Ithaca College

Miranda Kaye, assistant professor in the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences, had two presentations at the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity in Minneapolis, MN on June 12 and 13. 

The first presentation, Unhealthy Motives: Avoidance-Orientations, Restrained Eating, and Multivitamin Use in Female DIII Collegiate Athletes, was conducted in collaboration with Amy Frith (HPPE) and students Srijana KC and Nicolena Efthymiou. Findings suggested that female athletes with a focus on the aversive consequences of failure, not only set maladaptive goals for competition, but also demonstrate a patten of undernourished behavior that includes a combination of additional exercise outside of that required for practice, restrained eating, and lower multivitamin use. This suggests that to improve health and performance, it may be important to focus of athletes beliefs about the consequences of failing.

The second presentation, Worth Their Weight? An Examination of the Effectiveness of Childhood Obesity Programs, was conducted in collaboration with researchers at The Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at the Pennsylvania State University and funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture, and the Office of Families and Children and Youth, US Department of Defense. Of the over 250 manualized childhood obesity programs available, only 44 evaluated primary (i.e., % body fat) or secondary (i.e., energy expenditure) measures related to obesity. Fourteen programs were determined to be promising or effective in reducing childhood obesity. A comparison of programs with primary outcomes indicated that components of direct physical activity (i.e., providing children with opportunities to be physically active), screen time education (i.e., teaching that one can be physically active and still have too much screen time), and high degrees of parent involvement were indicative of programs with significant reductions in childhood obesity.

These findings provide useful information in the selection of childhood obesity programs that may be disseminated to reduce the effects of this epidemic.The first presentation, Unhealthy Motives: Avoidance-Orientations, Restrained Eating, and Multivitamin Use in Female DIII Collegiate Athletes, was conducted in collaboration with Amy Frith (HPPE) and students Srijana KC and Nicolena Efthymiou. Findings suggested that female athletes with a focus on the aversive consequences of failure, not only set maladaptive goals for competition, but also demonstrate a patten of undernourished behavior that includes a combination of additional exercise outside of that required for practice, restrained eating, and lower multivitamin use. This suggests that to improve health and performance, it may be important to focus of athletes beliefs about the consequences of failing. The second presentation, Worth Their Weight? An Examination of the Effectiveness of Childhood Obesity Programs, was conducted in collaboration with researchers at The Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at the Pennsylvania State University and funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture, and the Office of Families and Children and Youth, US Department of Defense. Of the over 250 manualized childhood obesity programs available, only 44 evaluated primary (i.e., % body fat) or secondary (i.e., energy expenditure) measures related to obesity. Fourteen programs were determined to be promising or effective in reducing childhood obesity.

A comparison of programs with primary outcomes indicated that components of direct physical activity (i.e., providing children with opportunities to be physically active), screen time education (i.e., teaching that one can be physically active and still have too much screen time), and high degrees of parent involvement were indicative of programs with significant reductions in childhood obesity. These findings provide useful information in the selection of childhood obesity programs that may be disseminated to reduce the effects of this epidemic.