The paper contains the results of the field research that the authors used in order to determine the existence and manifesting forms of peer pressure in youth sports. The sample consists of young people aged 11 to 18, who practice sport (N=536). The research was conducted in the second half of 2019 in the territory of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. The research results indicate that there are various forms of aggressive and violent behavior among youth, among which psychological violence predominates. The most common place for violence is the dressing room, after training or a competition. In terms of age, high-school-age children report higher level of violence victimization compared to older primary school children. The research results Introduction DOI: 10.31382/eqol.200603  The aggression and violence are global social phenomena, which have been researched in the past three decades. By examining many definitions of aggression it can be concluded that it is any “behavior that is intended to harm another person who is motivated to avoid that harm” (Allen & Anderson, 2017: 2; Bushman & Huesmann, 2010; DeWall, Anderson, & Bushman, 2011); whereas violence is, among other things, described as an “extreme form of aggression that has severe physical harm (e.g.,serious injury or death) as its goal” (Allen & Anderson, 2017: 3; Anderson & Bushman, 2002; Bushman & Huesmann, 2010; Huesmann & Taylor, 2006). testify to the fact that sport shares “the fate” of the society in which it exists and that policy makers in youth sports should take into consideration this social phenomenon as well.  

This easy readible and thoroughly scientifically-backed book by australian professor Felica Jacka, explains the recent science on how diet can affect the brain and mental health, with a specific focus on the risk to anxiety and depression. The scientific evidence is drawn from the results with larger cohorts and randomized controlled trials including amongst others: ALSPAC (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, United Kingdom); HELFIMED (Healthy Eating for Life with a Mediterranean Diet, Australia); HUSK (Hordaland Health Study, Norway); PREDIMED (Prevencíon con Dieta Mediterránea, Spain); SMILES (Supporting the Modification of Lifestyles in Lowered Emotional States, Australia). These and other studies show that wherever the geographical area, plant-based Mediterranean-like diets improve the health outcomes of children, adolescents, adults and ageing individuals affected by mental health illnesses, in cost-effective ways. Consecutive chapters illustrate recent understandings of the effects of diets on the immune system, their influence on brain plasticity (which also occurs in older humans), epigenetics, food sensitivities, inflammation, and centrally, the importance of food to the gut microbiota (including the consumption of fermented foods). These effects are explained simply and efficiently in relation to mental health, as well as briefly to psychotic illnesses, autism and ADHD. By doing so, it is possible for every physical-activity researcher or athlete interested in the combination of nutrition, lifestyles and good habits, to get up to date easily, or to make a first aquaintance with the fields of nutrition and brain health. The appendix contains a reference list that restricts itself to the most influential studies like systematic reviews and meta-analysis. Also included is the Modified Mediterranean Diet (ModiMED) food pyramid, and several ModiMEd recipies (used in the SMILES study), as well a weekly meal planner, that all could be of use to get started with an easy intervention study. Although it is intended for the general public, the book is recommended for scholars of any life sciences. With her to-the-point and easy language writing gift, professor Jacka manages to explain the complicated matters of brain health effortlessly. She does this convincingly, but not superficially, relevant and correct, without any simplification. To influence mental health through nutritious, whole foods will be an essential topic to come, also in the fields of sports. In that sense Brain Changer, can be exactly that.

Given that anxiety is a significant individual disposition that affects sports performance, this study aimed to verify the latent variables obtained by the State – Trait Anxiety Inventory X-2, and to compare the obtained factor solutions with the proposed model of latent variables. The second aim refers to the presentation of the results of the questionnaire State – Trait Anxiety Inventory X-2 answered by Serbian male and female handball players. The research was conducted on a sample of 170 respondents, 99 male and 71 female handball players, aged 14 to 39 years (average age = 21.9) with an average handball playing career of 9.39 years. Towards the end of 2019, the respondents filled in the above-mentioned questionnaire used to assess anxiety as a personality trait. Exploratory factor analysis with certain modifications of the algorithm was applied to determine accurately latent space. The overall analysis was performed using the R statistical package. Four factors were selected based on the conducted factor analysis of the latent space of the questionnaire. Ten, five, three and two items are projected on the first, second, third and fourth factor respectively. Since internal reliability of the fourth factor was 0.394 it was excluded from further consideration and interpretation. The achieved scores on four separate factors show that Serbian male and female handball players achieve average results on the first (Presence of Trait anxiety) and the third factor (Absence of proactivity), while they achieve scores above the average on the second factor (Positive affect). In order to examine the sex differences between the examined variables, a one-way analysis of variance was performed. The findings show that there is no statistically significant difference on all three factors between the scores achieved by male and female handball players. A statistically significant difference between handball players of different competitive ranks appeared only on the Positive affect factor between the top athletes and the athletes in the second league (p = .04).

Pokemon Go is a virtual reality game that mixes the smart mobile technology with real life exploration. The aim of this research is to investigate whether Pokemon Go app increases the levels of physical activity. Thirty-two healthy subjects were included in this 5-week study (12 males and 20 females, age 18-49) and they were allocated into three groups, experimental group: new trainers (N=10) and control groups: regular trainers (N=11) and nontrainers (N=11). Level of physical activity was assessed using Pedometer – Step Counter Free & Calorie Burner that counts daily walking distance in km and steps. Subjects were instructed to provide screenshots of their km recorded. At each level of measurement groups significantly differed in walking distance (p<0.01). The time did not have significant effect on the walking distance. The interaction effect was significant from fourth level to fifth level of measurement (p<005). LSD test revealed that regular trainers significantly differed from both, new and non-trainers, having the most walked distance. New trainers and non-trainers did not differ in the level physical activity in the first three weeks, but in the fourth- and fifth-week new trainers group significantly increased the levels of physical activity regarding non-trainers group (mean difference +21.688 and +15.688, respectively). In the first two weeks, the new trainers group walked 27km, and after the installation of the games, the increase was more than 10 km. It could be concluded that Pokemon Go app has impact on the levels of physical activity, but some period of time is needed for participants to learn how to play the game and enjoy it. 

The purpose of this research was to review current research findings related to injuries in elite athletes. For the needs of the paper, professional and scientific literature was analyzed from prestigious scientific journals. The types of athletic injuries that occur are dependent on the athletic discipline. The most commonly injured sites in athletes are the front and back muscles of the thigh and in the ankle joint. The results of this study have indicated that the causes of most injuries are due to overstraining and overload syndrome. These causes often arise from training procedures that have been implemented inadequately and usually relate to the volume and intensity of training without the application of injury prevention techniques.  

The increasing incidence of infertility and contrary the remaining levels of success rate of assisted reproductive therapies (ART) justify expanding the biomedical approach and underline the importance of psychosocial and lifestyle factors. The aim of the study was to examine the effects of pre-treatment physical activity (PA) on the quality of life (QoL) in infertile women. A cross sectional cohort study was carried out involving 50 female patients with infertility diagnosis. Standardized QoL questionnaires and pre-treatment PA patterns were administrated during December 2018 – April 2019 in a university hospital-based fertility centre in South-Hungary. 43% of the women reported regular exercise. Regarding GPAQ moderate intensity PA in work and recreation was preferred. They spent 4.2 hours with active transportation weekly, and 4.5 hours sedentary daily. 68.89% reached the 150min/week MVPA recommendation and 18.2% spent more than 4 hours with exercise Respondents were less satisfied with Physical Domain (57.7±7.5) and most with Psychological Domain (72.2±12.1) of WHOQOL-BREF. Lower QoL by Emotional (56.46±18.12) and Mind-Body (56.84±19.67), mediate by Social (62.76±17.40) and better values by Relational Subscale (76.48±19.62) were measured with FertiQoL. Significant difference between active and inactive group was described for Psychological domain (Z=-2.240, p=0.025). Positive correlation was found between MVPA vs Total MET and Emotional Subscale (p=0.014, p=0.009) and between work-related PA and Mindbody Subscale (p=0.006). Pre-treatment PA could positively affect QoL undergoing ART. However, for more impressive results, objective assessment of physical activity, increased number of participants, and further examinations are needed.

The aim of this study was to determine the isokinetic profile of shoulder internal and external rotators in judo and karate female elite athletes.; Methods: Study sample consisted of senior 13 female karate athletes (21.23 ± 2.83 years) and 13 female judokas (21.00 ± 2.51 years). For testing the isokinetic muscle strength of the external and internal rotation of the shoulder joint, the HUMAN NORM isokinetic dynamometer has been used. Testing the maximum muscle strength of subjects was carried out at an angular speed of 60º / sec and 180 º / sec; Results: Judo female athletes had higher isokinetic peak torque for right and left shoulder internal rotators than karate athletes at 60º/s and 180º/s, with a large effect size, Cohen’s d = 0.89, 1.02, 0.97, 0.95, respectively. Also, large differences were observed between the judo and karate subjects in peak muscle torques of the right shoulder external shoulder rotator muscles of both limbs were greater in judokas than karate athletes. Isokinetic testing should be an integral part of training process in combat sports because in order to decrease the number of injuries and improve performance.

Evidence is lacking that describe the status of physical activity (PA) behaviours among adolescents in Kazakhstan. The aims of the study are to examine the associations between PA and screen time behaviours (STB) among children and young adolescents in Kazakhstan. Data were pooled from the 2015/16 Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) study (N=4932, 49.8% girls, mean (age)=8.77 SD (age) =0.68) and the 2017/18 Health Behaviour in Schoolaged Children (HBSC) study (N=4153, 49.3% girls, Mean(age)=12.93 SD (age)=1.64). Both studies carried out a two-stage cluster sample to determine a national representative sample. Parental reported their children’s PA levels and weekday STB time in the COSI study. In the HBSC study, young adolescents self-reported their PA levels in the past week and the amount of STB hours including TV viewing during weekdays. Data were analysed through DOI: 10.31382/eqol.191202  The number of children and young adolescents who met the PA recommendations reduced among children aged 9y (68.1%), to young adolescents aged 11y (35%), 13y (37%) and 15y (31%). Similarly, there was a reduction in the proportion of adolescents who met the STB recommendations between the ages of 9y (75%), 11y (60%), 13y (53%), and 15y (47%).  Despite some limitations in the methodologies between the COSI and HBSC surveys, and reporting of behaviours, there is a clear pattern that health promoting activities lowers as children transition into young adolescents.

The development of video games can be traced back to the 80s of the last century. The final phase of the gaming industry’s development brought with it another phenomenon — e-sport. “Electronic sport” presupposes playing video games in a competitive setting, with emphasis on increased “institutionalization” of gaming activity through the organization of e-sports teams and official international competitions. In order to define esports, it’s important to note that not every activity of playing video games can be described as e-sport, but every e-sport is essentially playing video games. The interest for the phenomenon of electronic sport has increased over the past several years in all social sciences, including sociology. This paper aims to present several dimensions of the “electronic sport” phenomenon, review the existing research in this field, compare various aspects of e-sports and “traditional” sports, and discuss the formation of new subcultural group gathered around video games. The key task of this paper is to examine the distance between e-sports and “traditional” sport and frame the socio-economic scale of the phenomenon.

We intend to identify the effects of the occupational therapy means on self-esteem and on the psychomotor development level for hearing-impaired students. Two instruments (test-retest at an 18month interval) have been used for the hearingimpaired pupils of the “VasilePavelcu” Technological Special High School in Iasi: the scale of multidimensional attitudes for self-esteem E.T.E.S. (N=45 subjects, 24 boys and 21 girls, aged between 13 and 18) in elementary and high school, each groups of 15 subjects; the test Ozeretski – Guillmain (N= 45 de subjects: 25 boys and 20 girls, aged between 8 and 12) in primary and elementary school. Individual test applied for assessment of pshycho-motor development level. The subjects for whom we have assessed the self-esteem attended activities that included pantomime / puppet theater, manual and sports skills activities. The subjects for whom we have assessed the psycho-motor development level have attended the following activities: manual skills, painting, and sports activities. All activities were attended following a preset graph. There is a significant statistical difference to subjects in the phase of retesting to the testing phase for all the variables taken into account: social self-esteem, prospective self-esteem, total level of psycho-motor development. Self-esteem  and the level of psycho-motor development are two variables that can improve the psychophysical state of children with hearing impairment through occupational therapy. Under its various forms, it can be a tool used by and in school to achieve socio-professional integration, but also training and personal development.