Recent life changes and outcome of prolonged competitive stress

A Re-Examination of the Link between Stress and Performance

Previous studies have shown that increased stress, as measured by life-change scales, is associated with poor performance. The present study examined the effects of stress on the performance of 86 adult male runners in a half marathon. Subjects responded to a questionnaire from which several independent variables were derived. These variables were entered in a stepwise multiple regression to predict race times. The combination of age, weekly mileage, and number of races previously entered yielded a significant multiple R. However, stress was not significantly related to race times, and subsequent statistical analyses were carried out to explain this lack of significance. It was suggested that the effects of stress on athletic performance may be reduced by physical and psychological variables associated with exercise or that race performance is too well determined by physical variables to be affected by life changes.

Metabolic demands and perceived exertion during cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Emergency situations often require continuous execution of one-person cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for periods of time in excess of 30 minutes. The limited research which has examined the demands of the procedure has focused on central physiological measures, despite (1) the use of a subjective end-point for termination of CPR (i.e., exhaustion) as stated in professional guidelines, and (2) significant peripheral involvement in the form of muscular exertion, a phenomenon more closely linked to Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE) than to central factors. To examine subjective responses to performing CPR, 8 healthy, sedentary subjects [M age = 20.8 (yr) +/- .4; weight (kg) 82.6 +/- 7.1; height (cm) 183.7 +/- 2.8] reported differentiated Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE) following 10 minutes of one-person CPR testing. While metabolic data observed during CPR support previous research suggesting that the energy demands of performing CPR are relatively low, both peripheral and over-all RPE were significantly higher than central (respiratory-metabolic) RPE. Over-all RPE was also significantly greater than peripheral RPE. The data suggest research investigating CPR demands based on central measures may underestimate actual as well as perceived demands of performing the procedure. In addition, the considerable interindividual variability in the relative energy cost (% VO2 max) of performing one-person CPR suggests that the fitness level of the individual may be a limiting factor in the ability to perform CPR for extended periods of time.

Health status as a mediating factor in the life change-academic performance relationship

This study was designed to determine whether illness during the academic year, when gender and academic readiness are controlled, is the variable accounting for the demonstrated relationship between life change index and subsequent academic performance. A weak though significant inverse association was found between life change and grades; this association persisted even after statistical adjustment for gender, academic readiness, and illness experience. There was no evidence that illness experience mediated the life change-performance relationship. The association was not subject to a threshold effect according to level of life change.

The life events stress-performance linkage: an exploratory study

For a long time, the relationship between life events, psychological adjustment, and illness has been a subject of much concern in the medical literature. Very recently, several management theorists have proposed a life events stress-performance linkage. In the present study, such a linkage was tested in a classroom setting. One hundred fifty-nine university students were asked to estimate the degree of readjustment required for each of 43 life events and, subsequently, to identify events that they had experienced during the past year. Weighted and unweighted life event stress scores were later correlated with six indices of classroom performance. As hypothesized, measures of stress collected early in the semester were inversely related to future performance. The predictive ability of the stress scores was not enhanced by using readjustment values to weight life events experienced.

On the meaning of sports: cross cultural observations of super stress

The definition of sports medicine indicates the possible therapeutic and research importance of games in the work of social scientists and clinicians. A cross-cultural comparison of super stressful competitions provides one insight into the importance of games in human societies. Fourteen such comparisons are made between Indians in Mexico who run 250-mile foot races and Americans in Alaska who conduct 1049-mile dog sled races. It is concluded that sports can help understand how a society defines itself and regulates violence. Games may be an essential "human-specific' need which provide entertainment, retain survival skills, ameliorate existential anxiety and promote religious and/or secular socialization. In this study, humans seem willing, if not insistent, to deploy considerable resources of time and material to sustain competitions among their own species, as well as between and with other species. A "sports history' is important for all individuals.