Sport Psychology: Applications for Children

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Sport Psychology Applications for Children

• Tim Hannan

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Sport psychology

• psychological factors affecting performance in
  sport and other areas
• psychological effects of sport and exercise

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Scientific psychology

• motivation
• arousal
• emotion
• cognition
• imagery
• motor learning
• self-efficacy
• groups and leadership
• personality
• exercise

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Psychological practice

• application of theoretical and empirical
  knowledge and skills to psychological consulting
  with athletes, teams, coaches and others

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Activities

• performance enhancement
• mental skills
• anxiety management
• relaxation
• stress management
• time management
• communication skills

• travel skills
• debriefing
• recovery
• injury rehabilitation
• psychological assessment
• video analysis

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A brief history

• general recognition of relationship between mind
  and body
• experimental studies in late 1800s
• effect of hypnosis on endurance
• effect or competition on performance
• application of psychological principles to
  sporting performance
• Coleman Griffith

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A brief history

• the rise of sport science
• the psychology of coaching
• clinical sport psychology
• personality selection and coaching
• managing athletes with problems
• financial and political influences
• increased public recognition of nature and value
  of psychological studies
• the emergence of sport psychology organisations
  (ISSP) and journals

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Clinical sport psychology

• depression
• overtraining
• conflict resolution
• weight management
• career transitions
• grief and loss
• balancing life and sport

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Sport Psychology for Children
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Benefits of physical activity

• aerobic fitness
• body adiposity
• cardiovascular health
• reduction in risk for health conditions
• chronic health conditions

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Psychological benefits of sport

• cognitive
• problem-solving (Tuckman Gondola, 1984)
• creativity (Tuckman Hinckle, 1986 Etnier et al
  1997)
• behavioural
• hyperactivity
• incidence of negative behaviours (Allison et al,
  1995 Dinger Vesely, 2001)
• emotional
• social

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Psychological benefits of sport

• enjoyment
• skills development
• independence
• self-concept
• social development
• Tremayne Tremayne (2004)
• sociomoral development
• Bredemeier Shields (2005)

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Enhancing benefits of sport

• education of coaches, teachers, parents
• develop structure to make rules and expectations
  explicit
• encourage identity with group
• encourage prosocial behaviour within sport
• Danish et al (2005)

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Sport psychology for child athletes

• performance development
• rehabilitation
• clinical
• career changes

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Applications

• learning of motor skill
• enhancement of performance of motor skill
• development of cognitive skill
• pre-performance preparation
• enhancing motivation

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Psychological Skills Training

• goal setting
• arousal regulation
• confidence building
• imagery training
• attentional skills training

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1. Goal setting

• establishment of a performance standard
• process vs outcome goals

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Goal setting intervention

• specific
• measurable
• achievable
• positive
• modifiable
• short long-term
• practice and competition
• recording

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Arousal

• relationship between arousal and performance
• various theories
• inverted U

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2. Arousal regulation

• individual control of arousal
• relaxation
• breathing
• progressive muscular
• cognitive techniques

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3. Imagery

• creation of imagined events
• re-creation of past events
• modification of past events

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Imagery training

• introducing concept of imagery
• training skills
• training control
• Morris, Spittle Watt(2005)

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4. Confidence

• success and failure
• attributions

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Enhancing confidence

• self-talk
• negative thoughts
• other cognitive techniques

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Attention

• internal-external
• broad-narrow
• cognitive models

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5. Attention training

• control of focus
• identification of attention variability

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Effectiveness

• development of cognitive skills
• creation of strategies
• practice in application of strategies
• identifying problems in performance

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Effectiveness

• learning of motor skills
• mental practice gt no practice
• mental physical practice gt physical practice

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Injury rehabilitation

• psychological effects of injury
• psychological effects of not competing
• concerns re recovery
• enhancement of recovery

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Rehabilitation interventions

• reducing risk of injury
• coping with injury
• enhancing recovery

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Career change

• cause of change
• psychological factors
• perception of self
• perception of others
• control
• loss of routine

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Change interventions

• planning
• identification of issues
• coping with change

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Psychological problems

• eating disorders
• depression
• relationship and family problems
• anger control
• drug and alcohol use

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Other applications Imagery
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• mental imagery refers to (1) all those
  quasi-sensory and quasi-perceptual experiences of
  which (2) we are self-consciously aware and which
  (3) exist for us in the absence of those stimulus
  conditions that are known to produce their
  genuine sensory or perceptual counterparts, and
  which (4) may be expected to have different
  consequences from their sensory or perceptual
  counterparts
• Richardson, 1969

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• the mental invention or re-creation of an
  experience that in at least some respects
  resembles the experience of actually perceiving
  an object or an event, either in conjunction
  with, or in absence of, direct sensory
  stimulation
• Finke, 1989

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Related fields of research

• cognitive science
• visual perception
• spatial skills (eg mental rotation)
• motor planning
• dreams
• daydreams

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Kinds of theories

• motor theories
• cognitive theories
• emotional/motivational theories
• neurobiological theories

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Motor theories

• imagery is a mild or weak activation of muscle
  activity
• during motor performance, motor cortex receives
  visual and kinesthetic feedback
• during imagery, the same feedback mechanisms are
  activated
• mental practice improves motor function

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Cognitive theories

• the explanation of any human behaviour requires
  consideration of the perception, storage,
  retrieval and manipulation of information
• information is stored as a network of elements
• images have independent memory codes

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Emotional/motivational theories

• human behaviour is influenced by judgements of
  personal competence, or self-efficacy
• imagery is an element of self-efficacy
• using imagery improves ones self-description and
  self-evaluation in relation to the specific act
  or event

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Neurological theories

• human behaviour is the product of a number of
  specific neurological systems
• imagery and perception rely on similar
  neurological systems, except that imagery does
  not activate motor or verbal output

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Step 1 Assessment

• definition or diagnosis of problem or target of
  intervention
• selection of appropriate interventions
• decision to use imagery as adjunctive intervention

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Step 2 Preparation

• selection of imagery mode
• selection of target images or content
• environmental considerations
• pre-training preparation
• check prior imagery use
• address misunderstandings

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Select mode

• creation of imagined events
• re-creation of past events
• modification of past events

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Environment

• quiet, free of distractions
• comfortable
• no time constraints

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Review imagery use

• current use
• past use
• past exposure to imagery training
• judgement of effectiveness

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Step 3 Imagery training

• introducing concept of imagery
• training use of imagery
• training control of imagery

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Introduce concept of imagery

• restate aim of intervention
• rationale for imagery use
• examples of use by others
• theory of imagery
• examples of possible use

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Training principles

• imagery use improves with training and practice
• graded exercises
• scheduled practice
• regular evaluation

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Content

• simple visual images
• familiar scenes
• addition of other senses
• auditory
• tactile, olfactory
• kinesthetic

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Training control

• manipulation of static visual images
• manipulation of dynamic visual images
• manipulation of multi-sensory images
• changing perspectives

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Applications

• clinical problems
• anxiety
• traumatic stress
• stress management
• pain management
• acute pain
• recurrent abdominal pain
• sleep disorders
• academic performance
• physical performance

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Anxiety disorders

• most common problem of childhood
• anxiety tends to increase over time
• most disorders do not remit without intervention
• risk of depression and substance use
• interfere with development
• prediction of adult disorders

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Aims of intervention

• reduce cognitive, behavioural, affective,
  physiological aspects of anxiety
• enhance coping skills
• generalise to other situations
• inoculate against relapse

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Core treatment components

• desensitisation
• exposure and response prevention
• modelling
• cognitive therapies
• contingency management

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Desensitisation

• relaxation training
• imagery
• pleasurable activities

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Exposure

• imaginal
• in vivo

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Traumatic stress disorders

• exposure to a traumatic event, in which both
• actual or threatened death or serious injury
• intense fear, helplessness or horror
• re-experiencing of traumatic event
• avoidance of associated stimuli
• persistent increased arousal

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Summary

• traumatic event creates a network of cognitive,
  emotional and behavioural features
• trauma-related cues activate this network
• avoidance and dissociation protect the network
  from integration

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Risk and resilience
Cognitive Appraisal
Environmental
Trauma Characteristics
Emotional Responses
Family
Biological Responses
Conditioned Responses
Child
PTSD Symptoms
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Treatment model

• treatment is based on explicit theoretical models
  incorporating neurobiological and psychological
  constructs
• no empirically validated treatment protocols for
  children

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Principles of treatment

• retrieval and activation of all components of the
  fear network
• establishment of new information incompatible
  with fear network
• Foa, Steketee Rothbaum (1989)

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Trauma-focussed components

• education
• anxiety-reduction
• cognitive therapy
• prolonged exposure
• relapse prevention

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Traumatic stress

• imaginal desensitisation

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Case

• 11 year old boy, a witness to an MVA outside his
  home, in which his brother sustained a severe
  brain injury

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Presenting problems

• poor attention in class
• headaches
• nightmares
• nocturnal enuresis
• overactive
• irritable
• demanding

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Case Issues

• separation immediately after trauma
• maternal traumatic stress
• ongoing stress of caring for child with TBI
• parental avoidance of discussion of event
• self-blame

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Case Treatment

• eight sessions over three months
• education for child and parents
• anxiety management
• cognitive therapy
• coping
• exposure response prevention
• conversation
• places
• imagery

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Imagery component

• included to address ability to manage
  recollection of traumatic images
• training in imagery use and control
• practice in controlling accident-related images
• application to specific images

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Case Outcome

• cessation of nightmares enuresis
• cessation of headaches
• teacher-reported improvements in classroom
  behaviour
• parent-reported improvements in mood and activity
  levels

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Nightmare disorder

• usually dont reflect real events
• except after traumatic events
• often awaken child, who can recount details
• often have the effect of promoting fear of sleep

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Epidemiology

• nightmares in 10-50 of children
• decrease with age
• 5 adults have chronic nightmares
• 50 adults have occasional nightmares
• more frequently reported by girls 31

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Risk factors

• stress
• trauma
• overtiredness
• medications

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Treatment

• education
• reassurance
• risk factors
• systematic desensitisation
• if for real event
• dream reorganisation

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Sleep disorders

• dream reorganisation
• child describes dream content
• imagery training to enhance control over images
• practice to change dream content

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Pain management

• painful medical procedures
• recurrent abdominal pain
• chronic pain

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Interventions for painful procedures

• modelling (eg video)
• breathing exercises
• distraction, especially imaginal techniques
• incentives
• rehearsal of coping strategies
• coaching during procedure

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Interventions for chronic pain

• biofeedback
• relaxation training
• contingency management
• cognitive therapy
• imagery

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Other applications

• anger
• stress management

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Imagery A summary

• a powerful adjunctive intervention
• not replacement for empirically-based
  interventions
• potential for misuse
• traumatic stress
• main benefits include acceptance,
  generalisability, and provision of a coping skill
  applicable to a variety of situations