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.

This dissertation explores the construction and experience of the sports champion's reality. In studying reality and its construction, I became familiar with, the post-modern perspective of reality and with theories such as systems theory, cybernetics, radical constructivism and social constructionism, which fall under the post-modern epistemological umbrella. The dissertation gives an exposition of my journey through this maze of theories, from a position of "knowing" how champions are made towards a more complex position of uncertainty and possibility. This is followed by an account of the qualitative research that I undertook, within a social constructionist framework, in which I used thematic discourse analysis. Finally, I interpret the discourses emerging from the analysis in order to demonstrate their operation or effect in the construction of a champion's reality. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

University of Macau / Faculty of Education

University of Macau / Faculty of Education

This dissertation explores the construction and experience of the sports champion's reality. In studying reality and its construction, I became familiar with, the post-modern perspective of reality and with theories such as systems theory, cybernetics, radical constructivism and social constructionism, which fall under the post-modern epistemological umbrella. The dissertation gives an exposition of my journey through this maze of theories, from a position of "knowing" how champions are made towards a more complex position of uncertainty and possibility. This is followed by an account of the qualitative research that I undertook, within a social constructionist framework, in which I used thematic discourse analysis. Finally, I interpret the discourses emerging from the analysis in order to demonstrate their operation or effect in the construction of a champion's reality. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

The current PhD thesis aimed to cross-culturally investigate the effectiveness of gain- and loss-framed physical activity messages among the university students in Turkey and the UK. This study sought to test the impact of the physical activity messages focusing on stress-related effects on physical activity intentions, attitudes and behaviours of the target group. The messages were developed based on the findings of a series of preliminary studies targeting to determine the characteristics and needs of the target groups, and identify the barriers to engage in physical activity. Two quasi-experimental studies were conducted with 309 university students from the two countries (200 participants from Turkey and 109 participants from the UK) to test the effects of framed messages on intentions and attitudes towards physical activity, and physical activity behaviour change in two weeks after message exposure. Results showed that immediate effects of both gain- and loss-framed messages on physical activity intentions and attitudes were significant in Turkey and the UK. However, these effects could not be maintained in the two weeks following the message exposure. Moreover, the loss-framed message led to a message reactance in the UK, and physical activity intensity of the participants in the loss-framed group were significantly decreased compared to their baseline physical activity levels. The present study was the first message framing study comparing Turkey and the UK in terms of the impact of gain- and loss-framed framed physical activity messages. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature through providing evidence on the effects of message framing interventions which are developed and implemented in different cultures. Recommendations for future message framing research include measuring physical activity behaviour through objective methods, and examining the impact of the tailored messages through using different dissemination methods in larger samples.

Physical activity plays a crucial role in contributing to psychological stability regarding physical concept. However, the evidence for showing the association between levels of physical activity and the psychological state has not been closed to focus on college students. This study was to examine the importance of physical activity by investigating the effects of different levels of physical activity on physical self-concept and social physique anxiety among college students. This study used a secondary data set approved by Institutional Review Board, and obtained a written permission and approval for data use. The data set used for this study was not previously analyzed and published. A total of 238 participants (99 males and 139 females) were 4-year comprehensive university students in Southern California. Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Scale (GLTES), Physical Self-Description Questionnaire (PSDQ), and Social Physique Anxiety Scale- 7(SPA-7) were used to analyze levels of physical activity, physical self-concept, and social physique anxiety, respectively. The SPSS version 19 was used to analyze the data for the purpose of this study. Results showed that there were statistically significant differences in physical self-concept and social physique anxiety among the levels of physical activity. There were statistically negative correlations between social physique anxiety and physical self-concept.

Afrikaans text / Die doel van hierdie studie was om te bepaal wat die invloed van motoriese oefening op die leervermoë van die leerder in die grondslagfase is. Vyf en twintig leerders is ewekansig verdeel in `n eksperimentele en kontrole groep. Oor `n tydperk van vyf weke, voor die aanvang van elke leerafdeling, het die eksperimentele groep, saam met die onderwyseres, klaskamer gebaseerde motoriese oefeninge verrig terwyl die kontrole groep geen intervensie ontvang het nie. Die Copeland’s checklist for Attention Deficit Disorder vraelys is as voor- en natoets gebruik. Na die afloop van die empiriese ondersoek het die eksperimentele groep `n verbetering getoon in onoplettendheid/afleibaarheid, impulsiwiteit, ooraktiwiteit/hiperaktiwiteit, onderaktiwiteit en aandagvermoë, terwyl die kontrole groep oor dieselfde tydperk verswak het of onveranderd gebly het. Die veranderinge was egter nie statisties betekenisvol (p≤0.05) nie. Hierdie resultaat dui slegs op „n tedens dat motoriese oefening 'n positiewe effek op die leerders se leervermoë in die grondslagfase het. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Educational Studies)

Afrikaans text / Die doel van hierdie studie was om te bepaal wat die invloed van motoriese oefening op die leervermoë van die leerder in die grondslagfase is. Vyf en twintig leerders is ewekansig verdeel in `n eksperimentele en kontrole groep. Oor `n tydperk van vyf weke, voor die aanvang van elke leerafdeling, het die eksperimentele groep, saam met die onderwyseres, klaskamer gebaseerde motoriese oefeninge verrig terwyl die kontrole groep geen intervensie ontvang het nie. Die Copeland’s checklist for Attention Deficit Disorder vraelys is as voor- en natoets gebruik. Na die afloop van die empiriese ondersoek het die eksperimentele groep `n verbetering getoon in onoplettendheid/afleibaarheid, impulsiwiteit, ooraktiwiteit/hiperaktiwiteit, onderaktiwiteit en aandagvermoë, terwyl die kontrole groep oor dieselfde tydperk verswak het of onveranderd gebly het. Die veranderinge was egter nie statisties betekenisvol (p≤0.05) nie. Hierdie resultaat dui slegs op „n tedens dat motoriese oefening 'n positiewe effek op die leerders se leervermoë in die grondslagfase het. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Educational Studies)