This multi-study paper reports the development and initial validation of an inventory for the Characteristics of Resilience in Sports Teams (CREST). In four related studies, 1225 athletes from Belgium and the United Kingdom were sampled. The first study provided content validity for an initial item set. The second study explored the factor structure of the CREST, yielding initial evidence but no conclusive results. In contrast, the third and fourth study provided evidence for a two-factor measure, reflecting (a) the team's ability to display resilient characteristics and (b) the vulnerabilities being displayed under pressure. Overall, the CREST was shown to be reliable at the between-players and the between-teams level, as well as over time. Moreover, its concurrent validity was verified by linking the characteristics of team resilience with various relevant team processes. Its discriminant validity was established by comparing the CREST measures with individual athletes' resilient traits. In conclusion, the CREST was argued to be a usable state-like measure of team-level resilient characteristics and vulnerabilities. To gain further understanding of team resilience as a process, this measurement could be used in future process-oriented research examining adverse events and sports team's pre-and post-adversity functioning.

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Background Systematic reviews and meta-analyses provide the highest level of evidence to help inform policy and practice, yet their rigorous nature is associated with significant time and economic demands. The screening of titles and abstracts is the most time consuming part of the review process with analysts required review thousands of articles manually, taking on average 33 days. New technologies aimed at streamlining the screening process have provided initial promising findings, yet there are limitations with current approaches and barriers to the widespread use of these tools. In this paper, we introduce and report initial evidence on the utility of Research Screener, a semi-automated machine learning tool to facilitate abstract screening. Methods Three sets of analyses (simulation, interactive and sensitivity) were conducted to provide evidence of the utility of the tool through both simulated and real-world examples. Results Research Screener delivered a workload saving of between 60 and 96% across nine systematic reviews and two scoping reviews. Findings from the real-world interactive analysis demonstrated a time saving of 12.53 days compared to the manual screening, which equates to a financial saving of USD 2444. Conservatively, our results suggest that analysts who scan 50% of the total pool of articles identified via a systematic search are highly likely to have identified 100% of eligible papers. Conclusions In light of these findings, Research Screener is able to reduce the burden for researchers wishing to conduct a comprehensive systematic review without reducing the scientific rigour for which they strive to achieve.

The purpose of this study was to conduct a conceptual replication of past work on the association between mental toughness and behavioral perseverance across multiple tasks over an extended period of time. We used a cross-sectional design including assessments of mental toughness and accumulated stress (hair cortisol concentration) prior to a Special Forces selection course spanning 3 weeks in duration. Participants self-reported their mental toughness and provided a sample of hair (1.5 cm) to capture accumulated stress over the 6 weeks prior to taking part in the selection course. A total of 122 military personnel provided complete data, of which 26 candidates (∼21%) passed the selection course. Bayesian structural equation modeling incorporating prior beliefs informed by past empirical work supported the hypothesis, whereby for a 1-unit increase in mental toughness, we would expect to see roughly a 68% increase in the odds of selection. These findings add to the growing body of research that has provided evidence for the salience of mental toughness for behavioral perseverance in tasks and activities of an enduring and demanding nature.

Stress is an important consideration for understanding why individuals take part in limited or no physical activity (PA). The effects of stress on PA does not hold for everyone, so examinations of possible moderators that protect individuals from the harmful effects of stress are required. Aligned with a resilience framework, individual resources (e.g., hope, self-efficacy) may buffer the maladaptive effects of stress, such that people who have access to these resources in greater quantity may be more "resilient" to the deleterious effects of stress on PA. This study was designed to test this expectation. In total, 140 Australian undergraduate students (70.7% female, Mage = 21.68 ± 4.88) completed a multi-section survey, and provided a sample for hair cortisol concentration (HCC) analysis using immunoassays. Main effects demonstrated primarily small and non-significant associations between perceived stress and HCC with different intensities of PA. Similar findings were observed between individual-level resilience resources and PA intensities, with the exception of hope (i.e., positive association with vigorous PA and negative association with sitting), self-efficacy (i.e., positive association with vigorous PA), and resilience (i.e., positive association with walking). Although certain individual-level resilience resources were perceived as beneficial for PA and sedentary time, the moderating role of resilience resources was not supported by the findings. The direct and moderating effects between stress, PA and resilience resources require further testing using longitudinal designs in which stressful periods occur naturally (e.g., exams for students) or are experimentally manipulated.

BackgroundThe majority of past work on athletes’ use of psychological skills and techniques (PSTs) has adopted a variable-centered approach in which the statistical relations among study variables are averaged across a sample. However, variable-centered-analyses exclude the possibility that PSTs may be used in tandem or combined in different ways across practice and competition settings. With this empirical gap in mind, the purposes of this study were to identify the number and type of profiles of elite athletes’ use of PSTs, and examine differences between these clusters in terms of their self-reported mental toughness.MethodsIn this cross-sectional survey study, 285 Malaysian elite athletes (170 males, 115 females) aged 15–44 years (M = 18.89, SD = 4.49) completed measures of various PSTs and mental toughness. Latent profile analysis was employed to determine the type and number of profiles that best represent athletes’ reports of their use of PSTs in practice and competition settings, and examine differences between these classes in terms of self-reported mental toughness.ResultsOur results revealed three profiles (low, moderate, high use) in both practice and competition settings that were distinguished primarily according to quantitative differences in the absolute levels of reported use across most of the PSTs assessed in practice and competition settings, which in turn, were differentially related with mental toughness. Specifically, higher use of PSTs was associated with higher levels of mental toughness.ConclusionThis study provides one of the first analyses of the different configurations of athletes’ use of PSTs that typify unique subgroups of performers. An important next step is to examine the longitudinal (in) stability of such classes and therefore provide insight into the temporal dynamics of different configurations of athletes’ use of PSTs.

Cumulating evidence from 24 independent randomized controlled trials or experiments (N = 4,339), we meta-analytically examined questions regarding the effectiveness of team reflexivity on collective performance outcomes and behaviors, and the conditions under which such effects are strongest. We addressed these questions by testing the overall effect of team reflexivity on performance outcomes (i.e., indices or metrics that quantify goal attainment) and behaviors (i.e., those actions or states that precede or influence goal attainment), and assessing the robustness of this pooled effect across study (e.g., team size), outcome (e.g., measurement approach), and intervention characteristics (e.g., virtuality) via a series of moderator analyses. We found a positive and significant medium overall effect of team reflexivity interventions on performance outcomes (g = .549) and performance behaviors (g = .548). Moderator analyses indicated that the team reflexivity-performance outcome effect is contingent upon the measurement approach (in favor of self-reports over objective indices or researcherassessed outcomes). With regard to performance behaviors, the effect of team reflexivity was strongest for cognitions and behaviors relative to affective dimensions, and when interventions were delivered to teams present physically relative to virtual teams. Collectively, our findings extend existing meta-analytic evidence regarding team reflexivity interventions in terms of resolution (i.e., inability to isolate unique effects), scope (i.e., primary studies missed via the systematic search), and methodological quality of primary evidence (i.e., incorporation of quasi-experimental designs).

Purpose. The iPro Cube is a small portable point-of-care device designed to analyse salivary markers of stress in a user-friendly manner (e.g., fast, convenient). Our aim was to test the reliability and validity of the iPro Cube to measure salivary cortisol and α-amylase as compared to the common laboratory standard method (ELISA immunoassay) prior to and after moderate intensity exercise. Methods. The study was a repeated measures, pre-registered design, and statistical framework that incorporated prior knowledge directly into the estimation process. Twenty-nine individuals (age = 27.4 ± 6.6 y; body-mass = 70.8 ± 11.3 kg; height = 1.74 ± 0.92 m; 18 males) completed a single PWC 75%HRmax , with repeated measures of salivary cortisol and ÉŚ-amylase pre, immediately post, and 30 min post-exercise. Results. Correlation between the iPro Cube and laboratory-based assessments of salivary cortisol was moderate-to-large (0.53 > r < 0.81) across all three testing points. In contrast, correlation between the iPro Cube and laboratory-based assessments of ÉŚ-amylase was small-to-moderate (0.25 > r < 0.46). We found a large correlation between duplicate samples of iPro Cube cortisol assessment (0.75 > r < 0.82), and a moderate-to-large correlation for ÉŚ-amylase (0.51> r < 0.77). Conclusions. The iPro Cube is capable of taking measures of salivary cortisol that are moderately correlated to values obtained via ELISA immunoassay, however the unit underestimates salivary cortisol and overestimates salivary ÉŚ-amylase at rest and post-moderate intensity exercise. It is recommended that researchers continue using standard laboratory techniques to assess these salivary stress markers.How to cite this article Ducker KJ, Lines RLJ, Chapman MT, Peeling P, McKay AKA, Gucciardi DF. 2020. Validity and reliability evidence of a point of care assessment of salivary cortisol and α-amylase: a pre-registered study. PeerJ 8:e8366 http://doi.