Sports Studies Commons^™

Belaytionships Before Bros: Qualitative Analysis Of Gender Identity And Climbing, Samuel G. Crawford

Graduate Research Posters

Background. Sociological study of queer representation in sports has historically focused on gender within team sports, but less is known about these dynamics in more individual-oriented sports like climbing. Sociological scholarship on these dynamics in climbing has been relatively sparse. More mainstream analyses of queer issues in sports generally could potentially help examine these concepts. However, my experiences as a climber and former industry professional led me to believe that a more targeted qualitative sociological approach would provide valuable insight and perspective, particularly regarding this sports comparison.

Methods. This analysis draws upon ethnographic observation of a climbing gym in the …

Phenomenological Study Into The Role Of Self-Efficacy In Minority Student-Athletes' Sport Performance, Tomas A. Singhgolden

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in their ability to successfully complete a task, which can be derived from four sources of information (i.e., past performance, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states). The role of self-efficacy in sporting performance is well documented as being positively associated with enhanced performance across multiple levels of sport (e.g., Olympic, collegiate athletes). Specifically, with collegiate athletes, high levels of reported self-efficacy have resulted in higher performance accomplishments. Although self-efficacy has been researched within sports, there is a dearth of knowledge examining ethnic minority athletes’ perceptions of self-efficacy related to their athletic performance. The aim …

Career Progression And Experiences Of Late Career Women Strength And Conditioning Coaches, Marla Df Gladstone

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Women in strength and conditioning roles at the NCAA Division I level account for approximately 16% of the S&C coaching professionals (NCAA, 2022). Between 2000 and 2022, only six studies have examined the population of female strength and conditioning coaches (SCC). The aim of this project was to understand the challenges women SCC have experienced reaching, entering, and sustaining to late career. Another goal was to learn how women SCC navigated through the barriers within the coaching profession. Due to the construction of gender in organizations, role congruity theory has been used to analyze the experiences of women in sport …

U.S Fans’ Identification With La Liga Teams, Pilar Barrio Sánchez

Masters Theses

This study explores LaLiga fandom in the U.S. by examining fan identification, loyalty, and commitment to their favorite LaLiga team. Moreover, the study explored the reasons why fans first choose their favorite team to support as well as their motives to watch or attend soccer games. To do so, a mixed method approach was used in which participants from LaLiga teams around the U.S. were asked to complete a survey questionnaire and participate in an in-depth interview. Based on the findings, the discussion identifies key strategic considerations and needs of future research for LaLiga to better adjust its communication strategies …

A Picture Worth A Thousand Words: Factors Influencing Disability Accommodations, Alicia E. Martin

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Because not all disabilities look the same it is difficult to label a person with disabilities just by looking at them. Given that our knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions impact how we interpret our world and our willingness to act, people, including professors, may be biased toward providing accommodations for those with easily recognizable disabilities and biased against those with non-recognizable disabilities, and this may impact the disabled person’s ability to learn. This thesis aims to address whether professors’ disability-related attitudes, perceptions of accommodation reasonableness, and willingness to provide accommodations differ when the disability is recognizable (student is pictured in a …

Fall Risk Among Older Adults: Major Risk Factors, Primary Assessment Tools, And The Influence Of Medications, Marie Roseann Jensen

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Fall risk among older adult is a worldwide public health problem. As the older adult population is continuing to increase, addressing this issue is critical. Several fall risk assessment tools have been designed to help predict various risk factors. Among these assessment tools is the Hendrich II Fall Risk Model (HIIFRM). This tool uses evidence-based risk factors including mental status, sex, functional status, and whether the patient is taking antileptics and/or benzodiazepines. The purpose of this paper is to validate the HFRM, explore additional variables that increase the likelihood of falling including both past falls and the number of prescription …

Exercise Behavior And Recreational Sports Participation Predicts Academic Success In University Students, Natalie Matian

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Most universities offer fitness and recreational opportunities. Few prospective studies have measured the effect of those services on academic outcomes. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of exercise behavior and recreational sport participation on student success. We tracked 1,507 students at a private D1 university for 4 years. Upon completion of the 2017-2018 academic year, we exported a registry of every undergraduate student who accessed the university fitness center. We documented how often students swiped into the recreation facility and participated in group exercise classes, personal training sessions, and rock tower usage; these served as independent …

Utilization-Focused Evaluation On The Impact Of A Sports-Based Youth Development On Unaccompanied Youth Students, Eric Cortez

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Unaccompanied immigrant youth (UIY) face obstacles that can hinder their education in their host countries. Given that educational attainment can help interrupt intergenerational cycles of poverty, the examination of support systems for UIY is critical. This study examined the role of sports-based youth development (SBYD) programs in supporting UIY students using a utilization-focused evaluation. To do this, two groups’ high school graduation rates were compared: (a) UIY participating in an SBYD program and (b) UIY not participating in a SYBD program. In addition to this quantitative analysis, UIY were surveyed and interviewed to contextualize the results of the graduation rate …

Behavioral Skill Training: A Single-Case Meta-Analysis, Jaime Flowers, Jessica Cuitareo, Jillian Dawes Phd.

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Behavioral skills training (BST), is a commonly used training procedure in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) that is designed to improve teaching new and desirable behaviors or skills. Research has demonstrated that BST is effective for training a variety of skills. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the effectiveness of BST across age groups and training topics. Many of the published studies using BST are single-case designs. To evaluate these studies, a single-case meta-analysis was conducted which used percentage of non-overlapping data (PND), percentage of all overlapping data (PAND), and nonoverlap of all pairs (NAP). BST was found to …

The Impact Of Weighted Football Training On The Skill Acquisition Processes Of Place-Kicking In Sport, Sam Jermyn

Theses

Weighted implement training (WIT) involves performance of sport-specific motor skills with heavier-than-normal sporting implements. Typically, full range of motion (ROM) and similar kinematic characteristics of the respective motor skill are maintained concurrent to minimal changes in the force-velocity movement profile. While the majority of WIT research has been conducted in baseball, track and field, and cricket, there is a paucity of research conducted in the football codes, particularly Gaelic football. Existing observations of increased standard implement velocity and distance following the use of weighted implements infers potential benefits for Gaelic football performance, such as increasing kick-out ball velocity (BV) and …

Heterotopic Sports Coaching: Facilitating Epistemic Revolution, Sebastian D. L. Harvey

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Sports culture, including its traditional coaching practices and norms aligned with orthodox masculinity, has profound negative implications for the mental health and well-being of athletes. To improve athlete mental health and well-being sports coaching must challenge harmful cultural norms. Sports coaching has repeatedly been problematized through a poststructuralist Foucauldian lens; however, predominantly absent from the literature is Foucault’s concept of heterotopia that enables rule-breaking practices to exist. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is two-fold: (a) to explore Foucault’s heterotopia within the context of sports coaching and (b) to demonstrate its use in altering the culture of sports. I begin …

Strengths-Based Leadership Traits In Intercollegiate Student-Athletes, Caitlin Thilges

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to examine the top five HIGH5 leadership strengths of collegiate level student-athletes in relation to formal and informal leaders. Collegiate student-athletes (N = 97) completed the HIGH5 Test, designed to assess leadership strengths. A frequency analysis was conducted on the whole population resulting in the strengths of: Coach, Empathizer, Deliverer, Time Keeper, and Philomath emerging as prominent. Formal and informal leaders’ strengths were also analyzed. Emergent strengths shared between formal and informal leaders were: Deliverer, Time Keeper, Coach, and Empathizer. Whereas the strength of Believer emerged in formal leaders and Optimist and Thinker emerged …

An Exploration Of Commitment In Walk-On Athletes, Clint Huemann

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to examine two types of commitment with intercollegiate athletes as well as differences between walk-on (non-scholarship) athletes and scholarship athletes (partial/full) using the sport commitment model (SCM; Scanlan et al., 2016). Participants included 153 Division I athletes (54 males, 98 females, & 1 nonbinary) from 12 different intercollegiate sports at the University of Northern Iowa. These participants were between the ages of 18 and 24 years of age (M = 20.26 years, SD = 1.31). Approximately 35% of the participants were on a full scholarship, 41.8% were on partial scholarship, and 22.9% of the …

Exploring The Conceptualizations And Utilizations Of Learning Theories In Sport Settings, Kevin R. Lou

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to identify how integrating learning theories into the design of a formal university course helps facilitate students’ resources, goals, and orientations (Schoenfeld, 2011) of learning theories for their future career work in coaching, sport psychology consulting, or other sport-related professions. Sixteen students signed up for a fifteen-week fall semester course at a Mid-Atlantic university in America and were asked to annotate, create, and reflect upon examples of future work in their desired fields for their three major written assignments in the course. Students reflected on their learning experience through pre-and-post semi-structured interviews and most …

“Building The Roots”: A Delphi Study Examining The Aims Of A Multicultural Competency Graduate Course In Sport And Exercise Psychology, Matthew Paul Gonzalez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Historically, opportunities to develop cultural competency in sport and exercise psychology graduate programs have been limited (Lee, 2015). Recently, major sport psychology organizations across the world have started to require cultural competency in their credentialing requirements. While this represents progress, these requirements can be met with a single course, which falls below the ideal of integrated cultural competency education (Martens et al., 2000). The present study investigated how to maximize the quality of a single course by coming to agreement on a proposed set of impactful and feasible learning outcomes and assessments in that proposed single course related to cultural …

Sexual Misconduct Against Female Athletes: Knowledge, Training, And Readiness To Act Of Future Sport Leaders, Mackenzie B. Luikart

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study is to understand the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of current education in sport related degree programs and the impact that has on future and current sport leaders to confront and report sexual misconduct in sport.

A total of 15 participants were selected to participate in this study. The participants for this study include current graduate students pursuing degree programs in either coaching studies or sport management, and graduates of these two programs (within the last five years) who are currently in the workforce in their respective fields. Most participants were white, female, and currently served a …

How Do College Student-Athletes’ Understanding And Expectations Of Mindfulness And Self-Compassion Change Through An Intervention?, Blake Costalupes

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In the last two decades, mindfulness has permeated sport, exercise, and performance psychology (SEPP). Mindfulness research in SEPP primarily focuses on the efficacy of manualized protocols on various outcomes related to performance and wellbeing; how athletes understand this complex construct, though, is largely unexplored in the literature. Additionally, some researchers suggest that the potentially paradoxical adoption of mindfulness in Western psychology may be contributing to limited outcomes, low engagement in, and poor adherence to mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). In addition, the exploration of self-compassion as a mechanism for change through mindfulness practice has increased in recent years, making it an important …

Longitudinal Sport Science Implementation In American Collegiate Men’S Basketball, Jason Stone

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The expanding opportunities to implement sport science frameworks in elite-level basketball environments coincide with the sport’s increasing global prominence. Concomitant to these opportunities is the continual growth of the sport technology market (e.g., wearables, force plates) and computational power (e.g., data management tools, coding capabilities), which yields solutions and challenges for both athletes and practitioners. Due to the rapid influx of new sport technologies in high performance environments, particularly American Collegiate Men’s Basketball, more formal and ecologically valid research on how to effectively utilize data derived from them, particularly over long periods of time (i.e., multiple seasons) is needed. To …