Mental stress test rates in academic learning process for healthy sporting students versus their health-impaired peers

Фотографии: 

ˑ: 

Dr.Sc.Psych., Professor B.P. Yakovlev1
Postgraduate N.R. Usaeva1
PhD, Associate Professor V.V. Apokin1
Postgraduate I.B. Tarasenko1
Postgraduate A.G. Banshchikov1
1Surgut State University, Surgut

 

Keywords: mental stress, test rates, functional impacts, educational activity, intellectual task.

Background. Presently the Sport Psychology Research Laboratory of Surgut State University in cooperation with the relevant research and academic teams of Humanitarian Education and Sport Institute gives a high priority to the studies of the effects of academic mental stresses on the academic adaptation of students with disabilities versus that of their healthy peers [3, 5]. The growing educational and other mental stresses in the academic education process are increasingly challenging for the students’ health, particularly in cases of different health conditions [4].

To be able to fairly rate the mental and functional statuses of the students and effects of the academic mental stresses on them to forecast and design their personal creative and cognitive resource mobilization activity, we need to apply not only a variety of absolute and relative academic progress rates but also the relevant psychological and physiological process rates and the internal bodily functionality rating data; with the data arrays being applied to profile the mental stresses and their effects to duly manage the academic education process and its mental effects so as to assure the best possible efficiency of the academic progress of every student [2].

Objective of the study was to perform a comparative analysis of the mental and physiological conditions of students with disabilities versus those of their healthy peers (on a gender-specific basis) in variable and challenging situations of the academic education process (including examination period) and develop a set of diagnostic criteria to rate the effects of academic mental stresses on the body and mind.

Methods and structure of the study. Subject to the tests under the study were highly-skilled and elite athletes with disabilities (8 men and 8 women qualified MS, ICMS and HMS) and healthy full-time university athletes (8 men and 8 women qualified MS and ICMS) from Surgut State University and Humanitarian Education and Sport Institute. A special emphasis was made on their performance rating criteria and data obtained by the Intellectual Task Test to profile their mental conditions in the examination period.

When designing the program to model effects of the information-processing-related academic mental stresses on the energy resource of university athletes with disabilities, we applied a Fitmate PRO Metabolic Assessment System tests to obtain the key metabolic process data for the mental state profiling study. The metabolic process data were obtained at rest separately from other mental condition tests using three Fitmate PRO Metabolic Assessment System tests. Mental condition test data were obtained using the Intellectual Task Test [1]. The Fitmate PRO Metabolic Assessment System tests generated the following metabolic process rates: t – time of the second test phase; VO2 – average oxygen consumption rate, ml/min; Ve – average ventilatory equivalent, l/min; Rf – average respiration rate, l/min; HR – average heart rate, beats per min; FeO2 – average expired oxygen concentration; RMR – basal metabolic rate computed based on the oxygen consumed for the test time, kcal.

Study results and discussion. The Intellectual Task Test designed pursuant to the consolidated Test Protocol (see Table 1) generated the following data:

  • Task time for two test squares; plus total test time (T1, T2 and TT) indicative of the thinking process flow speed;
  • Specific and total numbers of corrections made (C1, C2 and CT) [1, p.75]. It may be pertinent to immediately note a wide dispersion of the mean-square deviations for men and women in two test groups.

Male students showed significant intergroup differences (SG1 vs. RG1) in thinking time, with p<0.05. The tests found now significant differences for the female groups (SG2 vs. RG2) and gender-specific differences, albeit both males and females showed the test time reduction trend working in the second square (T2) versus the first square test (T1). Therefore, both test groups (SG and RG) were tested with the thinking process being activated by the tests.

Table 1. Intellectual Task Test rates of the Study and Reference Groups (SG and RG), Х±σ

Groups

Statistical indices

C1

T1

C2

T2

CT

TT

SG1

X

0,88

209,57*

1,50

142,75

2,38

344,88*

σ

0,23

51,12

0,76

69,50

0,74

113,97

RG1

X

2,45

128,64

1,18

101,64

3,55

230,27

σ

0,63

25,50

56,17

59,12

1,62

96,84

SG2

X

0,70

105,05

1,07

100,50

1,50

205,50

σ

0,18

25,36

0,31

26,06

0,51

55,42

RG2

X

1,22

117,33

1,22

92,11

2,44

209,44

σ

0,24

61,67

0,30

29,13

0,74

45,07

Note: C1 – corrections made in the first square test, times; T1 – first square test time, s; C2 – corrections made in the second square test, times; T2 – second square test time, s; CT – total corrections, times; TT – total test time, s; * p<0.05.       

The following Intellectual Task Test rates were found the most variable in the SG and RG group tests: HR – average heart rate, beats per min; VO2 – average oxygen consumption rate (ml/min) for the tested women; and RMR – basal metabolic rate for the tested men. It was HR that showed the highest sensitivity to intellectual and emotional stresses (see Table 2) that may be due to the generally higher emotional responses in the tests timed to the examination period. The highest HR were found in the healthy male athletes from RG1 (Table 2) that may be due to the examination-period emotionality and sensitivity growth, albeit it should be noted that the trend was found insignificant for the tested men in contrast to the tested women who showed a similar albeit significant trend, with p<0.05.

Table 2. Intellectual Task Test rates of the Study and Reference Groups (SG and RG), Х±σ

Groups

Statistical indices

Rf

VE

HR

VO2

RMR

SG1

X

23,13

21,74

92,50

858,75

3364,50*

σ

5,19

5,75

14,43

238,10

509,82

RG1

X

25,45

23,54

93,55

846,27

3095,45

σ

4,16

6,63

13,68

236,08

480,13

SG2

X

28,50

18,00

91,50*

563,00*

1935,50

σ

0,71

0,28

12,02

67,88

600,33

RG2

X

26,38

18,43

107,13

633,38

2199,25

σ

3,38

4,21

14,76

153,61

208,81

Note: Rf  – respiration rate; VE – ventilatory equivalent; HR – heart rate; VO2 – oxygen consumption rate, ml/min; RMR – basal metabolic rate; * p<0.05.  

The information-processing-related responses in both groups (of men and women with disabilities and healthy university athletes) were found correlating with the energy costs and some functionality rates. In the final phase of the tests, the basal metabolic rates (RMR, kcal) showed intergroup differences with the SG men and women with disabilities showing higher energy costs versus their healthy peers in RG. The men’s intergroup difference (SG1 vs. RG1) was found long-standing and significant with p<0.05, whilst the women’s intergroup difference showed no significant variations for the test period (Table 2). The tests revealed sympathicotonia and activity growth of the blood circulation and respiratory systems in the examination period, with the female students experiencing generally more stress when adapting to the academic education processes. The men’s groups were tested with lower efficiency of the vegetative support of activity versus women.

Comparative analysis of the intergroup differences of the Intellectual Task Test rates showed the healthy students' adaptation being more productive versus their peers with disabilities. The functionality test rates showed not all university athletes (men and women) adapting well enough to the academic mental stresses. The tests found sympathicotonia and low efficiency of the cardiovascular systems as verified by the initial- and final test rates. The starting and final tests of mental condition generated the data indicative of the growing fatigue associated with slow but constant draining of the energy resources. The men with disabilities were tested with more difficult adaptation to mental stresses associated with growing sympathicotonia and sagging vegetative support of the activity. The women with disabilities were tested with lower variations of heart rates, oxygen consumption rates and vegetative support rates versus their male peers.

Conclusion. The proposed experimental academic mental stress control model may be substantiated by the following provisions:

1. The individual academic progress is largely determined by the information-processing abilities of each student, including the following: individual responses to specific situations; self-control; self-rating of own conditions, abilities and actions; analysis of and responses to the incoming information, with due situational comparisons, forecasts, and behavioural modelling responses with due consideration for potential outcomes; programming, based on the above, of the own decisions/ responses and their fulfilment by specific actions and operations.

2. Energy cost variation rate may be referred to as the integrated bodily functionality resource rating index, with the rate variation being correlated with the relevant physiological and psychological responses to the academic educational and mental stresses and workloads in specific situations of the academic process. Energy cost analysis helps both control the mental stresses in the process and use the incoming objective information for analysis of the individual mental responses of athletes with due account of the individual intellectual workability rates in different situations of the academic education process. Effects of the internal and external academic mental stresses trigger the relevant functional reserve mobilisation responses in the student’s body. In addition to the traditional functionality control and rating methods giving the means to profile performance of every body system and, hence, being still highly beneficial for a variety of educational and sport process applications – we recommend a wider use of the modern electronic technology based systems on the whole and the Fitmate PRO Metabolic Assessment System tests in particular to obtain the key functionality rates via remote/ contact applications and profile the rate variations with time; the tests normally taking a relatively short time and generating valuable data for the health condition analyses and interpretations.

References

  1. Bogdanova D.Y., Volkov I.P. Prakticheskie zanyatiya po psikhologii [Practical lessons in psychology]. Moscow: Fizkultura i sport publ., 1989, pp. 73-75.
  2. Babushkin G.D. Psikhologo-pedagogicheskie metodiki v strukture podgotovki sportsmenov. Ucheb. posobie [Psychological and pedagogical methods in structure of athletic training process. Study guide]. Omsk: SSUPC publ., 2015, 228 p.
  3. Usaeva N.R., Apokin V.V., Yakovlev B.P. Razvitie emotsionalnoy ustoychivosti k psikhicheskoy nagruzke u studentov-sportsmenov s narusheniyami slukha v period obucheniya v vuze [Development of Emotional Stability to Mental Load in Student-Athletes with Hearing Impairment during University Studies]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2014, no. 11, pp. 87-89.
  4. Yakovlev B.P., Litovchenko O.G. Psikhicheskaya nagruzka v sovremennom obrazovatelnom protsesse [Mental load in modern educational process]. Psikhologicheskaya nauka i obrazovanie [Psychological Science and Education] (Psyedu.ru), 2007, no. 4, pp. 38-44.
  5. Yakovlev B.P., Apokin V.V., Usaeva N.R. Otlichitelnye osobennosti vliyaniya psikhicheskoy nagruzki na studentov-sportsmenov s ogranichennymi vozmozhnostyami zdorovya i zdorovykh studentov v usloviyakh uchebnoy deyatelnosti [Comparative effects of mental load impacts on sporting students with health impairment versus their healthy peers in academic process]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2016, no.  11, pp. 86-88.

Corresponding author: apokin_vv@mail.ru

Abstract

Today a top priority is being given to the problem of the academic mental stress management in application to the sporting students with disabilities due to both the growing intensity of the modern sports and increasingly challenging academic education process. High mental stresses in the academic education period are known to be of possible detriment for the students’ physical and mental health. This is the reason why the students’ integrated mental and physiological condition rating studies focused on different health groups are so critical nowadays, with a special emphasis on the studies of the students’ mechanisms of adaptation to the education process and mental stresses in the modern professional education systems. The male students with disabilities were found to adapt to the mental stresses in a more constrained manner associated with the growing sympathicotonia and falling vegetative support in the process. The female students with disabilities showed lower vegetative support disorders versus their male peers as verified by variations of their heart rates and oxygen consumption rates.