Transactional Model of Stress and Coping Quiz

Stress, Mental Health, and Wellbeing in Sport and Exercise Psychology

• Stress is a physical and mental response to a stressor.
• A stressor is a force acting on a biological system.
• Distress is a psychological reaction created by stressors, an emotional, cognitive, or behavioral response.
• Part of the stress response includes biological and physiological reactions.
• Stress is an imbalance in physiological systems that activates physiological and behavioural responses to restore balance.

Psychosocial Disorders in Athletes

• One in three athletes experiences mental health problems.
• 16-34% of active and inactive athletes experience anxiety or depression.
• Higher rates of bipolar disorders, self-harm, eating disorders and substance abuse are seen in athletes than in the general population.

Defining Wellbeing

• Mental health is a state of wellbeing in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities and can cope with normal stresses of life.
• Wellbeing involves contributing to one's community and efficiently functioning.
• It encompasses adaptation and responding to physical, mental, or social challenges.
• Wellbeing is an intertwined aspect of physical and mental health.

Mental Health Spectrum

• Keyes (2004) defines a mental health spectrum, identifying flourishing, moderate mental health, languishing, and mental disorder.
• Languishing people may be highly prevalent amongst young people.

Health as a Continuum

• Active mental illness and sub-syndromal illness are characterized by frequent symptoms.
• Normal health is characterized by occasional symptoms.
• Good mental health is characterized by asymptomatic conditions.
• Peak performance is characterized by 'flow' or optimal experience.

Classification Systems of Diseases and Mental Disorders

• WHO's ICD-10 classifies diseases and related health problems.
• APA's DSM-5 classifies mental disorders.

What is Wellbeing?

• Wellbeing is about lives going well and encompasses feeling good and functioning effectively.
• Feelings of happiness, contentment, and interest are integral parts of wellbeing, along with engagement, confidence, and affection.
• Effective functioning also encompasses one's potential, purpose, control over one's life, and having positive relationships.

Wellbeing Drivers - Personality

• The strongest predictor of usual emotional style is personality.
• Extraversion appears to drive positive emotional characteristics.
• Neuroticism is linked to negative mood and common mental disorders.

Wellbeing Drivers - Socioeconomic Factors

• Higher levels of income and socioeconomic status are positively associated with wellbeing and a protective function against poor mental health.
• Higher educational qualifications are linked to protective factors against poor mental health, but progression tends to decrease.
• Income inequality is negatively associated with wellbeing and positively associated with psychological disorder.
• Unemployment is linked to poor mental health.

Wellbeing Drivers - Demographic Factors

• Gender may influence wellbeing in general.
• There is an observed U-shaped relationship between age and mental wellbeing.
• Martial status is associated with high life satisfaction coupled with lower rates of psychological ill-being, but causality is uncertain.

Theories and Models of Stress and Coping

• Stimulus-oriented approaches (e.g., Life-Event Theory).
• Reaction-oriented approaches (e.g., General Adaptation Syndrome).
• Cognitive approaches (e.g., Transactional Model of Stress, Conservation of Resources).

Life-Event Theory

• Major life changes are stressful and affect health, regardless of positivity.
• The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) measures life change intensity and duration for assessing stress.
• The accumulation of life changes is a key factor for vulnerability to stress.

General Adaptation Syndrome

• Stress is the body's nonspecific response to any demand made.
• Physiological responses are consistent across all stressors.
• Triphasic structure: alarm reaction, resistance, exhaustion.

Transactional Model of Stress

• Stress is a relationship between a person and the environment; this relationship is appraised as taxing or exceeding resources, threatening one's wellbeing.
• Primary appraisal: evaluation of a situation.
• Secondary appraisal: evaluation of coping options.

Conservation of Resources

• Psychological stress is a reaction to an environment that might entail a threat of a loss of resources, the actual loss of resources, or the lack of resource gain after investing resources.

Difficulties in Stress-Related Research

• Various definitions of stress.
• Different types of measures (e.g., Perceived Stress Questionnaire).
• Measures of salivary free cortisol.

Coping

• Coping is constantly changing cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding resources.
• Lazarus & Folkman's theory differentiated problem-focused and emotion-focused coping.
• Adaptive and maladaptive and functional and dysfunctional coping strategies are also differentiated.

Coping Strategies of Athletes

• Female athletes tend to assess stressful situations negatively more often than male athletes.
• Female athletes rely more heavily on emotion-focused coping strategies, compared with men.
• Female athletes reported greater stress levels from coaches versus their male counterparts..
• Male athletes use humour related coping strategies more often than female athletes.
• Performance level differences show that elite male athletes tend to use approach coping strategies more often.
• Non-elite males use avoidance coping strategies more.
• Elite female athletes tend to use avoidance coping more often than approach coping strategies, while non-elite females rely more on approach coping strategies.

Functionality of Coping Strategies

• The use of emotion-focused coping is associated with a negative affect and higher levels of neuroticism, while problem-focused coping is associated with positive affect and reduction in anxiety levels.
• Emotion-focused and avoidance coping are linked with higher cognitive anxiety and higher neuroticism.

Coping During Competitive Suffering Episodes

• Negative feelings regarding goal attainment are shown to moderately predict problem-focused coping.
• Negative feelings regarding the attainment of goals are shown to relate strongly with emotion-focused coping.
• Use of avoidance coping is observed to diminish over time.

Theories and Models on How Physical Activity Affects Stress

• Physical activity (PA) is any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure above resting levels.
• Exercise is a subset of PA and is defined as planned, structured, and repetitive physical activity with the objective of improving or sustaining physical fitness.

Direct Relationship Between Stress and Exercise

• There is a negative relationship between exercise and perceived stress.
• Stress can negatively impact exercise behaviour.
• Exercise can negatively impact perceived stress.

Hypothesis of Stress-Buffer Effect

• Exercise moderates the stress-health relationship and reduces the detrimental effects of chronic stress on health.
• Mechanisms are by strengthening psychosocial resources and reducing stress responses.
• Stressors are evaluated cognitively and affect individual response to stress..

Cross-Stressor Adaptation Hypothesis

• Regular exercise causes adaptations in stress-response systems leading to decreased physiological responses to stressors.
• Physiological adaptations from PA include strengthening psychosocial resources and reducing stress responses.

Physical Activity/Exercise and Affect

• PA is associated with positive mood and affect.
• Aerobic exercise is shown to moderately correlate positively with vigour and moderately negatively with fatigue, confusion, depression, anger and tension.
• Moderate exercise has a positive effect on psychological wellbeing.
• Associations exist between exercise and positive changes in self-esteem and physical self-perception.

Physical Activity/Exercise and Depression

• There is an inverse curvilinear association between PA and depression.
• The greatest differences in depression risk have been observed in low PA levels.
• Benefits from accumulating activity are shown to start when transitioning from inactivity to moderate activity levels and are maintained at a reduced risk of depression from continuing moderate or higher levels of PA.

Physical Activity/Exercise and Anxiety

• Acute and habitual exercise may reduce stress-induced anxiety.
• Exercise facilitates neurotransmitter synthesis and central nervous system adaptations.

Psychological Antecedents of Sport Injury

• Physical and psychological factors can both affect injury occurrence.
• The relation between sport injuries and psychological factors is primarily stress-related.
• Increased stress responses lead to higher muscle tension, resulting in a greater risk of injury, when individuals have fewer coping resources to counteract these effects.

Stress and Injury Model

• A framework for prediction and prevention uses cognitive, physiological, attentional, and behavioural, intrapersonal, social and stress history variables.
• Stress response in individuals with poor coping skills will be more likely to appraise situations negatively and respond more vigorously, leading to a greater risk of injury.

Psychological Antecedents of Sport Injury - Empirical Evidence

• Athletes without sufficient coping skills and social support are more susceptible to injury from major life changes.
• Low self-esteem, pessimism, and low hardiness correlate with increased athletic injuries.
• High levels of trait anxiety are associated an increased risk of athletic injuries.

Psychological Antecedents of Sport Injury Related to Stress

• Results of a systematic review show anxiety and stress are major factors in identifying risk to injury in athletes.
• This review includes analyses on different sports and injury severity in athletes.
• This review did not include analyses on athletes with disabilities, and focused on identifying important predictors of injury.

GSU Studies I and II - Practical Implications

• Short-term strategies are recommended for identifying athletes at increased injury risk.
• Identification of critical state constellations during achievement situations can help predict injury through a focus on body perception, concentration, and physical confidence and improving social and mental health in athletes.

Psychological Responses to Sport Injury

• Athletes experience stages of emotional adjustment to injury (disbelief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance).
• There are common critiques to the five stage model, which recognise multiple simultaneous emotions and variation in response patterns.
• There are three categories of responses: injury-related information processing, emotional upheaval/reactive behavior, positive outlook/coping.

Injury and Depression in Sport

• Injury in athletes is associated with moderate or high-levels of post-injury depression..
• Percentages of clinically significant depression range between 4% and 12%.

Integrated Model of Psychological Response to Sport Injury and Rehabilitation

• Personality, history of stressors, coping resources and interventions influence response and likelihood.
• Psychological factors relate directly to response and likelihood of sport injury.
• Individuals may respond differently to injury according to appraisals of the meaning of the injury, its consequences, and their ability to cope.

Reacting to Injured Athletes

• Be empathetic, set realistic expectations, and provide accurate information or support (dealing with setbacks and sport psychological support).

Role of Sport Psychology in Sport Injury Process

• Sport psychology serves to improve injury outcomes in three phases: injury-illness, rehabilitation-recovery, return to full activity.
• Crucial elements for successful implementation in each stage are screening for psychosocial stress, implementation of mindfulness, acceptance, and cognitive-behavioral based programs.
• Improved coping mechanisms and clear communication between athletes, coaches, and medical staff contribute to improved outcomes in all three phases.

Substance Use (Disorder)

• Substance use disorders in athletes have high rates of alcohol use, smoking, hazardous drinking, etc.
• Social, gender and age factors are shown to influence use, but differences can be seen between in-season and off-season.
• Inconsistency exists in research related to activity and substance use.
• PA (including sport) can be effective in reducing many of the issues experienced by adolescents and young adults and can positively affect both physical and mental wellbeing.
• While some studies suggest that participation in team sports is a risk factor for substance use, there are also cases where it serves as a protective factor..
• Individual and environmental factors are highlighted as possible risk factors for substance use.

DSM-5 criteria for SUD

• Substance use disorders are problematic patterns of substance use occurring over a 12 month period.
• Eleven criteria assess impaired control, social impairment, risky use, and pharmacological criteria.
• These elements are categorized and divided into mild, moderate, or severe categories.

Assessment of Substance Use Disorders

• Comprehensive assessment involves a detailed history of the patient's substance use, a general medical and psychiatric analysis, family and social history, and a screening/evaluation of substances detected in blood, breath, or urine samples.

What to do with a Positive AUDIT Score

• Different risk zones are recognized and recommendations provided to address these risk levels in substance use disorders.

Mental Health disorders related to Sport

• Psychological factors, such as, anxiety, stress, and depression are more prevalent in individual sports, than team sports.

Common Risk Factors for Depressive Episodes in Athletes

• Genetic predispositions influence vulnerability to depression.
• Gender influences risk factors and severity differences.
• Major events and chronic stressors increase risk for depressive episode.
• Social factors and living circumstances increase depression risk
• Physical factors, such as injuries, and specific sports activities also increase the risk factor..
• Personality factors (such as social support) influence athletic-related risk of depression..

Common Risk Factors for Non/Late Remission of a Depressive Episode

• Somatic diseases impact the likelihood of remission.
• Comorbid conditions increase non-remission risk.
• Age of onset and type of depressive episodes influence risk for non-remission.

Common Risk Factors for Bipolar Disorder

• Psycho-social stress, genetics, trauma, alcohol abuse, or drug abuse and irregularities in circadian rhythm may increase the risk of bipolar disorder.

Depression in Athletes

• The prevalence of depression among athletes is similar to the general population.
• Risk factors specific to athletes include chronic stress, insufficient coping strategies, imbalance between work and life and specific physical demands depending upon the sport.

Review 2020: Depression in High Performance Athletes

• A 2020 review of depression rates in high-performance athletes saw prevalence rates in high performance athletes ranging between 6.7%-34%.
• A notable connection was seen in the correlation of performance failure with elevated depressive symptoms in top 25% of elite athletes.
• Female athletes demonstrated higher levels of depressive symptoms, compared with their male counterparts.

Treatment for Depression in Athletes

• Psychotherapy and antidepressant medication are common treatments for depression in athletes.
• Early prevention strategies may be beneficial.

Considerations for interventions related to loneliness in athletes:

• A more interpersonal/group setting in sporting activities may reduce loneliness
• It's crucial to maintain a positive social interaction quality to reduce loneliness.
• If loneliness is high, participation in sport may, conversely, decrease in intensity as well.

Test your understanding of the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping. This quiz covers primary and secondary appraisal concepts, the definition of stress within the model, and the distinctions between adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies. Challenge yourself with questions that explore the significance of relationships in coping processes.