Achievement Goals During Middle Childhood: Individual Differences in Motivation and Social Adjustment

Person-centered analyses of achievement goals have been scarce in studies of elementary school children. In this investigation, the authors examined the natural combinations of achievement goals (mastery, performance-approach, performance-avoidance) among 3rd grade students (N = 195) and how clusters differed in self-, teacher-, and peer-reported adjustment variables. Cluster analysis revealed four groups of students: mastery (above average in mastery goals, below average in performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals), multi-goal (above average in all three goals), avoidant (above average in performance-avoidance goals, below average in mastery and performance-approach goals), and low motivation (below average in all three goals). Clusters differed in self-reported academic self-efficacy and perceptions of teacher support, teacher-reported academic competence, and peer nominations of social status. Mastery students had the most adaptive profiles; low motivation, the least adaptive. Avoidant boys had more maladaptive profiles than avoidant girls.     

The effect of a prophylactic dose of flurbiprofen on muscle soreness and sprinting performance in trained subjects.

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of a prophylactic dose of a local, transcutaneously administered, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug on muscle soreness, muscle damage and sprinting performance in young trained males. Twenty-five subjects aged 19+/-3 years, actively participating in rugby union and field hockey, were familiarized with the test procedure and then divided at random into an experimental group (n = 13) and a control group (n = 12). The experimental group received two patches, each containing 40 mg flurbiprofen (TransAct LAT), 12 h before an exercise bout designed to produce delayed-onset soreness (DOMS). The control group received identical non-medicated placebo patches at the same time. Delayed-onset muscle soreness was induced by an exercise protocol consisting of drop jumps (seven sets of 10 repetitions). Serum creatine kinase activity, muscle soreness, muscle girth and acceleration in a maximal sprint over 30 m were measured before the induction of DOMS and at 12, 24, 48 and 72 h thereafter. Plasma lactate concentration was measured 3 min after the 30-m sprint tests. Subjects in both groups had significantly more pain at 24 and 48 h compared with at 12 and 72 h (P < 0.05; Friedman two-way analysis of variance). Thigh girth and serum creatine kinase did not change throughout the experiment. Although plasma lactate concentrations were elevated after the 30-m sprint, there were no differences between groups or as a result of DOMS. The greatest acceleration occurred between 5 and 10 m. This was not affected by the anti-inflammatory drug or DOMS. In conclusion, the aetiology of the DOMS induced in the trained subjects in this study seems to be independent of inflammatory processes or, more specifically, of increases in prostaglandin synthesis in the muscles.     

Policing and Teaching: The Positioning of Black Male Teachers as Agents in the Universal Carceral Apparatus

Given the challenging in- and out-of-school outcomes that some boys and young men of color exhibit, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners have advocated for increasing the number of Black male teachers. This strategy is predicated on the belief that having same-race and same-gender teachers can improve student learning. Drawing on Shedd’s Universal Carceral Apparatus and Brown’s Pedagogical Kind, this study used the qualitative method, specifically phenomenology, to explore the school-based experiences of 27 Black male teachers across 14 schools in one urban school district. Participants perceived that their peers and school administrators positioned them to serve primarily as disciplinarians first and teachers second. The Black male teachers described how their colleagues expected them to redirect student misbehavior. They rejected the idea that they were magically constructed or that students who were deemed as misbehaving responded to the teachers’ redirection simply because they were Black men. Instead, participants described how they attended to students’ social and emotional development, thereby influencing their capacity to engage and manage perceived misbehavior. Implications for future research are presented at the conclusion of the study.     

Measures of cardiac autonomic control in women with differing volumes of physical activity

Abstract

The most recent (1996) drinking guidelines of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) propose that athletes should drink “as much as tolerable” during exercise. Since some individuals can tolerate rates of free water ingestion that exceed their rates of free water loss during exercise, this advice has caused some to overdrink leading to water retention, weight gain and, in a few, death from exercise-associated hyponatraemic encephalopathy. The new drinking guidelines of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), recently re-published in this Journal, continue to argue that athletes must drink enough to replace all their weight lost during exercise and to ingest sodium chloride since sodium is “the electrolyte most critical to performance and health”. In this rebuttal to that Consensus Document, I argue that these new guidelines, like their predecessors, lack an adequate, scientifically proven evidence base. Nor have they been properly evaluated in appropriately controlled, randomized, prospective clinical trials. In particular, these new guidelines provide erroneous recommendations on five topics.

If novel universal guidelines for fluid ingestion during exercise are to be promulgated by important international bodies including the IOC, they should first be properly evaluated in appropriately controlled, randomized, prospective clinical trials conducted under environmental and other conditions that match those found in “out-of-doors” exercise. This, and the potential influence of commercial interests on scientific independence and objectivity, are the two most important lessons to be learned from the premature adoption of those 1996 ACSM drinking guidelines that are not evidence-based. These concerns need to be addressed before the novel IOC guidelines are accepted uncritically. Otherwise the predictable consequences of the premature adoption of the 1996 ACSM guidelines will be repeated.     

Running intensity as determined by heart rate is the same in fast and slow runners in both the 10‐ and 21‐km races

The aims of this study were to determine (1) whether running speed is directly proportional to heart rate (HR) during field testing and during 10‐ and 21‐km races, and (2) whether running intensity, as estimated from HR measurements, differs in 10‐ and 21‐km races and between slow and fast runners at those running distances. Male runners were divided into a fast (65–80 min for 21 km; n = 8) or slow (85–110 min for 21 km; n = 8) group. They then competed in 10‐ and 21‐km races while wearing HR monitors. All subjects also ran in a field test in which HR was measured while they ran at predetermined speeds. The 10‐km time was significantly less in the fast compared with the slow group (33:15 ± 1:42 vs 40:07 ± 3:01 min:s; x ± s.d.), as was 21‐km time (74:19 ± 4:30 vs 94:13 ± 9:54 min:s) (P < 0.01). Despite the differences in running speed, the average running intensity (%HR_max) for the fast and slow groups in the 10‐km race was 90 ± 1 vs 89 ± 3% and in the 21‐km race 91 ± 1 vs 89 ± 2%, respectively. In addition, %HR_max was consistently lower in the field test at the comparative average running speeds sustained in the 10‐km (P < 0.01) and 21‐km (P < 0.001) races. Hence, factors in addition to work rate or running speed influence the HR response during competitive racing. This finding must be considered when running intensity for competitive events is prescribed on the basis of field testing performed under non‐competitive conditions in fast and slow runners.     

Teaching boys: towards a theory of gender-relevant pedagogy

This article calls attention to the social and educational challenges facing boys and men around the world. Next, it highlights how the outcomes for males of African descent across the Americas, in particular the USA, are especially troubling. Moreover, a critique is presented about the recruitment campaigns that see increasing the number of Black male teachers as an elixir for improving the crisis facing Black boys. Then, the article focuses on the intersection of race and gender and reframes the discussion around improving the deleterious school outcomes facing Black boys by shifting the conversation to exploring how educators' socialised views around gender influence the ways in which they teach boys. Finally, the article provides practical applications for designing a curriculum that is gender relevant.