1,720,968 research outputs found
Highs, Lows and Learning to Cope: The Mental Health of Canadian Student-Athletes
No full textCurrent research on Canadian university sports reveals that student-athletes experience higher psychological distress and are at greater risk for mental health issues than their peers in the general student body. Despite these findings, there is a notable lack of research focused on the mental health of Canadian student-athletes. This thesis builds on Canadian literature by exploring prominent topics and themes seen in American literature. The topics covered include stressors affecting student-athlete mental health, obstacles to accessing mental health care, and available treatment options. These themes are examined through three research papers structured as a sandwich dissertation. The first paper identifies the stressors affecting the mental health of Canadian student-athletes through a narrative approach. The findings report similar stressors identified in the existing literature, with participants identifying the pressures to perform and injury as significant mental health stressors. An additional stressor of maintaining academic success was identified as a mental health stressor that may be distinct from the American literature. The second paper explores the deterrents faced by Canadian university athletes regarding mental health care. Participants highlighted several barriers to mental health treatment for student-athletes, such as cultural and internalized stigma, along with insufficient availability and inconsistency of mental health services tailored for them. The third paper sought the opinions of the research participants to identify the institutional changes necessary to improve student-athlete mental health care. Participants underscored the critical necessity of athlete-specific mental health care provided by practitioners proficient in athletes' distinctive experiences. Additionally, they advocated for implementing mandatory mental health education for athletes and coaches. The findings across the three papers provide contextually valuable data on Canadian student-athletes that can encourage the review of existing mental health policies and treatment options so that we can increase the chances of helping such that mental health issues are less catastrophic.ThesisDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)This thesis focuses on the mental health of student-athletes in Canadian universities. The research is organized into three papers to establish a foundational understanding of mental health issues in the student-athlete population. The first paper explores the mental health stressors associated with university sports as a Canadian athlete; this extends to issues surrounding academics and athletics. The second paper investigates the barriers to mental health care for student-athletes in Canadian universities to understand the cultural and social deterrents to help-seeking in the athletic context. The third paper uses the opinions of the research participants to outline an imagined future for mental health care in the student-athlete context. This includes the suggested institutional changes highlighted by student-athletes and potential future treatment options. These findings, collectively, help to illuminate the Canadian context and the next steps for improving mental health care for Canadian student-athletes
"None of us can go it alone": The Informal Caring Experiences of LGBT Older Adults
Get PDFThis paper examines the caring experiences of 7 LGBT older adults in Southwestern Ontario. Up to 2 90-minute interviews were conducted with 7 participants which were then transcribed and analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). Participants described life histories of discrimination and isolation, as well as contemporary experiences of medical discrimination. As a result, participants were highly skeptical of the formal care system, with only one indicating they would be willing to enter long term care.
Analysis was conducted according to four themes that were identified while engaging in the interpretive phenomenological process. The research was influenced by life course theory and cultural scripts: specifically, that the current cohort of LGBT+ older adults is perhaps the first to age openly in their identity and as a result lack cultural scripts as to what they should do as they age. Questions were open-ended and asked participants about their experiences giving or receiving care, life histories of discrimination, and how their care experiences influence their plans for the future. Although no questions were directly asked about the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the legacy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on contemporary LGBT older adults became a major theme of this paper. Other themes identified include the role that stigma and concerns about autonomy play in their plans for the future, the importance of political advocacy and community caregiving for LGBT older adults, and how LGBT older adults have developed resiliency and the practice of holding loved ones in personhood in order to cope with medical issues and death.ThesisMaster of Arts (MA)This paper examines the experiences of LGBT older adults giving and receiving informal care for physical or mental health conditions. It highlights themes of stigma and autonomy, the relationship between community caregiving and political advocacy, the legacy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and how LGBT older adults hold each other and the dead in personhood. Seven LGBT older adults from Southern Ontario were interviewed about their experiences with care, and the relationship between social structures and discrimination and their personal experiences with the medical system
Exercise Instruction for Older Adults: Embodied Education and (In/Ex)clusive Physical Cultures
Get PDFThe intent of this thesis was to better understand the educative role of group exercise instructors, and how this role is approached when working with older exercisers. Data were collected using textual analysis, observations of instructors’ teachings in group exercise classes, semi-structured interviews with instructors and older exercisers, and go-alongs with older exercisers. This thesis is comprised of four papers (three journal articles and one book chapter). The first paper reports findings from a scoping review and elucidates that the educative role of exercise instructors is vital but under researched. Paper 2, a book chapter, reports findings from a qualitative content analysis of eight curricula used to train and certify fitness instructors in Canada and the United States. This paper proposes strategically employing compassionate ageism to meet older exercisers’ needs without (re)producing social inequalities in response to finding that the curricula conceive the older body as different from the healthy, supposedly ideal standard. Paper 3, an Institutional Ethnography, provides evidence for some of the ways employers and the aforementioned curricula influence how instructors teach. Paper 3 reports that multi-level teaching may not be enough to foster inclusivity, thus suggesting a greater need for stratification by ability rather than age. Additionally, findings outline some ableist teaching practices, which some instructors resisted by drawing on their competence to employ teaching methods respecting exercisers’ agency. Finally, Paper 4 introduces a substantive, grounded theory of age capital, which builds on Bourdieu’s theorizations of cultural capital, as well as Mauss’ habitus and body techniques. Age capital is defined as possessing a gerontological embodied competence, or cognitive and embodied knowledge of the socio-cultural practices throughout one’s life course. Collectively, this thesis provides several recommendations for teaching group exercise in a manner that fosters more inclusive classes for older adults.ThesisDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)The key goals of this research were to understand how fitness instructors’ training might influence how instructors teach in their group exercise classes, learn how and what fitness instructors teach, and identify how instructors’ teaching is (or should be) different with older exercisers. I found that fitness instructors are important to group exercise classes, as they bring people together and teach people how to exercise safely. It is also especially important that instructors have special training to work with older people, but there is a lack of consistency in the training of exercise instructors and instructors received mixed messages about ageism in their training. This could reinforce the idea that older persons lose abilities as they age and result in a one-size fits all way of teaching that fails to include older exercisers’ diverse abilities. This research suggests ways instructors can be better trained to relate to older exercisers
Finding Our Say: The Lived Experiences of Young Adults caring for an Older Adult with Alzheimer’s Disease or a Related Dementia (ADRD)
Get PDFIn the literature, the experience of ‘care’ and ‘caregiving’ has been well documented and widely researched. Caregivers are recognized as people (family and friends) who provide unpaid substantial care for family members. Over time, research has increased awareness of caregivers as a distinct social group and has also contributed to caregiving being a widely recognized social issue. However, despite this increased awareness and continued concern for caregivers, much of the literature focuses on adult caregivers. As a result, the experiences of other caregiving populations, such as the youth and young adults, continues to be overlooked and underrepresented. Therefore, there is a need to explore and understand the unique experience of this population and how they give meaning to their experiences.
Young caregivers (YCs) are children (5-18) and young adults (18-25) who provide substantial (unpaid) care for a family member who has an illness or disability (Stamatopoulos, 2016). Research on this population is scant and there exists many notable gaps in the literature in terms of diversity, age-based differences, programming and best practices for intervention. More specifically, there is a gap in understanding the experiences of young caregivers who are affected by progressive and incurable chronic brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease or a Related Dementia. As such, this dissertation explores the experiences of YACs affected by ADRD, in terms of their personal experiences with ADRD (knowledge, dementia care and care practices), perceptions of their caregiving role and how they navigate the caregiving role. It builds on scholarship on young caregivers to broaden existing knowledge by using a phenomenological approach, known as Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, to explore their caregiving experiences and the meaning they give to these experiences in-depth (n=12). It also aims to challenge the dominant assumptions about young caregivers by giving voice to this population by situating the young caregivers as the experts in their own lives. Findings indicate that the caregiving experience for YACs is complex, and situated within a larger socio-political context, which impacts the overall experience of care. Overall, the findings contribute to knowledge on the experiences of care among YACs and highlight the need for more inclusive research and practices on addressing caregiving among this group.DissertationCandidate in PhilosophyThis dissertation explores the lived experiences of young adult caregivers (YACs) caring for an older adult with Alzheimer’s Disease or a Related Dementia. Research on this group of caregivers is limited, particularly YACs (ages 18-25) who provide substantial (unpaid) caregiving for an older adult affected by Alzheimer’s or a Related Dementia. Therefore, a key aim of this research is to generate awareness and shed light on the nature of caregiving as experienced by this overlooked population of caregivers. As such, this dissertation aims to understand how young caregivers give meaning to, interpret and make sense of their caregiving experience. To understand the caregiving experience of YACs, I conducted interviews with 12 YACs from Canada and the United States and analyzed their perspectives in detail. The findings shed light on the many factors that shape the caregiving experiences. In addition, the findings show that more research is needed to understand the differences amongst young caregivers to better support their needs. In general, the research can contribute to existing knowledge on young adult caregivers, as well as relevant programs and policies
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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