We examined a model, informed by self-regulation theories from the health psychology literature, which included goal adjustment capacities, appraisals of challenge and threat, coping, and well-being. Two-hundred and twelve athletes from the United Kingdom (n 147)= or Australia (n = 65), who played team (n = 135) or individual sports (n = 77), and competed at international (n = 7), national (n = 11), county (n = 67), club (n = 84), or beginner (n = 43) levels participated in this study. Participants completed measures of goal adjustment capacities and stress appraisals two days before competing. Athletes also completed coping and well-being questionnaires within three hours of their competition ending.The way an athlete responded to an unattainable goal was associated with his or her well-being in the period leading up to and including the competition. Goal reengagement positively predicted well-being, whereas goal disengagement negatively predicted well-being. Further, goal reengagement was positively associated with challenge appraisals, which in turn was linked to task-oriented coping, and task-oriented coping positively associated with well-being.When highly-valued goals become unattainable, consultants and coaches could encourage athletes to generate alternative approaches to achieve the same goal or help them develop a completely new goal in order to promote well-being among athletes

Taking performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) can cause serious and irreversible health consequences, which can ultimately lead to premature death. Some young people may take PEDs without fully understanding the ramifications of their actions or based on the advice from others. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify the main factors that predicted doping among young people. The literature was systematically reviewed using search engines, manually searching specialist journals, and pearl growing. Fifty-two studies, which included 187,288 young people aged between 10 and 21 years of age, 883 parents of adolescent athletes, and 11 adult coaches, who were interviewed regarding young athletes, were included in this review. Nine factors predicted doping among young people: gender; age; sports participation; sport type; psychological variables; entourage; ethnicity; nutritional supplements’ and health harming behaviors. In regards to psychological variables, 22 different constructs were associated with doping among young people. Some psychological constructs were negatively associated with doping (e.g., self-esteem, resisting social pressure, and perfectionist strivings), whereas other were positively associated with doping (e.g., suicide risk, anticipated regret, and aggression). Policy makers and National Anti-Doping Organisations could use these findings to help identify athletes who are more at risk of doping and then expose these individuals to anti-doping education. Based on the current findings, it also appears that education programs should commence at the onset of adolescence or even late childhood, due to the young age in which some individuals start doping.

Background This study examined the effects of the iPlayClean anti-doping intervention on attitudes towards doping and susceptibility, and whether delivery mode affected the results. Methods A total of 1081 high-level UK athletes (14-18 years old, 904 males, 177 females) were cluster-randomised to the control (11 teams/organisations/schools, 314 athletes), face-to-face group presentation (8 teams/organisations/schools, 254 athletes), online (11 teams/organisations/schools, 251 athletes), or face-to-face presentation with online access (5 teams/organisations/schools, 262 athletes). Results Compared to the control group, all modes of the iPlayClean anti-doping education programme reduced favourable attitudes towards doping immediately after the intervention, which was sustained across all intervention groups 8 weeks later. All delivery modes impacted doping susceptibility immediately after the intervention, in comparison to the control group, but the effects were only sustained for the face-to-face presentation group. Conclusion Contrary to findings within previous anti-doping interventions, we have shown that doping attitudes can be changed and that the results can be sustained across all modes of delivery, 8 weeks later. Research is required to assess for how long these changes are sustained, and how often anti-doping education should be delivered to high-level athletes to reinforce clean play values.

Background: Self-management has been an increasingly important aspect of helping people manage their long-term conditions. The aim of this qualitative review was to synthesize the views of physiotherapists concerning their delivery of a self-management approach. Method: A systematic search was conducted on six electronic bibliographic databases to identify relevant primary studies. Studies were assessed for quality and data extracted. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic synthesis. A total of 1189 studies were identified and screened. Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. Results: Findings suggest that for self-management approaches to work, physio-therapists believe that patients need to actively participate. Boundaries on who is the expert were blurred at times with some physiotherapists struggling to relinquish control. High-quality patient–therapist relationships are required to build trust in order to support patients in the self-management of their long-term conditions. It is also important to consider the competing paradigms in which a service is delivered as this may facilitate or hinder self-management. Seeing patients as people is integral to supporting self-management approaches. Conclusion: Physiotherapists are well placed to support self-management but there is still a need for a cultural and paradigmatic shift in the physiotherapy profession and in some environments, this shift as yet is to be realized.

The authors investigated relationships between emotions, coping, and resilience across two studies. In Study 1a, 319 athletes completed dispositional questionnaires relating to the aforementioned constructs. In Study 1b, 126 athletes from Study 1a repeated the same questionnaires 6 months later. In Study 2, 21 athletes were randomly allocated to an emotional (e.g., pleasant or unpleasant emotions) or control group and undertook a laboratory-based reaction-time task across three time points. Questionnaires and salivary cortisol samples were collected before and after each performance with imagery-based emotional manipulations engendered during the second testing session. Partial longitudinal evidence of the broaden-and-build effects of pleasant emotions was found. Pleasant emotions may undo lingering cognitive resource losses incurred from previous unpleasant emotional experiences. In Study 2, pleasant and unpleasant emotions had an immediate and sustained psychophysiological and performance impact. Taken together, this research supports the application of broaden-and-build theory in framing emotional interventions for athletes.