Presentations

Occupational therapists have a range of skills that can benefit a variety of populations. Despite these skills, occupational therapy has limited exploration within the field of athletics. The capstone project gave insight to the services occupational therapy can provide to the student-athlete population. Through the lens of Lifestyle Redesign®, the Student-Athlete Wellness Program was created to support student-athlete academic success and life balance. Following a needs assessment an online program was developed. The program was provided to students and athletes a University in the Midwest U.S. The program attracted 21 student-athletes and five students. Limited participation in surveys provided difficulties …

The Point In Which Peak Power Occurs In Relation To The Percentage Of One-Repetition Max For The Clean, Back Squat, And Bench Press Exercises Across Various Athlete Types, Maria Darling

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the force-velocity curve in the athletic population. There was special interest in determining the point of peak-power (PP%), the point of peak power drop-off (PPDO%), and the range (RANGE) between these points for three different exercises: the bench press (BENCH), the back squat (SQUAT), and the floor clean (CLEAN). Further investigation looked to find differences in these points between different sub-groups within the athletes sampled. Data was retrieved from an existing database on 72 healthy Fort Hays State University athletes from five different teams during their off-season six-week training cycle. All …

The Acute Impact Of Stair Climbing On Vertical Jump Height, Matthew Grossman

Masters Theses

Vertical jump (VJ) is a strong determinant of explosive power in the trained and untrained population. There is agreement among the literature that vertical jump training can be improved through progression in specific training related to vertical jump. For example, plyometrics is a widely studied training method for increasing VJ, and has been generally accepted method for increasing VJ. Within the literature, training methods are continually being studied to improve athletic performance. Exploration of improvements outside of resistance training can provide further insight on enchancing athletic performance. The present study examined the acute impact of stair climbing (SC) on VJ. …

Athletics As A Life Curriculum: Lessons Learned Through Different Aspects Of Athletics, Thomas J. Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For my dissertation, I decided to write a memoir to have the opportunity to go through the self-reflection process and learn more about my inner self. I wanted to learn how the life experiences I write about have affected me as a student-athlete, coach, teacher, parent, and how they have shaped me into who I am today. I took instances from my life in athletics that I believe are significant in the development of my overall being. Educational scholars such as William Pinar (1995, 2004), John Dewey (1916/2019, 1933), Frederic Gros (2011), Immanuel Kant (1908/2015), Nel Noddings (2005), and Paulo …

Identifying Metabolites As Markers Of Fatigue In Athletes, Christopher D. George

Honors Theses

Fatigue in athletes caused by inadequate rest and other stressors can be severely detrimental to their health, and yet there is no reliable way to measure and track fatigue. Many classical measures of fatigue like body mass and resting heart rate are not reliable ways to track the physical fatigue of an athlete because they can change with many factors. In addition, it is not known how academic stress on top of physical stress affects fatigue. Metabolomics is a relatively new area of study and tracking metabolites offers the possibility to produce biomarkers to assess fatigue. This study collected saliva …

Longitudinal Descriptive Profile Of Collegiate Pitchers Participating In A Summer Baseball League, Isabelle Leslie Gillis

Theses and Dissertations--Kinesiology and Health Promotion

The purpose of this study was to provide a longitudinal profile of pitching performance in a cohort of pitchers over two collegiate seasons and a summer league. Thus, this study utilized a longitudinal design to evaluate the impact of summer league participation on subsequent collegiate regular season pitching performance. Specifically, the performance of a cohort of Division 1 collegiate baseball pitchers during the 2018 Spring collegiate season, 2018 Summer League season, and the 2019 Spring collegiate season was evaluated and stratified by pitcher designation, arm dominance, and academic status. Analyses of variance were used to identify main and interaction effects …

Levels Of Professional Stress In Missouri State University Sport Coaches, James Edgar Seratt

MSU Graduate Theses

Due to the particular nature of collegiate sport coaching, that is, the need to secure victories at all costs in order to ensure job security, collegiate sport coaches are a population that are likely to experience high levels of personal and professional stress. Previous research has indicated that coaches at all levels of competition, experience degrees and levels of stress similar to those experienced by individuals in other high stress professions, including police officers, medical professionals, and teachers. Furthermore, research has indicated that high levels of stress are positively correlated with decreased work performance. For this research, 45 Missouri State …

A Comparison Of Hamstring Injury Recovery Rates In Male And Female Athletes, Amanda Hall

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Excerpt from Introduction

Hamstring injuries are among the most common muscular injuries sustained by athletes across multiple levels of various sports (Askling et al). Most hamstring injuries occur during similar movements and under similar conditions, where the muscle is required to be explosive. Thus, athletes that participate in sports where “sprinting, kicking, or high-speed skilled movements” are required, experience an increased likelihood of suffering a hamstring injury (Erickson and Sherry). After injury, athletes are then subjected to different methods of rehabilitation to heal and strengthen the afflicted area. However, some athletes take longer than others to return and impatience may …

Crash And Burnout: The Sophomore Slump In College Athletics, Jessica Ferguson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study analyzed and compared the severity of performance slumps of collegiate student-athletes in general and across academic years. The factors examined with performance slumps included athlete burnout, academic burnout, relationship satisfaction, and grade point averages. The first hypothesis was that reduced accomplishment scores from the athlete burnout questionnaire would indicate the severity of performance slumps. The results did not support the hypothesis. The second hypothesis was that the severity of performance slumps would positively correlate with academic burnout and negatively correlate with relationship satisfaction. The results supported this hypothesis. The third hypothesis was that student-athletes who experienced a performance …

Beyond The End Line - Putting The Mental Health Of Female Athletes First, Katherine Scholten

Honors Projects

Currently one in five adults are affected by mental illness. Student-athletes are a population that is under diagnosed for mental illness. In the world of college athletics, mental pain is as regular as physical pain. Coaches often push their athletes to suffer in silence for the betterment of the team. The NCAA has recognized the importance of mental health in college athletics, yet there is still much work to be done among universities across the country. This document is to serve as a resource and a guide on the effects of mental health among female student athletes and the best …

Early Sport Specialization: Overuse Injury And Burnout, Jessica J. Mcclelland

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

There are an increasing number of opportunities for today’s youth to participate in year-round sport organizations that promote early sport specialization before the age of fifteen. Early sport specialization is linked to a higher rate of overuse injury of frequently used muscle groups. The physical, mental, and psychological demands of early sport specialization increase likelihood of burnout and cessation of sport participation. Early sport generalization allows physiological and psychological rest and recovery in youth athletes that lead to decreased injury rates and less burnout with more individuals continuing to participate in competitive sports throughout the collegiate years. The purpose of …

Psychological Factors That Impact The Drop-Out Rate In Adolescent Sports, Nicole S. Mcclone

HIM 1990-2015

Children are dropping out of sport at alarming rates. With the highest numbers of dropout occurring between the ages of ten and seventeen, the focus of this research is on the drop-out rates of adolescents from sport. Athletic participation has been linked to positive academic performance, key development of leadership skills, and increased engagement in the community. The research that has been conducted related to sport persistence has had a greater focus on examining factors related to the physical domain. Attention is now beginning to shift however, and researchers are looking outside the physical domain and analyzing sport attrition more …

Self-Reported Body Satisfaction Rates Among Collegiate Female Athletes And Their Use Of Social Media, Megan Elizabeth Jeffris

MSU Graduate Theses

Social media use has become increasingly popular in the past decade with all demographics. The significance of this research relates to the serious risk factors as a result of body dissatisfaction, including low self esteem, depression, eating disorders and obesity. Literature on the psychological effects of social media on perception of body satisfaction is lacking for the collegiate female athlete population. This mixed-methods study investigated the amount of time spent on social media in relationship to self-reported body satisfaction scores in collegiate female athletes. One-hundred and two collegiate female athletes were surveyed via an online survey about body satisfaction, time …

High School Football Players Underreport Head Injuries: A Descriptive Comparative Study, Hillary Mn Oaks

Master of Science in Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Projects

Introduction: Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries (MTBIs) are some of the most common injuries that occur in the adolescent athlete population, and yet experts believe that MTBI’s are underreported. Most state athletic organizations require annual Pre-Participation Examinations in order to participate in high school sports. The purpose of this study was to research the effectiveness of the Ohio High School Athletic Association Pre-Participation Exam (OHSAA PPE) form in eliciting previous MTBIs.

Method: A descriptive, correlational study was conducted with 43 high school football players at a mass-screening event.

Results: There was a statistically significant underreporting of MTBI’s on …

Student-Athlete Perceptions Of Increased Internationalization In College Athletics, Erica Zonder

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined the effect of the increase in the number of international student-athletes in Division I college athletics on the experience of international and domestic student-athletes, specifically by investigating the perceptions of female athletes participating in sports that have high percentages of international student-athlete involvement. Scholarship opportunities, school choice, playing time, and recruiting areall areas that were explored through a questionnaire. This study potentially fills a gap in the research regarding the increased participation by international student-athletes on both the domestic and international student-athlete experience. Results indicated that international and domestic student-athletes had different perceptions of their recruiting experience …

"Just Trying To Keep My Head Above Water": Division I Freshman Female Athletes' Experience Of Their First Semester, Aslynn C. Halvorson

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

A Historical Review Of Secondary School Athletic Training Coverage In West Virginia, Brian W. Potter

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this research is to review the history of athletic training in the secondary schools of West Virginia, as well as to determine how appropriate the current level of athletic healthcare is for West Virginia’s secondary school athletes. Participation surveys from the WVSSAC, membership statistics from the NATA, Friday night football game reports, and documents from the WVDE were used to gather data. Since 1988 the total number of high schools with football and number of football athletes has decreased, while the total number of certified athletic trainers (ATCs) in West Virginia has increased. The number of ATCs …

A History Of The Athletic Career Of E. L. "Dick" Romney, Ray Merrill Boothe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ernest Lowell ("Dick") Romney chose athletics as a career, believing that it was worth-while for himself and for those with whom he would work and teach. He has devoted his entire life to this endeavor and through his many achievements has become one of the most prominent and respected men in his profession. He stands as an example of high ideals and his name is a legend in the Rocky Mountain area.

Placed between Rockne and Roper, in the Football Hall of Fame at Rutgers University in New Jersey, is the name of Romney, E. L. "Dick." Other coaches so …

A Survey Of Athletic Training Departments Of 16 Four Year Colleges In The State Of California, Irving B. Thompson

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The care of the athlete has come into much discussion and has been the object of much research, but all this has come about in recent years. The athlete's health is paramount to a successful team and a conscientious coach; more so is his health important in contact sports with intercollegiate football in the foreground. The interest in football injuries has increased with the increased emphasis of the sport, for the coach is finding it more and more important to have all his players in the best possible condition to withstand the physical and mental strain under which they must …