Sport Psychology, Education and Coaching Research Group: Publications
Publication Spotlight
Tales from the peleton: Stress and coping in professional women’s road cycling
Steven Vaughan, Hayley E. McEwan, Angela Beggan and Amy E. Whitehead
This study used narrative inquiry to explore how professional women cyclists experience stress and cope during races.
Six professional cyclists participated in semi-structured interviews. Using pragmatist narrative inquiry and a reflexive, creative approach, their stories were crafted into first-person narratives and combined into an ethnodrama depicting a fictional women’s race. The resulting ethnodrama, Tension Lines: The Invisible Weight of the Ride, highlights the complex, context-driven nature of stress and coping in women’s professional cycling, moving beyond purely cognitive interpretations. The study offers a nuanced understanding of stress and coping in elite women cyclists. The ethnodrama resonated with non-participant cyclists and may help athlete support personnel better understand the emotional and contextual dynamics of competition stress.
Read Tales from the peloton: Stress and coping in professional women's road cycling.
Co-development of a gamified physical education movement competence intervention with school stakeholders
Jenna Rice, Lawrence Foweather, Jonathan Foulkes, Ceriann Magill, An De Meester, David Stodden, Matthieu Lenoir and Katie Fitton Davies
Movement competence and emotional intelligence are positively associated and important for child development.
This study describes the process of co-developing a gamified PE intervention with school stakeholders to increase Motor Competence and Emotional Intelligence among primary-aged children. A total of 91 children and four classroom teachers from three primary schools participated in a series of co-development workshops. Data from the workshops were thematically analysed and informed the development of three school-specific gamified PE curriculums.
Findings from children included:
- the social and foundational movement skills (FMS) to improve during the intervention
- the enjoyable components of PE, which included skill development and social interaction
- a desire to include more equipment in PE lessons
- games, activities and gamification strategies to incorporate in the intervention
Findings from teachers included:
- the barriers and facilitators to implementing a gamified model in PE
- the successful components of PE lessons
- the overall development of the intervention
This methodology provides a framework for co-developing PE interventions within a school context. Results provide strategies to operationalise gamification. Future research should explore the feasibility and acceptability of the co-developed interventions to increase MC and EI.
Experiencing the “Unpredictable Inevitables”: Creating Opportunities on a Taught Master’s Program for Structured One-to-One Physical Activity Behavior-Change Support for Adolescent Girls (The HERizon Project)
Hannah Clare Wood, Laura Carey, Emma S. Cowley, Isabella Cacciatore, Jennifer Ballinger, Ellie Glover, Payal Gore, Amelia Simpson, Nicole Wells, Chiara Mansfield, Gabriella Whitcomb-Khan, and Paula M. Watson
This case study presents the experiences of MSc Sport Psychology students delivering a psychologically informed behavior-change intervention within the context of a PhD research project to develop their applied practice skills. We aimed to provide an example of how higher education providers can create such an opportunity for master’s students to conduct individualized support sessions in a safe and structured environment, while preserving the autonomy needed for professional growth.
The placement was situated within the HERizon project (conducted between 2021 and 2022), an online physical activity behavior-change intervention for adolescent girls. MSc students worked as “Activity Mentors” and provided weekly one-to-one support for participants via video calls. In this case study, we reflect on what we learned as both students and supervisors responsible for the delivery of HERizon, both immediately after completing the project and 3 years after the experience, and offer recommendations for future practice.
Development and Further Content Validation of the Motivation Assessment Toot for Physical Activity (MATPA) Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Mi An, Takehiro Sasai, Ryotaro Ito, Mayumi Inoue, Misa Komaki, Yusuke Kusano, Ami Tabata, Farid Bardid, Katie Fitton Davies, Lawrence Foweather, Zoe Knowles, Simon J. Roberts, James Rudd and Toshihiro Kato
This paper builds on Katie’s PhD and was an international collaboration with colleagues at LJMU and Kansai Medical University in Osaka, Japan. This publication is the first of two empirical studies to validate Katie’s MAT-PE motivational tool across physical activity domains (MAT-PA) with children with autism spectrum disorder. The purpose of this study was to establish further content validity in relation to the MAT-PA (picture resources, instructions, motivational items, response options and recall period).