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Department of Kinesiology

Research

Sport Psychology faculty and students are very active in a wide range of applied research projects. All students are strongly encouraged to participate in at least one applied research project while enrolled in the program. Funding support is typically available as many of these research projects are supported by grants and awards. Faculty and students have conducted research with a diverse array of participants including high school and college student-athletes, youth sport and college coaches, university athletic directors, physical education teachers, and public school students.

Current Research Studies and Projects

UNIFORM - Psychological skills training program that has been taught to high school student-athletes. Four articles have been published on the UNIFORM program (Lead investigator: Dr. Jenelle N. Gilbert).

Coach Development – A multiple site action research project in youth sport settings using learning communities (Gilbert, Gallimore, & Trudel, 2009) as a form of ongoing professional development (Lead investigator: Dr. Wade Gilbert).

Coaching Effectiveness – Multiple case studies using a grounded theory collaborative action research approach with elite level coaches, using the integrated definition of coaching effectiveness (Côté & Gilbert, 2009) as a conceptual framework. (Lead investigators: Dr. Wade Gilbert & Mr. Tim Hamel).

Validation of Three Quantitative Measures of the Sport Injury Domain: The Coaches' Perspective - The purposes of this study are to (1) modify the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; Davis, 1980) to include a sport injury-specific subscale and determine its validity, (2) modify the Causal Dimension Scale II (CDSII; McAuley, Duncan, & Russell, 1992) to reflect the suggestions of Biddle & Hanrahan (1998) and Lewis (2004) and determine its concurrent validity, and (3) evaluate the factorial validity of the Coaches' Perception of Sport Injury Questionnaire (CPSIQ; Lewis & Ewing, no date). The addition of valid psychometric tools specific to the study of sport injury can increase researchers' ability to examine the coach-injured athlete dyad with greater accuracy and robust interpretation of research findings (Lead investigator: Dr. Dawn Lewis).

Theses and Projects

46 theses and projects have been completed as culminating experience by sport psychology graduate students. Graduate students typically present the results of this work at regional and national conferences, and often this work is also submitted for publication to scholarly journals. Download a listing of all sport psychology theses and projects here.