The purpose of this research was to investigate if various psychological wellbeing assessments can predict maximal strength performance and self-scored rating of perceived exertion (RPE) in the back squat. Fifty-eight resistance-trained males and females were recruited, and reported to the laboratory on one day. Subjects completed eight different scales and questionnaires before completing one-repetition maximum (1RM) testing of the squat, followed by two single-repetition sets at 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, and 90% of 1RM, and a set to volitional fatigue at 70% of 1RM. Cognitive anxiety and hypersomnia were found to be positive and negative predictors (p<0.05), respectively, of 1RM performance. Further, self-confidence, grit, and perceived recovery status were significant negative predictors of RPE (p<0.05). Finally, PRS was discovered to be a positive predictor of subject-reported 1RM self-efficacy (b=0.39, t=3.14, p<0.01, R2=0.15). / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between green environments and resilience in older adults. It had two aims: 1) to explore the effect of a reflective garden walking program on resilience and three of its related concepts - erceived stress, personal growth initiative, and quality of life - in older adults, and 2) to explore the resilience patterns of older adults engaging in the reflective garden walking intervention. A parallel mixed method design using a quasi-experimental quantitative and a descriptive exploratory qualitative approach was used. Participants engaged in a six week reflective garden walking program. By the end of the program, resilience levels exhibited a slight increase and perceived stress levels a decrease. The qualitative data supported some beneficial effects of the reflective garden walking program, but also indicated that much of the participants' experience of resilience may have been related to the rich social and nature-filled environment in which already they lived. Patterns of resilience that appeared in the data were maintaining a positive attitude, belief in one's self in the face of one's vulnerabilities, woven into the social fabric, purpose and meaning, personal strength, and communities for growing older. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Tang Chi-wing, Wendy = 飲品味道對炎熱中運動的華籍男女小童之體液平衡及體温調節之影響 / 鄧稚穎. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-86). / Text in English; abstracts in English and Chinese. / Tang Chi-wing, Wendy = Yin pin wei dao dui yan re zhong yun dong de hua ji nan nü xiao tong zhi ti ye ping heng ji ti wen diao jie zhi ying xiang / Deng Zhiying. / Dedication --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.ii / Abstract --- p.iii / Table of Contents --- p.vi / List of Tables --- p.viii / List of Figure --- p.ix / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Background --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Purpose of the Study --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3 --- Hypotheses --- p.5 / Chapter 1.4 --- Definition of Terms --- p.6 / Chapter 1.5 --- Assumptions --- p.7 / Chapter 1.6 --- Delimitations --- p.7 / Chapter 1.7 --- Limitations --- p.8 / Chapter 1.8 --- Significance of Study --- p.8 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- REVIEW OF LITERATURE --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1 --- Water Balance during Exercise --- p.9 / Chapter 2.2 --- Effect of Dehydration on Human Body during Exercise --- p.11 / Chapter 2.3 --- Physiological Responses of Dehydration for Children when Exercising in the Heat --- p.17 / Chapter 2.4 --- Effect of Fluid Ingestion during Exercise --- p.20 / Chapter 2.5 --- Drivers of Fluid Replacement --- p.23 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE --- METHODOLOGY --- p.30 / Chapter 3.1 --- Participants --- p.30 / Chapter 3.2 --- Equipment and Instrumentation --- p.31 / Chapter 3.3 --- Preliminary Measurement --- p.31 / Chapter 3.4 --- Study Design and Procedures --- p.35 / Chapter 3.5 --- Collection and Analysis of Blood Samples --- p.44 / Chapter 3.6 --- Statistical Analysis --- p.44 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR --- RESULTS --- p.46 / Chapter 4.1 --- Exercise Intensity --- p.46 / Chapter 4.2 --- Body Fluid Balance --- p.50 / Chapter 4.3 --- Thermoregulatory Responses --- p.61 / Chapter 4.4 --- Taste Perception Analysis --- p.62 / Chapter 4.5 --- Summary of the Results --- p.66 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE --- DISCUSSION --- p.67 / Recommendations and Applications --- p.73 / REFERENCES --- p.74 / APPENDIXES --- p.87

This paper examines the following three concepts: development, shalom and sport. It is the findings of this paper that a holistic understanding of the Biblical concept of shalom, provides an appropriate, Christian premise for examining existing development initiatives and for informing intended development praxis. Furthermore the paper argues that sport is a morally neutral activity, which can have positive influences for society, and is a very effective tool that can be used to pursue a shalom-informed form of development. This is true, regardless of the fact that sport can often be corrupted with negative results. Finally, sport can aid the church in many ways. In particular, sport is a constructive tool for the church to use with regard to friendship-building, cross-cultural relations and church unity. Furthermore, since the church is a major player in the field of development, when the church uses sport to accomplish the above, development is enhanced. Also, the church can help be a moral voice to the areas of sport that are corrupt and it can support initiatives that provide preventative incentives to negative elements within society. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

Previous research has established a relationship between exercise and cognition, with more emphasis on this ascertained link, being made on the effects of long term and endurance exercise on cognition. However, enhanced worker effectiveness relies on a strong acute collaboration of physical and cognitive performance during task execution. As a result, the purpose of this study was to examine the acute effects of extended aerobic exercise on visual perception, working memory and motor responses, and to achieve this 24 participants (12 males and 12 females) aged between 18 and 24 participated in a 2 bout cycling exercise. The experimental condition had cycling resistance set at 60 percent of each individual’s maximum aerobic output and the control condition had zero cycling resistance, where three cognitive tasks were performed at 10 minute intervals during the cycling exercise. The results showed that exercise did not affect any significant changes on the cognitive performance measures over the entire cycling duration, as well as during the exercise phase (cycling with resistance). However, visual perception improved significantly (p<0.05) immediately after exercise. This led to the conclusion that moderate to high intensity exercise when performed for an extended duration, has selective effects on certain cognitive performance measures, with the time at which the performance is measured during the exercise being a relevant factor to be considered for maximum activation effects of the exercise.

Little research has examined the role of physical activity in relationship functioning. Utilizing two heterosexual subsamples of 618 females and 155 males, results indicated that physical activity was positively correlated with sexual satisfaction and self-esteem for the female subsample, but was not significant for the male subsample. For both subsamples, although physical activity was not a significant unique predictor of relationship functioning in regression analyses, sexual satisfaction and self-esteem each significantly contributed the variance relationship functioning. The findings of this study increase our knowledge of mechanisms that impact sexual satisfaction, self-esteem, and physical activity among women, which in turn can potentially guide treatment planning and interventions.

Physical activity has been demonstrated in the literature as an effective way to reduce the risk for development of chronic disease. The Transtheoretical Model (TTM) of behavior change has been developed as a means to predict and facilitate movement into healthier lifestyle behaviors. The model is centered on "stages of change", which describe a continuum of readiness to engage in a health behavior change. Stages contain temporal, qualitative, and quantitative characteristics. This was a six-month study that evaluated the effectiveness of stage-matched (theorized to be pertaining only to the maintenance stage of change) vs. generic (theorized to be pertaining to anyone, regardless of stage) newsletters in assisting subjects to attain the Maintenance stage of change. It also sought to identify further qualitative characteristics that can differentiate between the Action and Maintenance stages of change. Results indicated that monthly stage-matched newsletters were no more effective in helping subjects reaching Maintenance than were the generic newsletters. Exerciser self-schema was related to stages of change, but those relationships differed from baseline to six-month follow-up, indicating development of exerciser self-schema during the study period. Implications of this are discussed. Other concepts discussed included "structure" of change process, in that three new scores were developed and correlated with self-efficacy as well as intercorrelated. Motivation was also evaluated and compared across levels of success at adhering to exercise during a three-month period. Limitations of the study and implications are discussed.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Stroke is a sudden and devastating medical condition. People who experience a stroke tend to have long-term physical limitations including impaired walking as part of the ongoing consequences of stroke. While a variety of rehabilitation interventions have demonstrated efficacy for improving walking after stroke, none of the interventions have emerged as superior, and prior to this study, therapeutic-yoga had not been tested as an intervention to improve walking recovery after stroke. METHODS: This study was a secondary data analysis of group therapeutic-yoga on walking recovery measures including walking speed, walking distance, and spatiotemporal step parameter symmetry. The walking recovery measures were collected as secondary outcomes in a sub-sample (n=12) in a pilot randomized controlled study (n=47) designed to test the efficacy of 8-weeks of group therapeutic-yoga on balance and fear of falling. Participants in the current study completed 12-weeks of group therapeutic yoga with outcome assessments at baseline, 8-weeks, and 12-weeks. The main analysis was repeated measures ANOVA to assess the main effect of time with additional analyses including effect sizes, percent of participants achieving change greater than or equal to minimal detectable change (MDC), and mean change score comparisons between baseline and 8-weeks, 8-weeks and 12-weeks, and baseline and 12-weeks. RESULTS: Twelve people with chronic stroke enrolled in the study with 9 completing the intervention and all 3 assessments. No significant main effect of time was found on any of the variables of interest. Walking distance demonstrated a trend toward significant change (p=0.064) and step length symmetry demonstrated significant change (p=0.05) between baseline and 12-weeks. Several spatiotemporal step parameter symmetry ratios demonstrated small to medium effect sizes with the majority (91%) being a negative effect. CONCLUSION: Twelve weeks of group therapeutic-yoga appears to be feasible in a population of people with chronic stroke. Walking distance and step parameter symmetry should be tested in a larger sample. An improved understanding of the impact, progression, and remediation of walking asymmetry is needed.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / Students who transition from school to tertiary institutions can experience stressors which lead to anxiety and depression. This can be alleviated by exercise. Limited research has been undertaken about exercise and the alleviation of depression amongst tertiary education students in South Africa. The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of exercise on depression, anxiety, and self-esteem on first-year students registered at the University of Venda (UNIVEN). A quantitative approach using a cross-sectional survey design was used. The study sample consisted of 320 randomly selected first-year students, 160 students who exercised regularly and 160 students who did not exercise at all. Data was collected using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE), The Becks Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Becks Depression Inventory-11 (BDI-11). The study was theoretically underpinned by the trans theoretical model (TTM). Data analysis used both non-inferential and inferential statics that is, descriptive statistics, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and logistic regression analysis. The findings supported those found in previous research, both locally and internationally. The hypotheses of this study were fully supported by the results. Results pertaining to age and gender in this study revealed that there were no significant differences in scores. Additionally, respondents that had higher levels of anxiety, due to not exercising, were linked to pre-contemplation in the TTM. It was determined that these respondents were not aware of exercise as an intervention to enhance their overall well-being and mental health. Generally, the research contributes to understandings of the impact of exercise as an intervention in mental health challenges in first year tertiary education students. The exercise guidelines developed out of this research will help the Department of Education (DoE), UNIVEN and tertiary institutions generally in providing exercise interventions to undergraduate students in the tertiary education sector / National Research Foundation (NRF)

Background. Caregivers of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are a highly stressed group and their parenting stress has been linked to increased depression, anxiety, and reduced parenting self-efficacy (Osborne & Reed, 2008; Rezendes & Scarpa, 2011; Weiss & Lunsky, 2011). Given these areas of concern that parents of children with autism experience, there is a need to look more closely at modifiable factors that improve parental well-being. As such, health habit behaviors, including sleep, diet, exercise, and substance use are modifiable factors demonstrated to be causally related to well-being in adults. The present dissertation consists of two studies that explored how parents’ engagement in health habits (sleep, diet, exercise, and substance use) related to their well-being (stress and depression) and explored the possible determinants of health habit engagement. Specifically, how parental characteristics (both psychological and demographic), social support (both relationship-based and resource-related), and child factors (child behavior and demographic variables), relate to parents’ engagement in these habits. And, in study two, these exploratory analyses went further by examining how parent’s engagement in healthy habits relates to the observed parenting quality. Methods and Results: Study 1. Study one was a needs assessment completed by mothers and fathers (n=68) of children in an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) early intervention program in the northeastern United States, all at-risk for a developmental disability, many of whom were at risk for developing ASD. Parents completed questionnaires that included questions about their healthy habit engagement adapted from the Promise Neighborhoods RFA Indicators and the Promise Neighborhoods Research Consortium [PNRC] Measurement System (Promise Neighborhoods Research Consortium: Measures, 2001) as well as those related to parent, social support, and child characteristics. Parental characteristics included demographic characteristics of caregiver age and education level along with questionnaires on the parent’s psychological functioning; a measure of well-being (WHO-5; Topp, Østergaard, Søndergaard, & Bech, 2015), parental stress (PSI-4; Abidin, 2012), and caregiver depressive symptoms (PHQ-9; Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001). Questionnaires covering the second domain of social support included a measure of perceived social support (Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL-12); Cohen & Hoberman, 1983), marital satisfaction (Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale; Schumm et al., 1986a), household income, and caregiver nativity. Questionnaires covering the third domain of child factors included a measure of child sleep problems (Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire; Owens, Spirito, & McGuinn, 2000), the ratio of children to adults in the home, child age, and child gender. Overall, about half of the caregivers reported an insufficient amount of sleep (less than 7 hours on average). A third of caregivers reported they did not exercise at all. Only a third reported eating breakfast every day, half ate only one serving of fruit most days and one serving of vegetables a day, half ate family meals prepared at home almost every day, a third ate fast food regularly, about half were told to lose weight. Most did not smoke or drink alcohol regularly. Additionally, about 30% reported elevated levels of depressive symptoms and elevated levels of parental stress. Significant relationships were found between parental characteristics, social support, child factors, and healthy habit engagement. Of note, caregiver stress, depression, and well-being were related adversely to mother’s sleep, diet, and substance use. Perceived social support was positively related to sleep, marital satisfaction negatively to smoking, household income negatively to diet and alcohol consumption, and nativity positively to sleep, diet, and alcohol consumption. No correlations were found with child factors and healthy habits. Examining a regression model of the facilitators and barriers to healthy habit engagement, caregiver well-being positively related (t=4.015, p<.001) while child sleep disruptions negatively related to healthy habit engagement (t=-2.344, p=.026). Additionally, depression was found tomediate the relationship between healthy habit engagement and parental stress using PROCESS (CI= (-1.811, -.324), R2=.274). Methods and Results: Study 2. Study two aimed to narrow in on a specific population of mothers of preschool-aged children with autism. Participants were 46 mother-child dyads, with children ages 2-6 to 5-6 recruited from a preschool utilizing an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) approach to schooling. Children had a classification of ASD, verified by the Autism Diagnostic Observation System – Two (ADOS-2) (Lord, Rutter, DiLavore, Risi, Gotham, & Bishop, 2012). Parenting behaviors, categorized as positive and harsh parenting, were observed across three tasks and coded using the Psychological Multifactor Care Scale — ASD Adapted Preschool Version (Brassard, Donnelly, Hart, & Johnson, 2016). Mothers completed the same questionnaires as study one for measures of healthy habit engagement, parental characteristics (excluding the WHO-5), and social support, There were additional child factor measures; however, including the child sleep problems and child externalizing behavior subscales from the CBCL (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000), child language functioning (Vineland-III Communication subscale; Sparrow, Cicchetti, & Saulnier, 2016), ASD severity (ADOS-2), along with ratio of children to adults in the home, child age, and child gender. Overall, more than half of the mothers reported an insufficient amount of sleep (less than 7 hours on average). Almost half of mothers reported they did not exercise at all. Almost half reported eating breakfast every day, a third ate only one serving of fruit most days, and half ate one serving of vegetables a day, a third ate family meals prepared at home almost every day, a third ate fast food regularly, and a third were told to lose weight. Most did not smoke. Additionally, 11% of the sample had elevated depressives symptoms and 20% had elevated levels of parental stress. Similar significant relationships were found between parental characteristics, social support, child factors, and healthy habit engagement in study two. Of note, caregiver stress and depression were related negatively to caregiver’s sleep, diet, exercise, and being overweight. More perceived social support was related to better diet, household income to not being overweight, and nativity to smoking. Correlations were also found with child factors and healthy habits; child sleep with mother’s sleep, externalizing behavior problems withsmoking, and high child to adult ratio with mother’s sleep. Examining a regression model of the facilitators and barriers to healthy habit engagement, caregiver depressive symptoms related negatively to healthy habit engagement (t=-.380, p=.049). ASD severity (t=-.511, p=.045) and child age (t=-.523, p=.014) came out as negatively related to mother’s diet in a similar model analysis. Additionally, mothers sleep directly related to both positive (R2=.213) and harsh (R2=.165) observed parenting quality. Conclusion. The results from study one and study two suggest that sleep, diet, exercise and substance use are important for parent’s well-being in both parents of children in early intervention and mothers of preschool-aged children with autism. Furthermore, parental wellbeing was the most predictive of engagement in healthy habits when examining possible facilitators and barriers. Child sleep was an important potential barrier in parents of children in early intervention and autism severity and child age were important potential barriers to mother’s diet in mothers of preschool-aged children with ASD. Furthermore, in study two, mothers sleep was an important factor not only for well-being but also for an objective measure of parentingquality, further strengthening the importance and value of sleep for a highly stressed population.