Stresses and distresses of professional Taiwanese tennis players and resources they use to cope

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Description
Playing tennis professionally is a stressful profession. However, it has the potential to be even more stressful for players who must move from their home country in order to train. If not dealt with, these stresses have the potential of

Playing tennis professionally is a stressful profession. However, it has the potential to be even more stressful for players who must move from their home country in order to train. If not dealt with, these stresses have the potential of causing many negative outcomes, including increasing levels of distress, in these professional tennis players. It is known that resources play a role in reducing or buffering levels of stress and distress among individuals, but there are competing theories as to how this occurs. Using Ensel and Lin's models of stress processes, this is an exploratory study that identifies the stresses and distresses professional Taiwanese tennis players face and the resources they use to cope. Participants included in this study are professional Taiwanese tennis players (2 males and 2 females) who continuously attend national and international tennis competitions and have both domestic and world ranks. Results from the semi-structured interviews revealed that challenges, frustration, resources, and toughness were four general themes to describe stresses and distresses professional Taiwanese tennis players face and the resources they use to cope. Future research for professional tennis players is also discussed.
Date Created
2011
Agent

Effects of attitudes, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and bike rodeo participation on Intention to bike safely

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Description
Thousands of children are being injured every day in bicycling accidents. Interventions, like Safe Routes to School, are currently in place to combat injury rates by providing programs to teach children safe biking behaviors. In order to develo

Thousands of children are being injured every day in bicycling accidents. Interventions, like Safe Routes to School, are currently in place to combat injury rates by providing programs to teach children safe biking behaviors. In order to develop effective behavioral change programs, behavior and the components of which it is composed must be understood. Attitudes, subjective norms, and self-efficacy are important predictors of intention to perform a behavior. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the extent to which attitude, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and bike rodeo participation explain third through eighth graders' intentions to bike safely. These constructs were tested using a survey research design in a purposive sample of fifty-seven third through eighth grade students in Safe Routes to School schools in the Southwest. Students took an online survey in the computer lab at their respective schools supervised by a teacher. The study found attitudes to be comprised of three factors: happy/safe, not afraid, and calm. Overall, the model explained approximately 71% of the variance in children's intentions to bike safely, R2=.749, Adjusted R2=.713, F(7, 49)=20.854, p<.01. The significant predictors were happy/safe attitudes, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and a quadratic self-efficacy term explaining 10% (p=.019), 28% (p<.01), 18% (p<.01), and 15% (p<.01) respectively. The results of the study can be used to create future and improve current bike safety interventions for children.
Date Created
2011
Agent