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Sport officials are crucial members of sport. Researchers have studied their roles numerous times, with results often informing sport procedures (e.g., athlete order in artistic sports). As the research on sport officiating spans five decades and several topics of interest, it is important that researchers periodically synthesize the literature. Purpose: The purpose of this study, therefore, was to conduct an analysis of literature on sport officiating research. Method: Guided by previous researchers, we executed four methodological steps including the article search, article retrieval, sample validity, and article coding. These steps yielded 386 articles for analysis, which ranged from 1971 to 2018. We coded the articles based on four main categories: article information, participant demographics, contextual information, and methodology. Results: Key findings from this analysis include a recent influx in sport officiating research, a vast number of publication journals, few studies dedicated to female-only participants, many studies missing relevant demographic information, an over-representation of interactors, and a reliance on quantitative studies. Conclusions: Though many researchers have conducted studies on sport officiating, several articles had poor methodological rigor (e.g., not reporting key demographic information). In the discussion and conclusion sections, we highlight strengths and weaknesses within the field and provide recommendations to guide future researchers and practitioners, to ensure robust research designs and guide applied practice.

Since sport officials constitute instrumental groups, their perceptions of, and interactions with, group members likely influence their performance, satisfaction, and retention. This warrants investigation into sport officiating groups. Rationale/Purpose: (1) Examine the relationship between sport officials' cohesion, satisfaction, and performance; (2) Investigate sport officials' perceptions of cohesion across sports; and (3) Explore sport officials' perceptions of group processes. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using a cross-sectional design, participants (N = 228) completed a survey measuring perceptions of cohesion, performance, and satisfaction. Findings: Responses demonstrated consistent positive relationships between cohesion, performance, and satisfaction. Path analysis found that task cohesion predicted performance and satisfaction. Participants rated task cohesion higher than social cohesion, with American football highest and Association football lowest. Practical implications: Officiating organizations can use these results to reconsider assigning practices and develop strategies that improve cohesion, leading to increased performance and retention. Research contribution: Results highlight the need for sustained research to further understand how group processes influence sport officials and their performances. This study is novel as there is a dearth of research on how group dynamics influence sport officials' performances and retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools can support physical education (PE) among students with mobility disabilities (SMDs). However, previous research has indicated that people and resources in the school environment have served as facilitators and barriers to engaging SMDs in PE. Thus, the purpose of this pragmatic, qualitative study was to explore physical educators' perceptions and experiences of teaching SMDs to learn how to develop a PE environment supportive of SMDs. Eleven K-8 PE teachers who taught SMDs engaged in semistructured interviews. A thematic analysis revealed three themes describing facilitators and barriers of a supportive PE environment for SMDs: (a) teacher planning, (b) students in the PE environment, and (c) resources and support. These findings provide context to PE environments for SMDs and highlight a need for increased communication and collaboration with students with or without mobility disabilities, training or professional development for PE teachers to develop skills for adapted PE, and financial and personnel support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provide recommendations for children's physical activity (PA) and nutrition practices. Community partnerships in school-based programs are recommended by the CDC to support children's opportunities to regularly engage in these practices. Purpose: Informing the role of Health Educators and community partners, the research purpose was to explore how to support early-learning providers' healthy eating and PA programs. Methods: Drawing upon interpretive description methodology, 13 Indiana early-learning providers participated in one-on-one interviews. Participants shared experiences of, and recommendations for, building school health partnerships and programs. Three areas for supporting programs were identified and recontextualized into guiding questions for practice. Results: Health Educators and community partners can support providers by developing or acquiring resources, such as examples of classroom PA delivery. They can contribute by providing program planning services, like co-developing PA programs with teachers and meal planning with staff. By creating networking opportunities, community partners can initiate online or in-person knowledge-sharing and mentor-mentee programs. Discussion: These findings inform how Health Educators and community partners can be involved in school-based health promotion by providing insight into partnership roles. Translation to Health Education Practice: The practical questions can be used to guide the development of collaborations.

Introduction: Sport officials are tasked with applying rules, maintaining fairness, and ensuring athlete safety. However, sport officials experience anxiety, burnout, and non-accidental violence, with the incidence of these events increasing worldwide. This has led to rising attrition rates among sport officials, with many sport organizations concerned for their operational capacity. The effects of anxiety, burnout, and non-accidental violence might contribute to or be indicative of sport officials' negative mental health outcomes. To develop a clear understanding of how sport officials' mental health is affected by their occupation, it is necessary to identify the mental health outcomes and predictors they experience, and to what extent. The purpose of this scoping review was to identify and examine the empirical research and policy documents surrounding sport officials' mental health. Method: One thousand, two hundred six articles were identified across four databases: PubMed, Web of Science, SportDiscus, and PsycINFO. Next, a policy search was conducted on the respective international governing body websites from English-speaking countries for the 60 included sports. Following screening, 18 studies and one policy document met the inclusion criteria for exploring sport officials' mental health. Results: Participants (N = 7,941) in the studies were mainly European male soccer and basketball referees. Most studies utilized quantitative inquiry (n = 15) rather than qualitative methods (n = 2) or framework development (n = 1). The research demonstrated that sport officials frequently experienced negative mental health outcomes and predictors including anxiety, depression, burnout, lower mental health literacy, and high levels of stigmatization towards mental health. Discussion: These outcomes were influenced by gender/sex, age, and experience. There is a need to explore personal and environmental (including occupational) factors that cause or contribute to sport officials' mental health symptoms and disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elder mistreatment is common, serious, and under-recognized, with Emergency Department and hospital clinical encounters offering a potential but currently unrealized opportunity to identify and help older adults experiencing mistreatment. Interdisciplinary emergency department and hospital-based response teams represent a promising care model to address this. This manuscript describes two such teams and introduces a special issue dedicated to this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]