Skip Section Navigation

The Center for Sport Psychology and Athlete Mental Health supports much of its research program through grants from a variety of external agencies and organizations. The Center has received multiple grants from the NCAA and AASP, as well as funding from NASPE. The Center's current grants are described in this section.

Orthopedic Surgeons and Residents Well-Being: Pre-performance routines, ideal psychological states, and perceived surgical outcomes among orthopedic surgeons and residents. $4800 grant funded by the Applied Association of Sport Psychology. 

Research on preperformance routings (PPRs) within the health care profession has been lacking, despite the fact that thousands of surgeries are performed everyday within the U.S. and surgeons need to be at their best to keep their patients safe and achieve the expected outcomes. Although surgeons have long acknowledged that their mental readiness and preparedness is key in determining the success of a procedure (McDonald et al., 1994, 1995), there is little contemporary data regarding specifically how orthopedic surgeons prepare themselves psychologically for their surgeries and how they describe their ideal performance state. Most contemporary research on orthopedic surgical readiness has focused on the effects of physical warm-up, virtual-reality simulations, mental imagery, and the use of 3-D printed models on a range of surgeon (e.g., confidence) and surgical (e.g., accuracy of procedure) outcomes (Feeley et al.., 2022; Makhdom et al., 2015; Phelps et al., 2022; Pike et al., 2017; Snelgrove & Gabbort, 2020). Across these studies, the focus of the pre-surgical routines has primarily been on visual motor elements of the surgery as opposed to the surgeon’s emotional, cognitive and physical states.

To address the current knowledge gap regarding surgeon’s psychological preparation and their mental readiness to perform, we will conduct semi-structured interviews with orthopedic surgeons (Fellows or Attendings) and orthopedic surgery residents (second through fifth years) to understand what being mentally prepared means to them (i.e., being in the zone) and to document how they prepare themselves psychologically to confidently and consistently perform at their best. Our specific aims are:

  • Determine if there are commonalities in regards to surgeons being in their ideal psychological state prior to surgeries and describe the characteristics associated with this state.
  • Document and describe the common methods that surgeons use during their pre-surgical time to ready themselves psychologically to perform.
  • Understand surgeons’ perceptions regarding the connection between their engagement in PPRs, being in the zone, and achieving better surgical outcomes.

AAC Bodies in Motion: Bodies in Motion:  Improving Body Image and Psychological Well-Being Among AAC Men and Women Athletes. $15,000 funded by the American Athletic Conference. 

Men and women athletes report high levels of body dissatisfaction, which are predictive of disordered eating and general psychological distress. Bodies in Motion (BIM), an evidence-based intervention, can help alleviate such concerns. BIM will be implemented at four AAC schools (all AAC schools may participate) and extant staff trained in its delivery. Across 2024-2025 season, each school’s staff will lead BIM groups, creating positive, body-healthy, psychologically enhancing experiences for their athletes. Through indepth, qualitative interviews (16 men and 16 women), we will assess the program’s effectiveness and applicability as a field-based tool that can be scaled to the entire conference.