Strength of Religious Faith: A Comparison of College Athletes

Faith is the foundation of all religions. Sporting practices may be an important site for both private and public expressions or exercises of religious faith. Beyond knowing or construing a deeper meaning to life, the exercise of religious faith may likewise serve as a coping mechanism within the sports context. Specifically, religious practice may help athletes manage the uncertainty of outcome in sport, as well as their fear of sustaining a serious injury. Given the potential psychological benefit of religious faith within this context, researchers have hypothesized that college athletes would demonstrate higher levels of religious faith than other post-secondary students. The current study seeks to expand on this research, examining hypothesized differences among college athletes at a large, public Division I university on the west coast of the United States. Participants completed the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith (SCSRF)—Short Form (Plante, Vallaeys, Sherman, & Wallston, 2002), a five-item self-report measure utilized to assess strength of religious faith regardless of religious affiliation. Findings suggests that both level of athletic competition and racial identification contribute to higher levels of religious faith. That racial identity was a stronger predictor than level of athletic competition is worthy of further exploration from both a social and historical perspective.

Relationships between Plantar Pressure Distribution and Rearfoot Alignment in the Taiwanese College Athletes with Plantar Fasciopathy during Static Standing and Walking

Background: Plantar fasciopathy (PF) is usually related to changes in foot arch, foot shape and rearfoot posture. However, little research has been implemented by using large-scale datasets, and even less has been conducted centering on plantar pressure distributions (PPDs) of different genders of PF athletes. This study aimed to investigate the relationships among the arch index (AI), the PPDs and the rearfoot postural alignment in hundreds of college athletes with PF during static standing and walking. Methods: Cross-sectional study of 100 male and 102 female athletes with PF was undertaken. The PF athletes’ pain assessment and self-reported health status were examined for evaluating their musculoskeletal painful areas. Results: The PF athletes’ PPDs mainly concentrated on inner feet in static standing, and transferred to lateral forefeet during the midstance phase of walking. The males’ PPDs from the static standing to the midstance phase of walking mainly transferred to anterolateral feet. The females’ PPDs mainly transferred to posterolateral feet. The PF athletes’ static rearfoot alignment matched the valgus posture pattern. The medial band of plantar fascia and calcaneus were the common musculoskeletal pain areas. Conclusions: Characteristics of higher plantar loads beneath medial feet associated with rearfoot valgus in bipedal static stance could be the traceable features for PF-related foot diagrams. Higher plantar loads mainly exerted on the lateral forefoot during the midstance phase of walking, and specifically concentrated on outer feet during the transition from static to dynamic state. Pain profiles seem to echo PPDs, which could function as the traceable beginning for the possible link among pronated low-arched feet, PF, metatarsalgia, calcanitis and Achilles tendinitis.

Division I College Athletes’ Self-Perception: Investigating the Impact of Race and Discrimination

Self-perception is the level of competency at which individuals evaluate themselves in certain areas or domains (Marsh & Shavelson, 1985). An individual’s self-perceptions contribute to their global self-worth and even predicts performance (Cuellar, 2014; Harter & Neemann, 2012). This study measures self-perception scores, as well as experiences with racial discrimination, of 306 NCAA Division I college athletes using the Self-Perception Profile for College Students (Harter & Neemann, 2012). Scores are compared across race. Findings suggest that White college athletes have significantly higher self-perception scores than college athletes of color - with recent discrimination (within the last year) as a significant predictor of multiple areas of self-perception. The implications of this study suggest that faculty and other campus stakeholders should pursue positive relationships with the college athletes they encounter. Positive relationships between college athletes and faculty may help raise college athlete self-perceptions, and in turn, performance in a variety of areas.

Analysis of Changes in Thermoregulatory Adaptation of College Athletes Following Cold Exposure Training

Introduction: The object of this study included features of thermal regulation and adaptation processes of 18-year-old college students playing sports before and after cold exposure training (morning hot/cold contrast showers) and their attitude to such training. Objective: To conduct a comparative analysis of changes in thermoregulation and adaptation of college students in response to cold exposure training. Methods: We conducted a questionnaire-based survey and testing using the Kestner–Marshak capillary cold reaction test and the “Adaptolog–Expert” system for assessing the functional status of the organism. Results of the survey conducted before and after the experiment allowed us to form a sample of the experimental group. At the end of the experiment, the repeated questionnaire-based survey of the level of cold exposure training showed a significant prevalence of affirmative answers, while the number of negative and unsure answers showed a pronounced decrease. The average group values of the cold reaction test equaled the upper limit of the norm indicating insufficient cold exposure training. By the end of the experiment, the average time of appearance and disappearance of hyperemia among the college students decreased significantly, thus proving the benefit of contrast showers to improve human thermoregulation. The results of applying the “Adaptolog–Expert” system showed statistically significant differences with the initial indicators of adaptation with multidirectional dynamics, indicating normalization of the studied parameters of adaptation. Conclusions: The study of thermoregulatory and adaptation parameters of college athletes confirmed the positive impact of the proposed technique on the students’ attitude to cold exposure training and normalized their adaptation to cold.