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Peer mentoring is a supportive relationship between a more experienced mentor and a less experienced protégé that has garnered attention in recent sport research. Moving beyond traditional mentoring dyads, constellation peer mentoring engages several mentors to provide support to a protégé, ensuring they have access to multiple perspectives and areas of expertise. We implemented a constellation peer-mentoring program with Canadian university student-athletes throughout their competitive seasons. Subsequently, we undertook an instrumental case study to explore participants’ feedback and the perceived benefits of the program. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we interpreted participants’ responses as indicative of traditional mentoring benefits, including reduced transitional stress, feelings of well-being, and feelings of satisfaction. In addition, we determined unique aspects of constellation peer mentoring, such as increased team cohesion, improved help-seeking, an environment that fostered relational mentoring experiences, and the need for leader training. Constellation peer mentoring presents a promising intervention for supporting student-athletes during career transitions.

The Journal of Sport Psychology in Action (JSPA) is pleased to present the latest edition of In the Huddle. This feature involves posing a question to a selection of experienced sport psychology pr...

Informal roles can be beneficial or detrimental to sport performance. Researchers have identified negative informal roles within sports and organisational contexts; however, exploration of these ro...

Our aim in this chapter is to demonstrate how, and why, researchers and practitioners may benefit through embracing and learning from the diverse approaches taken to studying cross-cultural, multicultural, and intercultural issues. We do so by examining the study of integration, a process in which individuals maintain their cultural heritage while also engaging in a shared process of learning the dominant cultural norms of their community. Integration has been widely promoted as the most conducive form of acculturation for newcomers to a community. The chapter begins with a brief overview of how researchers have used cross-cultural and cultural sport psychology (CSP) approaches to examine how sport and physical activity contexts may foster integration and what their findings have revealed. The unknown is then explored through five major questions that can guide future researchers in their work alongside those with whom they wish to learn from.

Given the prevalence of group contexts in sport and the importance of the social environment for motivating youth participants, understanding and enhancing group dynamics are critical to facilitate youths’ participation in, and development through, sport. The current objective was to report on a scoping review that was employed to summarize research focused on the dynamics in youth sport groups. The review identified several themes that have been focused on with regularity (i.e., cohesion) and identified others with opportunities for greater incorporation in youth sport research (e.g., cooperation). Furthermore, encouragement is provided to move beyond survey-based, cross-sectional research and to give greater consideration to a developmental approach to understanding child and youth perceptions of the groups to which they belong. Overall, there are many opportunities for researchers to study the dynamics of youth sport groups with an aim to enhance the experiences of young athletes and facilitate group functioning.

There have been growing discussions across international societies since 2017 focused on athlete wellness and athlete care. The human condition of high-performance athletes requires life balance, holistic personhood, and a functional athletic career with the support of integrative resources from sport organisations. During two successive International Society of Sport Psychology Think Tanks on Athlete Mental Health in 2018 and 2019, an international group of practitioners from Olympic and professional sport organisations discussed topics spanning what athlete mental health should look like, while problematising an overly narrow focus on athlete mental ill-health (i.e., an unbalanced approach to the topic), how it is being diagnosed, and how it is understood through research. Discussions have advanced into structural suggestions regarding standards of care for athletes in their daily training environments and at major international tournament events. Within this consensus statement, the authors focus our discussions onto athlete acute care. Emphasis is placed on how an integrated support team can work efficiently with high-performance athletes when acute care is required in two general contexts: (1) within the training environment, and (2) onsite at major events. A model is proposed to spur discussions and better standards to guide the athlete acute care process. Recommendations are provided for sport psychology practitioners, researchers, and high-performance sport organizations.

In this article, we discuss some of the identity challenges presented by Canadian National Team Female Boxers, and their possible implications to the athletes’ well-being and sport performance. Thr...

There are varied approaches that have been used in sport for development (SFD) projects. This article is focused on the move by sport and exercise psychology researchers toward community-based SFD ...

An ultra-short pulsed, ultra-broadband (~13nm-~13pm) light-source has been developed to drive atto- to femto- second time-resolved studies on EUV photo-resist materials. The same source will also be used to investigate EUV driven nano-lithography.

Objectives Sport involvement has been touted as a way of helping forced migrants (i.e., refugees and asylum seekers) integrate into their host communities. Our aim was to synthesize multi-disciplinary qualitative research and through a sport and exercise psychology lens develop novel interdisciplinary insights of how sport and physical activity may become an integrative context for forced migrants. Design Working from a social constructionist epistemological position, a meta-synthesis of multi-disciplinary qualitative research was conducted. Methods A literature search of seven electronic databases resulted in 23 peer-reviewed journal articles published since 1990 that met the inclusion criteria and were included in the synthesis. Results Our descriptive synthesis based on the preceding analysis of multi-disciplinary literature is presented through three themes: (a) the beneficial role of sport in the life stories of forced migrants, (b) barriers to sport and physical activity, and (c) sport as an integrative context. Discussion and conclusion Our interpretive meta-synthesis provides insight into the need for a critical approach to understanding how host communities may go about developing safe sport and physical activity contexts that support the integration of forced migrants.

The current submission was conceived to broaden the discussion around male athletic identities by exploring the stories told by four members of the Canadian National Boxing Team. The athletes&rsquo, stories were elicited through an arts-based method followed by a conversational interview. Stories were then analyzed using an interpretive thematic analysis. Three salient themes were found&mdash, fluid masculinity, ethnicity brings an edge to boxing, and expressing identity through language. These themes present accounts that highlight how socially, culturally, and historically dominant narratives can allow athletes to feel comfortable in presenting the identities they might reveal or feel constrained from doing so due to factors outside of their control. The need to develop training and competition contexts that allow for the empowerment of athletes&rsquo, individually distinct identities is highlighted as a method to ensuring the positive mental health of elite level athletes.