Mental development

This paper aims to evaluate the levels of mental ability of licensed athletes who are actively engaged in sports at branch level in Turkey. A total of 340 athletes, including 116 women and 224 men, from various regions of Turkey who are actively engaged in sports at elite level in different branches voluntarily participated in the survey which evaluates their levels and techniques of mental training. It was considered important that athletes participated in the survey should be licensed and importance of the study was emphasized to them. The survey model was used in this study. Current information related to research problem was systematically given by scanning of relevant literature, so a theoretical framework on the subject was created. First of all, a twelve-question personal information form developed by researcher was applied. Ottawa Mental Skills Assessment tool (OMSAT-3) which is developed by Durand-Bush, Salmela and Green-Demers (2001) and adapted to Turkish language by Erhan, Güler, Ağduman and Gerek was applied to evaluate the levels of athletes’ mental ability. In the adaptation phase, the scale was applied to 220 athletes and internal consistency value was found to be 0.94. The scale consists of 48 items and 12 subscales and these subscales are evenly divided into four items. The scale consists of a total of 48 items and constructed on a 7-point Likert-type. The scoring was formed from 1 to 7 according to the statements, “Strongly disagree”, “Disagree”, “Slightly disagree”, “Neither agree nor disagree”, “Agree”, “Slightly agree” and “Strongly agree”. Frequency Analysis was applied to determine the demographic characteristics of participants and Shapiro-Wilk Test was applied in order to decide whether the questionnaires are suitable to normal distribution and Mann-Whitney U test was applied in order to determine the dimensions according to parameters such as gender, marital status, and type of sports, level of contact and level of sport. Kruskal-Wallis H test was applied for analysis of the dimensions in terms of age, sports age and educational level. Finally, correlation analysis of Spearman was used in order to determine the relation between sub-dimensions of total satisfaction score. The significance level (p<0.05) was accepted in analysis. As a result, there is a significant difference in mental ability dimensions of active athletes in different branches according to their mental ability levels and variables such as age, type of sports, sports level and sports age. Therefore, it is observed that mental ability levels of athletes in different branches vary according to these variables.

Apert syndrome is characterized by craniosynostosis, symmetric syndactyly and other systemic malformations, with mental retardation usually present. The objective of this study was to correlate brain malformations and timing for surgery with neuropsychological evaluation. We also tried to determine other relevant aspects involved in cognitive development of these patients such as social classification of families and parents’ education. Eighteen patients with Apert syndrome were studied, whose ages were between 14 and 322 months. Brain abnormalities were observed in 55.6% of them. The intelligence quotient or developmental quotient values observed were between 45 and 108. Mental development was related to the quality of family environment and parents’ education. Mental development was not correlated to brain malformation or age at time of operation. In conclusion, quality of family environment was the most significant factor directly involved in mental development of patients with A...

The four sides of the classroom cannot give all the developmental needs of the students. Engagement to other activities, clubs, or organizations is a great help for them. One of the extra-curricular activities to which girl students can have the membership is girl scouting. Girl Scouting aids girls develop their full individual potential; relate to others with increasing understanding, skill, and respect; develop values to guide their actions and provide the foundation for sound decision making; and contribute to the improvement of society through their abilities, leadership skills, and cooperation with others. This study assessed the status of senior high school girl scouting in the province of Batangas, with different schools as the main source of respondents. Also, this study measured how girl scouting affects the holistic personality development of the GSP members as to physical, emotional, psychosocial, spiritual, and mental development. A self-made questionnaire was utilized to gather the data necessary for this study. For validation of the gathered information, focus group discussion and interview were also employed. The study found out that facilities, equipment, and materials were moderately adequate and girl scouting has a moderate effect on the physical development of the GSP members from the senior high school. It was also indicated that there was a significant difference between the assessment of the two groups of respondents. A holistic development project with a focus on physical development was suggested by the researchers. Based on the findings, the researcher also proposed a project that GSP council can use to successfully touch the lives of the students through varied activities that focus on all the aspects of human development.

We describe affected individuals in three generations of a family and another sporadic case, all Brazilian patients, with a combination of signs that diagnose the BCD syndrome. In addition to the cardinal signs, the sporadic case has hypothyroidism and imperforate anus, which was observed previously in one patient. The broadened phenotype and the possibility of involvement of p63 and IRF6 genes in this condition are discussed. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.