COPING STRATEGIES OF SPORTS MANAGERS FOR WORK STRESS AND THEIR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH

Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°2, 352-359

DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.248 352

C

OPING

S

TRATEGIES OF

S

PORTS

M

ANAGERS FOR

W

ORK

S

TRESS AND

T

HEIR

P

HYSICAL AND

M

ENTAL

H

EALTH

Kai Chuan

Abstract

Sports managers in China are under a huge work stress: they are responsible for implementing the

physical education reform, in addition to promoting students’ physical and psychological health. This paper

fully examines the strategies for sports managers to cope with the work stress and keep a healthy body and

mind. First, 204 college sports managers were selected from eastern China’s Anhui Province, and subjected to

a Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire survey. The results were analysed based on the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) and Mental Health Cognitive Scale. The results show that the sports managers, severely lacking physical exercise, were under medium-high work stress, satisfied with their jobs, and generally healthy in body and mind; work stress has a negative impact on the physical and mental health of sports managers; sports directly affect the physical health; coping strategies significantly regulates the relationship between stress and physical and mental health. Therefore, the sports managers are advised to participate in appropriate sports and make use of social support to alleviate work stress and improve their physical and mental health.

Key words: Physical Activity, Stress, Coping Strategy, Wellness, Sports Manager.

Received: 12-03-19 | Accepted: 10-11-19

INTRODUCTION

The rapid development of any industry is inseparable from the input of material resources and manpower. Among them, human resources play an indispensable role. The management team is more important because it plays important management functions such as leadership, planning, organization, decision-making and evaluation. It cannot be ignored. Therefore, the author takes Hong Kong sports management personnel as the research subject, and understands their work stress level, job satisfaction, physical and mental health status, participation in sports after work and often used stress coping strategies, aiming to find out that work can be slowed down. Stress, thereby improving work satisfaction and physical and

Dean's office of Yibin University, Yibin 644000, China. E-Mail: chuankai71@sina.com

mental health adjustment factors can work in the best state.

Work stress has become a factor affecting the health of professional people. The economic losses of company companies and the whole society caused by excessive pressure cannot be underestimated. The United Kingdom, the United States and other countries have begun to conduct regular monitoring and evaluation of workers' work stress levels (Chang, Liang, Chou et al., 2017; Nabkasorn, Miyai, Sootmongkol et al., 2006). Researchers from mainland China and Hong Kong have also carried out many stress surveys for various industries in the past 20 years (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989).

The generally accepted methods of helping to relieve stress are mainly participation in sports and other coping strategies. When a person feels stress or stimuli, it produces cortisol, which increases blood pressure and blood sugar levels, thereby improving the body's ability to respond to stress instantly, such as quickly escaping from dangerous

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targets. The secretion of catecholamine under stress also stimulates the sympathetic response to stress. However, if the human body is stimulated by a large amount of stress for a long time, but there is no proper physical exercise, the accumulation of stress hormones in the body will have serious negative effects on the body, including diabetes and arteriosclerosis (Antoniou, Davidson, & Cooper, 2003; Jamal, 2005). In addition, when participating in sports, the body secretes neurochemical substances such as dopamine and Andean, which can help improve people's mood. Some sports, such as yoga, stretching exercises, etc., are particularly effective in relieving stress-induced muscle tension. There are also some team projects that require the participation of many individuals and are helpful in seeking social support under pressure. Insist on participating in sports can help improve people's sense of subjective well-being (Andrykowski, Beacham, & Jacobsen, 2007), or improve the effectiveness of stress response (Kiefer, Giannopoulos, Raubal et al., 2017). In theory, participating in an appropriate amount of physical activity can help alleviate stress, thereby alleviating the various negative effects caused by excessive stress (Thoits, 1987).

Another effective means of relieving stress is called coping strategies. The coping theory was first proposed by Folkman and Lazarus in 1980. It is believed that coping strategies can be roughly divided into two types: problem-centred coping and emotion-cantered coping. The former has always been considered a more positive response because it tries to solve the problem of stress, while the latter may simply seek emotional understanding or escape. After 30 years of development, scholars who study coping theory can propose additional coping strategies, such as controlling the coping strategies and supporting coping strategies according to functions (Schneider, Beege, Nebel et al., 2018; Wang & Chen, 2018; McCrudden & Rapp, 2017). The control strategy is to try to control the cause of the pressure, to eliminate it or to control the impact of its impact within the acceptable range; support strategy refers to seeking social support, including family, organizations, friends, colleagues, leaders, etc., may become part of the support network.

The rapid development of any industry is inseparable from the input of material resources and manpower. Among them, human resources play an indispensable role. The management team is more important because it plays important management functions such as leadership, planning,

organization, decision-making and evaluation. It cannot be ignored. Therefore, the author takes some college sports management personnel in Anhui as the research subject, and understands their work stress level, job satisfaction, physical and mental health status, participation in sports after work and the often-used stress coping strategies. Reduce work stress, thereby improving job satisfaction and physical and mental health adjustment factors so that they can work in the best possible state.

METHODOLOGY

Survey respondent and data analysis

The contents of physical education management include all aspects such as student status management, class management, examination

management, achievement management,

graduation thesis management, college physical education, and college students' physical health tests. As a physical education management staff, not only must be familiar with the teaching management business, but also have a certain understanding of the professional knowledge structure, curriculum system, course content, etc. of the sports management, and master the teaching rules and characteristics, so as to be more Good service to teachers and services to students.

The survey targets are some college sports management personnel in Anhui. The respondents all work in management positions such as managers and directors. The study used a convenient sampling method, and sent 400 questionnaires, successfully recycling 265 copies, of which 204 were effective scales.

Data analysis using SPSS17. 0. Descriptive statistical analysis is a basic description of the data, the average, total, standard deviation, maximum, minimum, variance, full range, mean standard error, kurtosis, skewness, etc. of the data obtained. To estimate the concentration, dispersion, and distribution of raw data, the main analytical methods used include descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis.

Questionnaire

The questionnaire survey method was mainly used. The questionnaire used consisted of 3 scales:

Symptom Checklist’90 (SLC-90), Godin Leisure Exercise Questionnaire and Physical and Mental Health Cognitive Scale.

COPING STRATEGIES OF SPORTS MANAGERS FOR WORK STRESS AND THEIR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH ₃₅₄

(1) Symptom Check list 90 (SCL-90) was prepared in 1975, the author is L.R. Derogates. The scale has a total of 90 items, including a wide range of psychotic symptom content, from feelings, emotions, thinking, consciousness, behavior to living habits, interpersonal relationships, eating and sleeping, etc., and is reflected by 10 factors.

(2) Godin Leisure Exercise Questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of 2 questions. The first question is how many times different intensity exercises are performed by the respondents each week, divided into high intensity, medium intensity and light exercise, and each exercise time is not less than 15 minutes. In order to help the respondents to distinguish the intensity of exercise, in addition to the description, the corresponding sports items are given as an example. For example, high-intensity exercise is described as "very fast heartbeat", such as running, strenuous swimming, football, squash, basketball, etc. According to the information provided by the respondents, a leisure sports indicator can be calculated according to the following formula:

Weekly Sports=9×High Intensity Exercises +5×Medium Intensity Exercises+3×Minor Exercises.

The second question uses a more simplified inquiry method. The survey respondents often participate in some physical activities that make them sweat and accelerate their heartbeat during their leisure time. Respondents can often, sometimes, rarely or never choose between. The study used the indicators of weekly sports calculated from the first question in the data analysis.

The questionnaire is simple and practical, and has been applied to the study of various adult groups with high reliability and validity. The test and retest reliability were 0.74, and the results reported in this questionnaire were significantly correlated with maximum oxygen consumption (r=0.24) and body fat percentage (r=0.13).

(3) Physical and Mental Health Cognitive Scale. The scale consists of 36 questions, also using the Likert 6-point scale, with 1 being “strongly opposed” and 6 being “strongly endorsed”. The scale divides

physical and mental health into six dimensions, namely physical, intellectual, social, psychological, spiritual and emotional health. The scale has been adopted by Western and Taiwanese scholars for different adult groups, showing good reliability and validity.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Basic situation of the respondents

After the 204 questionnaires were entered into the SPSS document, after checking and removing the outliers, the remaining 201 cases were analysed. As shown in Table 1, 96 males (47.8%) and 105 females (52.2%) were included. Most of the respondents were under 45 years of age (90.5%), of whom 153 were between 25 and 34 years old and 48 were under 25 years of age. 66.6% of the respondents were unmarried, 28.9% were married, and a few were divorced. Most of the surveyed managers were educated in this specialty and above, of which 68.2% had undergraduate or junior college degrees, 14.9% have a master's degree, and another 34 managers are only graduated from high school. About one-third of the respondents (68) have just set foot in management positions for 2 years or less, and nearly a quarter of the respondents (50 people) are experienced managers who are already managing Worked for more than 10 years in the post.

Table 1.

Study population demographics

Project Content Number Percentage (%)

Age

Under 25 42 20.9 Between 25 and

34 100 49.7

Between 35 and

44 40 19.9

Between 45 and

54 15 7.5

More than 55 4 2.0

Gender Male 96 47.8

Female 105 52.2 Marital

status

Unmarried 134 66.6 Married 58 28.9 Divorced 9 4.5

Education background

Master degree

and above 30 14.9 College 137 68.2 Middle school 34 16.9

Management position

Under 2 68 33.8 Between 2 and 5 58 28.9 Between 6 and 9 26 12.9 More than 10 49 24.4

The results of the scale analysis showed that the reliability of several scales used in the study was high, and the clone Bach α coefficient of work stress, job satisfaction and physical and mental health cognitive scale exceeded 0.90, and the α coefficient of the response strategy scale also had 0.80, which are consistent with the recommendation that the Nunnally proposed scale Bach α coefficient should

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be greater than 0.70. Only a few subscales have a reliability coefficient between 0.60 and 0.70.

Descriptive statistics for each research indicator As shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, the sports management personnel SCL-90 in Anhui Province scored higher on the eight factors of somatization, coercion, depression, anxiety, hostility, terror, paranoia, and psychosis than the national norm, among which anxiety, The hostile factor reached a significant level, and only the score on the interpersonal sensitivity factor was lower than the Chinese adult norm. Although the SCL-90 score of sports management personnel in colleges and universities in Anhui Province is higher than the national norm! However, the mental health status of managers is within the normal range, and it is far from achieving psychosis. Here are some of SCL -90’s

indicators.

The number of positive items refers to the number of items rated 2-5, which indicates how

many items in the test are “symptoms”. The number of negative items refers to the number of items rated as 1 point, which indicates how many items

are “asymptomatic”.

Main factor introduction: Somatization mainly

reflects physical discomfort, including

cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, respiratory and other systemic discomfort, and physical discomfort such as headache, back pain, muscle aches, and anxiety; Interpersonal sensitivities mainly refer to some interpersonal feelings of incompatibility and inferiority, especially when compared with others.

Inferiority, interpersonally, obvious

uncomfortableness in interpersonal communication, and poor self-introduction and negative expectation in interpersonal communication are typical causes of this symptom; Anxiety generally refers to irritability, restlessness, nervousness, nervousness, and consequent signs of the body, such as tremors; Paranoia mainly refers to projective thinking, hostility, suspicion, delusion, passive experience and exaggeration. The positive symptom is the level at which the individual's self-perceived project is at what level. Its significance is the same as the total symptom index; Obsessive-compulsive disorder mainly refers to meaningless thoughts, impulses, and behaviors that are known to be unnecessary, but cannot be undone, and some behavioral signs of more general cognitive impairments are also reflected in this factor; Depression mainly refers to the feelings of depression and mood as representative symptoms, but also characterized by the decline of life interest, lack of motivation, loss of

vitality and so on. It also shows disappointment, pessimism, and cognitive and physical aspects associated with depression. It also includes thoughts about death and suicidal ideas.

According to the Chinese norm, the total score is more than 160 points, the number of positive items exceeds 43 items, or any factor is more than 2 points. It is necessary to further screen whether there is a possibility of psychological disorder; if the total score exceeds 200 points, the number of positive items exceeds Forty-three, or any factor of more than 3 points, can basically determine the existence of psychological disorders or emotional disorders, need to seek the help of a psychiatrist in a timely manner.

Figure 1

.

Adult norm and sports manager

SCL-90 scores

Figure 2

.

P value of adult norm and sports

manager SCL-90

Further analysis showed that male managers scored higher on SCL-90's compulsive, hostile, and paranoid factors than female managers. Among them, there are significant differences in the forcing factors, while female managers score higher on the other six factors than men! There are significant differences in depression factors. Regarding the difference in teaching age of mental health, the results of analysis of variance showed that there was no statistically significant difference in SCL-90 factor scores among teachers of different teaching ages.

COPING STRATEGIES OF SPORTS MANAGERS FOR WORK STRESS AND THEIR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH ₃₅₆

But overall, the factor scores of teachers in 2-10 years of teaching age group were higher. This result confirms the pressure of the work of teachers in this teaching age.

Figure 3

.

Comparative analysis of work

stress of male and female managers

As shown in Figure 3, male managers are more significant than female managers in terms of professional reputational pressure, role and responsibility pressure, interpersonal relationship stress, and career pressure, and there is a significant difference in the pressure of career development. Female managers there are two major differences in work burden pressure and employment pressure than male managers and there is a significant difference in the workload stress dimension. This shows that more male managers pay attention to their career development, but the pressure on the workload is not great. Due to the particularity of physical education, male managers are more likely to be recognized by students, while female managers are the opposite. Therefore, female managers feel greater work burden pressure and employment pressure.

As shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5, the average value of the respondents participating in sports is 19.23. The statistical analysis process found that the lowest value of the sports reported by them was 0 and the highest was 98. According to the new sports guidelines issued by the US Department of Health and Human Resources in 2008, adults should participate in at least 2.5 hours of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes of high-moderate-intensity exercise to maintain good health. If converted to Godin's sports index, this indicator should be 33. In the study, only 14.8% (30 people) of sports managers met this minimum standard. It can be seen that sports management personnel are seriously lacking in sports and fail to achieve the amount of exercise required to maintain good health.

Figure 4

.

Descriptive statistics and Clone

Bach coefficient for partial subscales

Figure 5

.

Residual descriptive statistics and

cloned Bach data

The level of stress of sports managers is lower than that of other people who use the same scale to conduct surveys, such as the management of Hong Kong and Taiwan's industrial and commercial trade departments. Some studies have found that the average job pressure of managers in Taiwan's industrial and commercial trade department is 3.98, Hong Kong. It is 3.83, while the average pressure on state-owned industrial manufacturing managers in mainland China is slightly lower, at 3.41. According to various pressure factors in terms of the mean value of the child, the work pressure of sports managers often comes from personal responsibility, lack of professional identity, working climate and excessive work load, but management responsibility does not put too much pressure on them. The 4.30 response mean means that sports managers often use some coping strategies to alleviate work stress, and they use the same control and support strategies.

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Table 2.

Pearson correlation coefficients between study variables

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 Marital status 1 2 Education background 0.03 1 3 Management position 0.52 0.19 1 4 Work pressure 0.07 0.05 0.08 1 5 Control response 0.11 0.09 0.15 0.08 1 6 Support response -0.1 0.10 -0.1 0.07 0.37 1 7 Mental health 0.01 0.18 0.10 -0.1 0.25 0.30 1 8 Body health 0.05 0.10 0.06 -0.1 0.25 0.26 0.40 1 9 Spiritual health 0.06 0.14 0.01 -0.2 0.30 0.27 0.56 0.56 1 10、Intelligence health 0.05 0.07 0.05 -0.1 0.41 0.26 0.43 0.56 0.63 1

Pressure regulation of sports and coping strategies

To validate the regulatory effects of physical activity and coping strategies on work stress, a series of hierarchical regression analyses were performed using the variables shown in Table 2 that were significantly correlated with job satisfaction and various physical and mental health dimensions. Demographic data is used as Tier 1, Tier 2 joins work pressure, Tier 3 adds adjustment variables, which is sports or coping strategies, and the last layer adds interaction variables for work stress adjustment variables. The results showed that support for the response to spiritual health (R2=0.20, P<0.05) and mental health (R2=0.27, P<0.05) had a significant regulatory effect, while the regulation of physical activity was not obvious. Figure 6 is a model of the regulation of spiritual health and intelligence health.

Figure 6

.

Model of the regulation of spiritual

health and intelligence health

For other dimensions of physical and mental health and job satisfaction, the regulation of sports

and coping strategies is not obvious, but they show a direct impact. For example: Sports and coping strategies showed significant predictive effects on physical health dimensions (R2=0.12, P<0.001); age, educational background, work stress and coping strategies had a significant impact on mental health (R2=0.19, P<0.001); Age, educational background, management years, work stress, and coping strategies showed significant predictive effects on respondents' emotional health (R2=0.28, P<0.001); gender, work stress, and coping strategies for social health Significant direct effects (R2=0.15, P<0.001); Work stress and control response had a significant effect on job satisfaction (R2=0.12, P<0.001).

DISCUSSION

Regarding the main factors that lead to the pressure of sports management personnel, the study found that personal responsibility, lack of identity, organizational climate and work burden are

relatively important, while management

responsibility is relatively minor. Among them, personal responsibility includes making decisions, taking risks, uncertainty, etc. As managers, the decisions they make may affect the development of the organization or department and the enthusiasm and welfare of employees, and thus the pressure is greater. When their work is not recognized by their superiors or colleagues, they feel the pressure of lack of identity. Organizational climate refers to the group atmosphere of an organization or department. The atmosphere includes interpersonal relationships, leadership style, style and mutual support. Therefore, in the sports industry, it is necessary to establish an excellent and mutually supportive organizational climate, which will benefit the health of managers and employees, and thus contribute to the overall development of institutions and industries.

Work pressure Workload

Interpersonal relationship

Control response

Support response Environmental pressure

Position promotion

Education background

IQ Spiritual health

Intelligence health

Intelligence Body

Psychological

Spirituality 0.02

0.24

-0.27

0.19

0.36 -0.19

COPING STRATEGIES OF SPORTS MANAGERS FOR WORK STRESS AND THEIR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH ₃₅₈

As mentioned in the introduction, sports and the adoption of positive coping strategies will help managers relieve work stress and thus alleviate various adverse physical and mental health conditions caused by stress. Although this article does not find the regulation effect of sports on work stress, it may be because the research object is very lack of physical exercise, so the positive decompression effect of sports is not obvious, and therefore cannot overthrow the theory of sports decompression. The results of this study are consistent with the literature 10 studies on the predictive utility of coping strategies for physical and mental health, especially the role of support strategies in regulating work stress. Spiritual health refers to the transcendence pursuit of a person's beliefs, outlook on life, value system, etc., and is closely related to the individual's educational background, living environment and social network. Therefore, the use of support strategies can alleviate the negative effects of stress on spiritual health, and Model (showed in Figure 5) can be seen that the educational background will also directly affect spiritual health.

In addition, Lazarus also believes that when individuals are helpless about the source of stress, seeking support from others, even if only emotional understanding, listening or support, is better than listening to it (Kirschner, Park, Malone et al., 2017). Mental health mainly refers to the inner motivation of learning, including common sense, professional knowledge and creativity. As a manager, these qualities are indispensable, and if you can get support from others, managers will be motivated and internal motivation will increase, which is why support strategies can regulate the negative impact of stress on mental health. Therefore, in the sports

industry, government departments, sports

associations, and commercial organizations should provide social support resources for managers, form a supportive organizational climate, or hold lectures to help managers improve communication skills and learn how to seek support. And provide support. In short, this survey found that the lack of exercise in sports management personnel in Anhui colleges is not conducive to their physical and mental health. Although this study did not find that sports play a regulatory role between work stress and job satisfaction and physical and mental health, it may be due to the general lack of exercise in the research subjects. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that sports managers should set their own example and participate actively. Exercise and maintain a healthy body. Supporting strategies can alleviate the impact

of work stress on spiritual health and mental health, and demonstrate the importance of mutually supportive working atmosphere and social relationships for sports managers to maintain a healthy value system and creative thinking. It is also a guarantee for managers to successfully play a leading role. Therefore, sports organizations should create such a supportive atmosphere as possible to help managers improve their mutual support.

This study used a method of quantitative research. For individual issues, such as why sports managers are so lacking in exercise, it is impossible to conduct in-depth discussions; in addition, the convenience of sampling also limits the applicability of research results. Future research should be improved in these two aspects; at the same time, along with the rapid development of China's sports industry, the expanding sports management team, especially in the mainland, should attract the attention of scholars, and it is necessary to conduct in-depth research. They can better help them to work and promote the healthy development of China's sports industry.

CONCLUSION

This survey found that the lack of exercise in sports management personnel in Anhui colleges is not conducive to their physical and mental health, and women are more stressed than men. Supporting strategies can alleviate the impact of work stress on spiritual health and mental health, and demonstrate the importance of mutually supportive working atmosphere and social relationships for sports managers to maintain a healthy value system and creative thinking, and the quality of these two aspects is also a guarantee of successful leadership.

Through the research on the stress coping strategies, physical and mental health and other aspects of sports management personnel in Anhui colleges and universities, it is worthy of the attention of the majority of sports management personnel in China. As an important driving force for the development of China's sports industry, sports management personnel must strengthen their understanding of physical and mental health, actively participate in physical exercise, and make a commitment to become a demonstrative force to promote healthy lifestyles. In addition, managers must strengthen communication and understanding to create a healthy working environment that supports and helps each other.

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