Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation will be to identify a conceptual model to describe the stress and coping process among a group of elite female tennis players during a high stakes performance situation. The Transactional Model of Stress and Coping (TA model) served as the theoretical basis for this dissertation. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the indirect effect of social support, dispositional coping, coping strategies, tennis ability and cognitive appraisal upon competitive state anxiety. Significance of the investigation: The WTA Tour, the governing body of professional tennis, has identified the priorities of promoting career longevity, development of a balanced athlete, the attainment of a profitable career for its athletes and protecting the TOUR's most valuable commodity, athlete health (AEC Report, 1995). The findings of this investigation serve to guide future interventions for managing stress and coping among elite athletes. This is one of the first investigations with this under-studied population and therefore, contributes to the available body of knowledge in stress and coping among elite athletes. Methods: Ninety-four female tennis players responded to the Competition Questionnaire during a high stakes athletic competition. Questions addressed dispositional coping strategies, current coping strategies as well as perceived competitive state anxiety and perceived sense of social support. Measurement models were used prior to construction of sub-models based upon TA model theory. Goodness of fit was assessed with significant path scores retained to construct a final conceptual model. Findings: The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 was supported as a measure of competitive state anxiety. A parsimonious measure of primary appraisal and secondary appraisal was found for this elite group of athletes. Results yielded support for the strong effect of primary appraisal upon increased competitive state anxiety. In addition, both social support and secondary appraisal demonstrated a significant effect with lower competitive state anxiety. Tennis ability as measured by current rank did not have a significant effect upon appraisal, coping strategies nor competitive state anxiety. Conclusions: Based upon these results, a variation of the TA model as constructed within this investigation was found to be relevant for this elite group. The constructed conceptual model can be used to guide current and future interventions by health care practitioners that interact closely with these athletes during high stress competitive events. Implications for future interventions with this population include the need for enhancement of challenging appraisals and the need for restructuring of threatening appraisals. Though caution must be used when generalizing results, findings add to the body of knowledge regarding this under-investigated population. Future investigations could focus upon replication of results, investigation regarding the function of social support and the comparison of specific coping strategies used by subsets of athletes within this population. / text

The study addressed the problem that, although researchers have clearly identified areas of stress for clergy wives and suggested the use of counseling services, they have not identified effective counseling interventions. Clergy wives referred to non-clergy women married to Protestant clergymen. The study included (a) the development of Clergy Wife Wings (CWW), a 5-session psychoeducational group plan for 6 to 10 clergy wives, to alleviate ministry-related stress and (b) the formative evaluation of the plan in its first implementation. Conclusions drawn suggested that CWW showed good potential as an intervention in helping clergy wives to move towards alleviation of stress but needed revisions and additional implementation and evaluation. Recommendations provided a detailed list of specific revisions. CWW had an outcome goal for participants of decreasing ministry-related stress, particularly in three targeted stress domains: role expectations and time demands, clergy family boundary intrusiveness, and lack of social support. As presented in the literature review, the theoretical foundations in stress came from the multimodal-transactional model of stress and its treatment (Palmer, S. & Dryden, W., 1995) and from REBT. The literature review also contained, after a summary of the history of clergy wives, an overview of the plan, with references supporting the components. The plan included pre and post-group testing with two clergy-wife stress assessment instruments -- adaptations of the Clergy Family Life Inventory (Blanton, P., Morris, L, & Anderson, D., 1990) and of the Normative Stress Scale for Clergy Wives (Huebner, 1998). The formative evaluation of the group plan, in its first implementation, identified themes concerning effectiveness, strengths, weaknesses, and suggestions for improvement. These themes emerged from the qualitative analysis of various documents completed by the 9 participants, the group facilitator, and a group observer. Qualitative findings suggested effectiveness of Clergy Wife Wings through themes of participant perceptions and of reported changes in their thinking and behavior related to stress. Quantitative findings, however, from the pre and post-group measures on the clergy-wife stress instruments did not suggest effectiveness, except for a significant decrease in stress related to two of 35 stressor statements. Discussion included possible reasons for the disparity between findings. / Ph. D.

U.S. working mothers experience frequent daily hassles, yet little is known about how working mothers have disproportionate abilities to handle stress. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine the extent to which coping self-efficacy mediated the effect that cumulative daily hassles had on working mothers' health outcomes (i.e., physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional, and mental health). The transactional model of stress and coping, social cognitive theory, and self-efficacy theory provided the theoretical foundations for this study. Daily hassles were used for this study as an additional theoretical approach for measuring stress. A total of 235 working mothers completed the Daily Hassles Scale, Coping Self-Efficacy Scale, and Short Form 36 version 2 (SF-36v2) on a secure online website. The respondents reported moderate confidence in their abilities to cope with life despite experiencing an average of 44 daily hassles per month. Simple regressions confirmed repeated exposure to daily hassles was significantly associated with reduced coping self-efficacy and health outcomes. Mediation with multiple regression analysis revealed that coping self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between cumulative daily hassles and health outcomes, suggesting coping self-efficacy was a protective psychosocial factor for working mothers. This study contributes to positive social change by aiding practitioners in identifying protective psychosocial factors and helping working mothers to implement the findings with the intention of reducing daily hassles and improving health outcomes.

This study examines stresses experienced by primary school learners with learning problems in inclusive classrooms in an Independent School. Literature suggests that learners with learning problems experience more academic, emotional and social difficulties at school than do their peers without learning problems. The Transactional Model of stress was used as a point of departure for the qualitative empirical study to understand stress as it is experienced by three Grade 4 learners. Several school stresses were identified which contributed to unmet emotional and social needs. The three central sources of stress were classified as S1 (Inability to meet perceived/anticipated demand), S2 (Overload – too much expected) and S3 (Selfexpectations not met). The learners’ own suggestions regarding the relief of these stresses were examined and contributed to guidelines to assist teachers in relieving these stresses experienced by learners with learning problems in the inclusive classroom. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)

This study examines stresses experienced by primary school learners with learning problems in inclusive classrooms in an Independent School. Literature suggests that learners with learning problems experience more academic, emotional and social difficulties at school than do their peers without learning problems. The Transactional Model of stress was used as a point of departure for the qualitative empirical study to understand stress as it is experienced by three Grade 4 learners. Several school stresses were identified which contributed to unmet emotional and social needs. The three central sources of stress were classified as S1 (Inability to meet perceived/anticipated demand), S2 (Overload – too much expected) and S3 (Selfexpectations not met). The learners’ own suggestions regarding the relief of these stresses were examined and contributed to guidelines to assist teachers in relieving these stresses experienced by learners with learning problems in the inclusive classroom. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)