TeesRep Collection:

Development and evaluation of a core training programme in highly trained swimmers

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Development and evaluation of a core training programme in highly trained swimmers Authors: Hibbs, A. E. (Angela) Abstract: Core training is a popular technique for athletes and coaches concerned with improving sports performance. Achieving an appropriate level of muscular activation is a vital ingredient in a successful training programme. However, the evidence base with regard to the effectiveness of core training on improving an athlete’s core ability and resultant sporting performance is limited. This thesis aims to 1) develop a core training programme for highly trained swimmers and 2) evaluate its effect on sporting performance using the Medical Research Council (MRC) framework for developing complex interventions. The thesis outlines current theories and findings in both the clinical and sporting sectors regarding core stability and core strength training and also the MRC framework. It determines the most appropriate method of measuring muscular activation of the core muscles (EMG) and establishes the reliability of the technique for assessing different exercises. Key core muscles were found to produce significantly reliable (P < 0.05) measurements of below 25% CV and > 0.7 ICC values while performing MVIC and core training exercises. Subsequently, popular low and high threshold core training exercises were analysed and muscle activation levels of 1 - 110% MVIC were identified. A new training programme was developed and tested on a group of highly trained swimmers over 6 and 12 week training intervention periods. Significant improvements (P < 0.05) and a large likelihood of beneficial improvement during the performance tests were observed following 6 and 12 weeks of training (P < 0.05) along with significant reductions in muscle activation (%MVIC) during the performance tests and training exercises. Conclusions from the intervention studies are used to develop a theoretical model outlining how to structure an effective core training programme for highly trained athletes. It is proposed that this model could be used by coaches and athletes to help plan, conduct and evaluate their core training to maximise the potential benefits that core training could have on sporting performance.

An electronic coping-enhancement programme for bereaved women addressing psychosocial factors in breast-cancer development

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Title: An electronic coping-enhancement programme for bereaved women addressing psychosocial factors in breast-cancer development Authors: Eberhardt, J. (Judith) Abstract: Conventional breast-cancer prevention strategies tend to focus on the reduction of physical breast-cancer risk factors while neglecting psychosocial factors potentially associated with its development. Yet, there is a wealth of evidence linking psychosocial factors such as the occurrence of and maladaptive coping with bereavement and other stressful life events, certain personality traits, and a lack of social support, to breast-cancer incidence, survival and mortality.This thesis aimed to design, implement and evaluate an electronic Coping-Enhancement Programme for the Bereaved (CEPB), addressing such psychosocial factors. Furthermore, participants’ experiences of the programme were to be explored. An experimental 2x2 independent measures design with triangulation was used, employing qualitative and quantitative methodology. Participants’ experiences were elicited qualitatively through blogs and message boards. The two independent variables were (1) emotional-expression-and-stress-reduction (EESR), and (2) psycho-education. Dependent variables were: (1) maladaptive coping with bereavement, (2) maladaptive coping with stressful life events, (3) social support, and (4) awareness of the connections between psychological and physical health. An additional dependent variable was conformity. A Web site containing message boards and blogs was created. Thirty-one women completed a psychological screening form and were then randomly assigned to one of four conditions (EESR-only, psycho-education-only, EESR-plus-pyscho-education, or the control group who received no intervention). They participated in online exercises designed to aid emotional expression and stress reduction (‘Art and Laughter for Wellbeing’) and/or received psycho-education through the reading of autobiographical accounts of breast-cancer sufferers. Participants were analysed on the dependent variables three times: before the programme to obtain a baseline measurement, after the programme, and at six-week follow-up. Thematic analysis was used to illustrate the process of the CEPB, as well as to confirm or disconfirm quantitative results. Analyses of covariance revealed that after the programme, taking part in ‘Art and Laughter for Wellbeing’ was associated with lower maladaptive coping with bereavement, while reading autobiographical accounts of breast-cancer sufferers was associated with lower maladaptive coping with stressful life events. Participation in both conditions was associated with higher levels of social support, and taking part in either condition was associated with lower levels of conformity. The latter effect persisted at follow-up. Mixed analyses of variance showed changes over time in three dependent variables. The CEPB was generally viewed as useful, helpful and enjoyable by participants. Implications for future research are discussed, and a biopsychosocial model of breast-cancer prevention is proposed.

Developing a psychological model of end-users’ experience with news Web sites

Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Developing a psychological model of end-users’ experience with news Web sites Authors: Aranyi, G. (Gabor) Abstract: The primary aim of the research project presented in this thesis was to develop and test a comprehensive psychological model of interaction experience with news Web sites. Although news media have been publishing on the Web increasingly since the second half of the 1990s and news sites have become a favoured source of news for many, there is a lack of knowledge about news sites in terms of interaction-experience constructs and their structural relationships. The project aimed to examine people’s use of news sites from the perspective of interaction-experience research by developing a model and, based on this model, to provide guidance for designers of news sites. The project comprises three research phases: (1) exploratory phase, (2) modelling phase and (3) experimental phase. In the exploratory phase, a review of literature and an exploratory study of interaction experience with news Web sites were conducted. The latter explored how users of a particular news site interact with the site and which aspects of their experience they report. Data for the exploratory study were collected with an online questionnaire and by recording participants’ use of a news site under think-aloud instructions. In the modelling phase, an online questionnaire was used to collect answers to psychometric scales that were selected based on the literature review and the exploratory study. A measurement model was formulated to test the relationship between measurement items and the measurement scales, and structural models were formulated to test hypotheses related to the structural relationships of variables. Following the test results, a model of interaction experience with news sites was formulated to predict outcome measures of interaction experience from variables measuring aspects of interaction experience. Components of interaction experience, in turn, were predicted from measures of perceived news-site characteristics. In the experimental phase, an experiment was conducted to test the model of interaction experience with news sites in a controlled setting. Additionally, measures of person- and context characteristics were included in the prediction of components of interaction experience. The model of interaction experience with news sites was supported and accounted for a medium to substantial amount of variance in outcome measures. Finally, design guidance was derived from the model to advance interaction-experience knowledge, and conclusions were drawn regarding the model, in relation to existing research.

Social capital and the Irish drug scene: Rural youth, cocaine and Irish travellers

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Social capital and the Irish drug scene: Rural youth, cocaine and Irish travellers Authors: Van Hout, M. C. (Marie Claire) Abstract: National prevalence surveys indicate that lifetime and recreational drug use among all social classes have increased steadily over the last decade in Ireland (Moran et al., 2001a, Mayock, 2002, National Advisory Committee on Drugs, 2008a). Drugs research has been traditionally based on the identification, weighting and interrelatedness of risk and protective factors within a "risk prevention paradigm". This paradigm has been criticised for its lack of inclusion of individual, group and wider structural aspects, and occurs within a greater awareness of greater social discourse and societal shifts. The research papers in this portfolio of work are thematically analysed and conceptualised within the theoretical framework of cognitive and structural social capital. The descriptive research and later, more conceptual papers investigating drug use among rural youth, Travellers and cocaine use, are thereby explored in terms of the potential ‘normalisation of rural youth drug use’ within contemporary risk discourse, the assimilatory threat of increasing drug use among the ‘Traveller community’., and the emergence of the ‘recreational cocaine user’ in Irish society. The social processes of individualisation, reciprocity and trust which constitute social capital are deemed to provide potent collective frameworks for the navigation of risk in day to day ‘localised’ settings. The ‘interrelated normative frameworks’ and ‘processes of risk neutralisation’ are underpinned within a wider social capital understanding of the meaning of drug activity in associational life based on ‘interpersonal and institutional trust’ and ‘mutual resource acquisition’. Contemporary drug policies must consider the contextual constraints of the ‘risk society’, which impact on inherent individual ‘power resources’, whereby individual agency and drug taking is better understood within situational agency of ‘localised’ social, gender, ethnic and cultural capital.