Gender typing of sports: an investigation of Metheny's classification

The purpose of this study was to investigate if children perceived certain sports to be masculine, feminine, or neutral. Students attending a University Laboratory school (grades K-12) were asked to fill out a survey about sports during a class period, Children in grades K-6 were given a sport (such as baseball) and asked if a boy named David would play it, if a girl named Jane would play it, or if both David and Jane would play the sport. Students in grades 7-12 were asked to name their favorite athlete or team and sport and indicate what sports they felt was best for a girl and a boy. Then they were given a list of sports and asked to indicate, using a 5-point Likert-type scale, whether they believed the sport was masculine, neutral, or feminine. Results from loglinear analyses indicated that students sex-typed certain sports, such as aerobics and football. Additionally, although some responses from students in grades 7-12 indicated that individuals should be able to play any sport they wanted, there were many gendered rsponses in terms of what sport(s) girls and boys should participate in. The results are discussed with reference to Metheny's categories of permissible sports for girls and in the framework of the gender typing of sport.     

Validation of a stages of exercise change questionnaire

The purpose of this study was to examine evidence for the validity of a stages of change measure of the Transtheoretical Model for exercise behavior. Participants were 152 university students (53.3% women, 71.6% Caucasian, M age = 19.18 years) who completed processes of change, self-efficacy, decisional balance, stages of change, and exercise behavior questionnaires as well as a maximal treadmill test. Participants in the action and maintenance stages had the highest strenuous (PC/C/P < A/M) and moderate (PC/C < A/M) self-reported exercise behavior. Those in the maintenance stage had the highest estimated aerobic fitness (PC/P < MA). The differences between the early stages (PC, C, and P) and the later stages (A and M) as described by the first function were primarily due to the behavioral process of change. The differences between the extreme stages (PC and M) and the middle stages (C, P, and A) were due to the experiential processes of change and the pros of decisional balance. The hypothesized patterns of stage differences were partially supported. Failure to obtain full support may have been due to methodological issues or inherent difficulties in detecting evidence for the validity of stages of change measures.     

Linking at the US National Library of Medicine

The development of services provided by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), which dates back to 1836, is described. MEDLINE, a database of 10-plus million references and abstracts to the world's biomedical literature, was put on the World Wide Web for free searching in 1997 as a system called PubMed, whose use has grown to over 250 million searches per year. PubMed features a variety of links between MEDLINE references and related information – full-text journal articles, DNA sequence data, medical knowledge bases, etc. – at websites within and outside NLM. PubMed is a major component of a larger NLM system, Entrez, which integrates access to a number of genome-related databases with linking features similar to those of PubMed. The newest linked service, which became a reality in February 2000, is PubMed Central, the National Institutes of Health's free repository for primary research reports in all the life sciences.     

Do oarsmen have asymmetries in the strength of their back and leg muscles?

The aim of this study was to establish whether asymmetry of the strength of the leg and trunk musculature is more prominent in rowers than in controls. Nineteen oarsmen and 20 male controls matched for age, height and body mass performed a series of isokinetic and isometric strength tests on an isokinetic dynamometer. These strength tests focused on the trunk and leg muscles. Comparisons of strength were made between and within groups for right and left symmetry patterns, hamstring: quadriceps ratios, and trunk flexor and extensor ratios. The results revealed no left and right asymmetries in either the knee extensor or flexor strength parameters (including both isometric and isokinetic measures). Knee extensor strength was significantly greater in the rowing population, but knee flexor strength was similar between the two groups. No difference was seen between the groups for the hamstring: quadriceps strength ratio. In the rowing population, stroke side had no influence on leg strength. No differences were observed in the isometric strength of the trunk flexors and extensors between groups, although EMG activity was significantly higher in the rowing population. Patterns of asymmetry of muscle activity were observed between the left and right erector spinae muscles during extension, which was significantly related to rowing side (P < 0.01). These observations could be related to the high incidence of low back pain in oarsmen.     

Impact forces and neck muscle activity in heading by collegiate female soccer players

Three soccer header types (shooting, clearing and passing) and two heading approaches (standing and jumping) were manipulated to quantify impact forces and neck muscle activity in elite female soccer players. The 15 participants were Division I intercollegiate soccer players. Impact forces were measured by a 15-sensor pressure array secured on the forehead. The electromyographic (EMG) activity of the left and right sternocleidomastoid and trapezius muscles was recorded using surface electrodes. Maximum impact forces and impulses as well as the EMG data were analysed with separate repeated-measures analyses of variance. Impact forces and impulses did not differ among the header types or approaches. Higher values were found for jumping versus standing headers in the mean normalized EMG for the right sternocleidomastoid. In addition, the integrated EMG was greater for the right sternocleidomastoid and right and left trapezius (P < 0.05). The sternocleidomastoid became active earlier than the trapezius and showed greater activity before ball contact. The trapezius became active just before ball contact and showed greater activity after ball contact. The increased muscle activity observed in the neck during the jumping approach appears to stabilize the connection between the head and body, thereby increasing the stability of the head-neck complex.     

Research methods in sport and exercise psychology: quantitative and qualitative issues

Contemporary aspects of research methods in sport and exercise psychology are discussed in this wide-ranging review. After an introduction centred on trends in sport and exercise psychology methods, the review is organized around the major themes of quantitative and qualitative research. Our aim is to highlight areas that may be problematic or controversial (e.g. stepwise statistical procedures), underused (e.g. discriminant analysis), increasingly used (e.g. meta-analysis, structural equation modelling, qualitative content analysis) and emergent (e.g. realist tales of writing). Perspectives range from the technical and speculative to the controversial and critical. While deliberately not providing a 'cookbook' approach to research methods, we hope to provide enough material to help researchers to appreciate the diversity of potential methods and to adopt a more critical perspective in their own research consumption and production.