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Background: Drinking identity (the extent to which one links the self with drinking alcohol) is a unique risk factor for college students' hazardous drinking that is not directly targeted by existing interventions. We conducted a study that aimed to decrease drinking identity among college students with hazardous drinking. We adapted a writing task about the future self and tested whether three writing sessions could decrease drinking identity and change drinking. We also investigated whether two additional factors (writing perspective and inclusion of participants' social networks) would enhance task impact. The present study evaluated whether posited proximal cognitive and motivational outcomes (drinking identity, self‐efficacy, readiness to change, and drinking intentions) changed immediately after each writing session. Method: The study is a randomized clinical trial in which hypotheses and analyses were pre‐registered. Participants were 328 college students who met hazardous drinking criteria. The study had a 2 (narrative writing topic: low‐risk drinker vs. reduced smartphone use) × 2 (writing perspective: first‐person vs. non‐first‐person) × 2 (social network instruction: instructed to include vs. not) factorial design. Proximal outcomes were drinking identity, self‐efficacy, readiness to change, and drinking intentions. The clinical outcome was alcohol consumption. Participants completed three laboratory sessions at weekly intervals that included the writing task and pre‐ and post‐task assessments. Results: Results were largely null, except that readiness to reduce drinking was higher in the low‐risk drinker condition and increased over the lab sessions. Time effects indicated that reductions in drinking identity, drinking intentions, and alcohol consumption, and increases in self‐efficacy were observed but did not change above and beyond control conditions. Conclusions: Findings indicate the need to strengthen the writing task and select a more appropriate control task to target proposed proximal outcomes. Future studies might try personalizing the task, evaluating its efficacy with individuals motivated to change their drinking, and using a control task that does not involve imagining a future self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Explicit (self‐report) and implicit (indirect) measures of identification with drinking alcohol—drinking identity—are associated with drinking outcomes cross‐sectionally and longitudinally. A key next step is to identify moderators. The current study evaluated a promising moderator: mindsets of alcoholism. Believing people can change (growth mindset) is associated with adaptive outcomes in domains such as mental health, but research is scant regarding mindsets related to problematic drinking. We evaluated whether individuals' alcoholism mindsets moderated the drinking identity to drinking relation as part of a larger, longitudinal web‐based study of heavy drinkers. Methods: A total of 422 US college graduates (59% women) who were heavy drinkers completed measures assessing drinking identity, mindsets, and drinking outcomes (consumption, problems, and risk of alcohol use disorder). Drinking outcomes were assessed at 2 subsequent assessments occurring 4 and 8 months after the initial assessment. Results: Drinking identity was positively associated with drinking outcomes, and drinking outcomes reduced following college graduation. Alcoholism mindsets were significantly and negatively correlated with all drinking outcomes. Mindsets were only conditionally associated with drinking behaviors over time in models that evaluated mindsets, drinking identity measures, and their interaction. Mindsets moderated the relationship between drinking identity and changes in drinking behaviors, but the relation was specific to explicit drinking identity and consumption. Among participants with stronger drinking identity, those who had stronger (vs. weaker) growth mindsets reported reduction in consumption over time. Conclusions: Growth mindsets of alcoholism appear adaptive for college graduate heavy drinkers with a stronger drinking identity. Mindsets are amenable to interventions; targeting them may be useful in heavy‐drinking college graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the factors affecting Olympic performance base on Olympic teams in the U.S. Impact of mental skills and strategies on performance; Implications for sport psychology; Importance of debriefing athletes on the role of psychological factors in performance.

Computer science (CS) education is plagued by a gender divide, with few girls and women participating in this high-status discipline. A proven strategy to broaden participation for girls and other underrepresented students interested in CS is the availability of teacher preparation that requires classroom teachers to grow their knowledge of CS content as well as the pedagogical practices that enhance inclusive learning opportunities for historically underrepresented students. This case study describes the design and impact of an Online Professional Development (PD) for CS teachers, a year-long PD program aimed at broadening participation in the United States. Using survey and observation data from more than 200 participants over three years in PD settings, this paper examines how the design of an online learning community model of PD provides an inclusive venue for teachers to examine their belief systems, develop inclusive pedagogical practices, and collectively transform the culture of CS classrooms to places that support all learners. Findings suggest that purposeful facilitation creates a transformative culture of "shared experience" whereby facilitators and groups of teachers engage in collaborative lesson planning and debriefing discussions, in both synchronous and asynchronous sessions. This case study can inform other online PD efforts aimed at broadening participation in computing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study designed to assess strategies athletic coaches use to enhance self-efficacy in athletes, focusing on specific 13 strategies and the coaches evaluations of the effectiveness of those strategies. Wrestling coaches revealed they used instruction-drilling, modeling confidence, positive talk, and difficult physical conditioning drills. National team Olympic coaches were shown to have used the same techniques, but also emphasizing technique improvements while downplaying outcome.

This study examined psychological correlates of performance in youth wrestlers by replicating and extending the findings of Scanlan et al. A secondary purpose was to replicate and extend work on antecedents of pre- and postcompetitive state anxiety. A total of 202 youth wrestlers, ages 13 and 14, completed a background questionnaire assessing demographic characteristics, trait anxiety, achievement orientations, and characteristic prematch cognitions prior to participating in an age-group wrestling tournament. Prematch performance expectancies and prematch state anxiety were also assessed 10 to 20 minutes before Rounds 1 and 2 of the tournament. Postmatch assessments of satisfaction and state anxiety were conducted immediately after both bouts. Results partially replicated those of Scanlan et al., that is, wrestlers who performed best had more years of experience and higher prematch performance expectancies. Pre- and postmatch competitive state anxiety antecedent variables of trait anxiety, prematch performance expectancies, and parental-pressure-to-participate anxiety were also replicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to assess the psychological principles used by coaches and to determine if various categories of coaches differed in the psychological skills and strategies they employed. Intercollegiate wrestling coaches (N=101) completed an extensive survey that assessed their opinions concerning the importance of, use of, frequency of problems arising with, and degree of success they feel they have had in changing or developing 21 psychological skills. Descriptive statistics revealed that the psychological attributes of mental toughness, positive attitude, individual motivation, and attention-concentration were judged to be most important for success in wrestling. Anxiety-stress control, attention-concentration, lack of confidence, and mental toughness were reported as the areas in which wrestlers most frequently experienced problems. The coaches indicated that the strategies most easily developed with their athletes were goal setting, team cohesion, and mental practice imagery. Finally, the coaches felt they were most successful in enhancing team cohesion and communication, and developing sportsmanship and goal setting. Discriminant function analyses revealed that coaches who had attended U.S.A. wrestling sport science certification clinics significantly differed on several psychological principles from coaches who had not attended clinics. Coaching education implications of the results are discussed, and future research recommendations are forwarded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]