Thesis (M.S.)--Ithaca College, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-72).

Thesis (M.S.)--Eastern Illinois University, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-70).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on October 9, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)-- Springfield College, 2006. / Bibliography: leaves 93-99.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 125 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.M.) Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Jayne M. Standley, Florida State University, College of Music. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed 5-15-2007). Document formatted into pages; contains 36 pages. Includes biographical sketch. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A. in higher education administration)--Washington State University, May 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-94).

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / At present, there is little esearch on athletes' recovery from eating disorders. The research was designed to fill this void through three studies on recovery in athletes who experienced eating disorders. Study #1 included 49 collegiate female athlete participants with current or former eating disorders. They completed on-line questionnaires to determine persons and factors that helped their attempts at recovery as well as to measure their use of coping mechanisms. Mothers and friends were most frequently cited as helpful as well as hurtful to recovery. Not wanting to lose the ability to compete in sport emerged as the most important factor in assisting recovery. Coping mechanisms were interpreted using Folkman and Lazarus's (1980) transactional model. Results revealed that greater recovery was related to more use of problem-focused coping and emotional-approach coping strategies as well as less use of avoidant-style coping. Study #2 utilized in-depth interviews with 17 collegiate female athletes who had achieved at least three months of recovery from an eating disorder in attempt to better understand the recovery process in athletes. Results revealed a life-cycle of an eating disorder which had ultimately led the participants to recovery. The participants' reports indicated a variety of internal and external factors that helped and hindered the recovery process which were discussed and compared to the non-athlete literature. Study #3 provided advice to coaches, parents, and athletes based on the experiences of 16 collegiate female athletes who had achieved at least a three month period of recovery from an eating disorder. Participants most frequently encouraged coaches to address eating disorder symptoms, provide support, and refer athletes to professional care. Parents were encouraged to provide support, recommend professional treatment, avoid critical comments or judgments, and become more educated about eating disorders. Participants most commonly recommended that athletes with eating disorders keep hope for recovery, determine underlying causes of the disorder, and seek professional treatment. The results from all three studies provided implications for the sport community, which were discussed in detail. Overall, results indicated that the ability to participate in sport is a crucial factor in motivating athletes to recover from eating disorders. / 2031-01-02

Recently, mindfulness and decentering have been incorporated into mindfulness- and acceptance- based training programs in the sport context as two important components. Mindfulness is defined as “paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment”, while decentering refers to “stepping outside one’s immediate experience and observing oneself in the process of constructing that experiences”. The purposes of the current study were to develop and validate a sport-specific, self-report, mindfulness measurement, the Athlete Mindfulness Questionnaire (AMQ), and a sport-specific, self-report, decentering scale, the Decentering Scale for Sport (DSS). The psychometric evidence supports the clear three-factor solution of the AMQ with which to measure mindfulness and its key constituents, in the sport context, including present-moment attention, awareness and acceptance. Likewise, the psychometric evidence supports the clear single-factor solution of the DSS which measures decentering in the sport context. Content validation of the initial pool of mindfulness and decentering items, evaluated by experienced researchers and practitioners, yielded high ratings for the components of mindfulness and decentering. Good internal consistency reliability was demonstrated and strong relationships with the other constructs were found, within an independent sample of Chinese athletes for the final 16-item Chinese AMQ. In addition, good internal consistency reliability was demonstrated and strong relationships with the other constructs were found, within three independent samples of Chinese athletes for the 12-item Chinese DSS. One noteworthy finding was that, based on the psychometric evidence using two independent samples of Chinese athletes, the direct-worded items of the acceptance subscale may be more appropriate than the reverse-worded items for use with Chinese athletes. However, an investigation into the direction of acceptance items using additional samples of athletes is recommended for future research. Implications, study limitations, and future directions are discussed.

With the consideration of extending track competition for girls of a middle altitude community to include the sea level valley nearby, the problem for this investigation evolved. The main question to be answered was, "Is the athletic performance of young female athletes, native to middle altitude, impaired when performing at sea level?" Subsidiary problems of the relationship of partial pressure of oxygen to performance, and microhematocrit changes in the subjects were also studied. Eight females between the ages of 12 and 14 participated in this experiment having eight treatments. Four treatments were at sea level and four were at middle altitude. Each treatment included taking a fingertip blood sample for a microhematocrit reading, a 50 yard dash, a 440 yard dash, a softball throw and an 880 yard run. These events were to represent the assortment found at a track meet. Recordings were also made of temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and air pollution. It was hypothesized that; a) the denser air and increased gravitational pull at sea level cause impairment in throwing and short runs; b) with oxygen uptake reduced at altitude, the 880 yard run is faster at sea level than at middle altitude; c) if hematocrits are in the upper portion of the normal range for sea level, the resultant increase in the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood does not improve sea level performance. The findings indicated that physical training and learning progressed markedly from the start of the experiment to the finish, The only significant altitude effect was found in the 50 yard dash with times being faster at sea level. It is doubtful that this was a result of the change in altitude, more likely, conditions other than barometric pressure were responsible for the differences found at the two testing locations. Wind disadvantage and insufficient warm-up more likely accounted for slower times at altitude. Superior performances occurred in warm weather, and when subjects were psychologically peaked indicating that warm-up and psychological climate may be more important to performance than the change of altitude that was employed. Hematocrits remained within normal ranges for middle altitude dwelling females throughout the experiment. Therefore, a coach of healthy young athletes from middle altitude should have no unusual concerns for competition at a related sea level environment. Concerns should be only those normally attended to at all competitions. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate