College Athletics for Mental and Physical Health

College years are associated with an increased risk of both mental and physical health complications. This is because of decreased sports participation in college when compared to high school. It is anticipated that there is a correlation between the decline of vigorous physical activity and mental and physical complications.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on College Athletics for Mental and Physical Health specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Even though measures call for increased participation of college students in sports activities, there are concerns that athletics’ spending in colleges is increasing faster than academic spending (Downs and Ashton pg 1). Colleges are charged with the responsibility of imparting knowledge on the students and they are the main gatekeepers for success in any career. But financial strains are experienced frequently on these institutions. These threaten the existence of these i nstitutions. The financial strains have forced these colleges to explore innovative ideas of raising finances for the smooth running of college activities (Simplicio pg 1). Growing concern has been focused on the observation that there is a consistent tendency of college athletes to underperform relative to the other college students (Shulman Bowen pg 658). There are potential risks that college students are exposed to as a result of reduced sports participation, which may vary from increased risk of mental health problems to development of physical health issues. Studies indicate that a substantial number of students become overweight in the course of their college studies. This condition is contributed by a number of factors which include poor dietary choices and reduced exercise activities. This raises concern because when these overweight college students leave college, there are high chances that they will become obese. This exposes them to the consequences of obesity which in most cases are negative and long term (Downs Ashton pg 1). The recent economic crisis has witnessed a rise in tuition fees in most colleges as well as formulation strategies to reduce spending through the reduction of staff members. This growing need for finances has forced colleges to establish alternative measures of increasing sources of funding. These measures in most cases may not be academic related but are from different areas. The most common of these alternative sources of funding are big time sports program and research grant programs.Advertising Looking for essay on health medicine? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Sports programs that are successful, in most cases those that create national championship, are crucial in that they produce millions of dollars to the institution. A great portion of the money is in most cases used in the development of the university but some portion of it is used to offer scholarship s, mostly to the college athletes (Simplicio pg 3). College athletics are important because they not only promote the physical and emotional health of the college students but also offer an alternative source of income to reduce the financial strains that threaten the smooth running of institutions. Thus, it is important that higher learning institutions should embrace college athletics. A college athletics program with a rationale of furthering the development of the student’s physical fitness is called for. Colleges attempt to find a fine balance between the financing initiatives and academic practices. College participation in athletics has a greater impact that goes way beyond the college. The criteria used in admitting students to colleges, in most cases, depend on high academic excellence, and in some cases athletic talent is also considered. The high school fraternity which is composed of students, teachers and parents is always on the lookout for these signals from co lleges. When leading learning institutions indicate that academic prowess can be used as entry criteria, the potential applicants will place more emphasis on these activities. The rewards offered because of accomplishments in sports validate the notion that sporting activities is the road to opportunity (Shulman Bowen pg 659). If unchecked, pupils and students alike are likely to get the message that success is not brought about by focus on academics but rather on development of athletic prowess (Wilkinson pg 1). The consequence of unchecked intensification of athletics programs is the possibility of college athletics losing less relevance to educational experiences and in the long run contradicting the mission of the institution. A lot of consideration should be aimed at the way admissions office focus on the athletic side of the admission process. Single minded focus on a particular sport should be placed lower on the priority list when conducting the admission process (Shulman Bowen pg 666). Colleges that prosper in sports in most cases recruit athletes who are gifted so that they can raise their chances of increased success in the sports arena. It is believed that success produces more success, and this success is converted into financial stability. This has gone to the extremes of finding head coaches who are paid more than the university presidents.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on College Athletics for Mental and Physical Health specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In the U.S. the university presidents in the public sector are paid $436,111 and their counterparts in the private sector are paid $358,746. These values diminish when compared to the $2.8 million guaranteed annual contract that Jeff Tedford who is the football coach in the University of California is paid. In the top 120 schools alone, the average salary of a football coach is estimated at $1.36 million. To emphasize this p oint, it is important to note that while the average salary of a university president went up by about 2.3%, the average salary of a coach in a major school went up by about 28% in 2009 alone. Since 2007, coaches’ salaries have increased by 46%. Focus is also drawn to the comparison of the coaches’ salary when compared with those of full professors with doctorate degrees. These differences are due to the fact that coaches when compared to the faculty and the presidents bring in relatively more money and as such substantial rewarding is justifiable (Simplicio pg 3). Despite the fact that college sports present the potential to college athletes to develop a career, college sports also present the risk of chronic injuries that the athletes endure throughout their careers. Athletes in most college sports will in most cases participate in one particular sporting activity. Thus, injuries that they incur in the course of the sport will be concentrated in one particular region of the body. A steady rise in the injuries has been reported by the NCAA athletic department and has been linked to single sporting activity. In the past five years, the number of injury treatments in the Montclair state university in New Jersey has doubled annually with 4,713 in the previous year. Recent years have witnessed a shift from the habit of limiting practices to seasons of about three to four months to continuous year-round training. This has seen an increase in the athletic trainer requirements to include not only early morning and late night practices but also record keeping of athletes’ medical history and treatment. These injuries which normally lead to complicated medical histories in many instances demand the intensive care of athletic trainers and physicians. This requires a lot of money and the colleges have to dig deep in their pockets for treatment and hire of additional staff members (Libby pg 1).Advertising Looking for essay on health medicine? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Overuse is injury which occurs from sports that require the use of a particular muscle leading to repeated injuries to a specific part of the body. Overuse and the complications that come with it require individualized attention. For example, at the University of Georgia, injured athletes have to undertake different steps in an attempt to establish the cause of injury. The steps include; a blood test to establish indications of vitamin deficiency, a bone scan, and other diagnostic tests like MRI. It becomes part of the responsibility of the trainer to create preventive strategies to stop the re-occurrence of the injury. Having determined the source of the injury, the athletic trainers are tasked with the role of deciding the course of treatment as well as finding out how best to keep the athletes in shape without causing any further aggravation on the injury. Athletics in college are important for both the students who are considering a career in athletics and those pursuing careers in other sectors. It is the duty of the college to find a balance of academic excellence as well as accommodate the students who are pursuing athletic related careers. The college should preferably be a non-profit generating organization, so that if the sporting activity is in any way used to generate finances it should not compromise the academic objectives of the institutions. Works Cited Downs, Andrew and Ashton Jennifer. â€Å"Vigorous physical activity, sports participation, and athletic identity: implications for mental and physical health in college students.† Journal of Sport Behavior 34.3 (2011): 228-249. Libby, Sander. â€Å"An epidemic of injuries plagues college athletes.† Chronicle of Higher Education 58.8 (2011). Shulman, James L. and Bowen, William G. â€Å"The game of life: college sports and educational values.† In Glenn Cheryl, Making sense-a real-world rhetorical reader (Third edition). Boston, MA: Bedford Books, 2010. Print. Shulman, L. Jame s and Bowen G. William. â€Å"How the playing field is encroaching on the admissions office.† In Glenn Cheryl, Making sense-a real-world rhetorical reader (Third edition). Boston, MA: Bedford Books, 2010. Print. Simplicio, Joseph. â€Å"New ideas that are academically sound are good, those that bring in more money are even better.† Education 131.3 (2011): 533-537. Wilkinson, Signe. â€Å"Family tree†. Cartoon. Universal Press. 2011. Web. http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=30541 This essay on College Athletics for Mental and Physical Health was written and submitted by user Ellen Olson to help you with your own studies. 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Differences Between France and Finland †Humanities Essay

Differences Between France and Finland – Humanities Essay Free Online Research Papers Differences Between France and Finland Humanities Essay Before coming to Finland, I thought that I would be head over heels facing a strange world with no sun, long nights, and icy cold snow all around. I thought I would be disorientated by meals made of fish days after days, especially salmon. My imagination seemed quite limited about all the other aspects of a Finnish â€Å"way of life†. I didn’t know so much about Finland and I couldn’t manage to picture it as a real country: it was like a â€Å"white mystery† which attracted me a lot. The first thing I noticed when I travelled from Helsinki to Savonlinna was this flat landscape. I come from Grenoble in the south east of France, a town situated in the Alps, where, anyway you look, huge mountains prevent you from seeing on the horizon and make you feel in a safe fortress. Here, when you cross a frozen lake, you can’t see anything on the horizon but snow plains It’s an amazing landscape and I love it ! I have learnt that the highest top in Finland is Halti (1328 m) ; in France it’s the Mont Blanc (4808 m) which shows a huge difference ! The second thing I noticed, still in this journey, was the endless view of snowed trees all around for miles with an empty sky surounding the horizon and without any city. It’s something really different from Francebut easy to understand when you know the Finland’s area is 338 142 km ² for 5 183 542 inhabitants that is 15,33 inhabitants/km ² whereas France’s area is about 551 500 km ² for 59 765 983 inhabitants that is 108,37 inhabitants/km ² ! Finland has some place left for nature which can not be found easily in France The last thing I noticed during this trip was the silence on the bus! We were the only people talking, which made me feel uncomfortable at first, but after few days in Finland, I could see that Finnish people are quite shy and silent people and then I understood that nobody was dead in the bus and that there was no reason to keep quiet? !! The second thing about Finnish people which seemed quite strange for me at the beginning is the big space between people. I am under the impression that people keep a kind of distance with the others. For example, Finnish people I have met don’t kiss to say hello or goodbye, which is a highly usual thing in France. Maybe these characteristics about Finnish could be explained by the geography of the countryThere is many space here for everybody so people may be used to keep their distance and may need that to feel good. Something really typical from Finland which does not exist at all in France is sauna. It’s amazing to see how people like it and how many saunas you can find in a km ² !! But, here in Savonlinna, I got used to go at the swimming pool everyday however I was a bit stunned by the nakedness. Indeed, in sauna, you have to get naked, and people have no problem with that, girls go there with their mothers and sometimes with their grandmothers, then everybody take shower and go back, still naked, without any towel, in the changing room in which there is no cabin to change one’s clothes. For me, it’s not so much shocking, I know that everygirls is the same and so on, but I really can’t even imagine myself going naked in a sauna or in any other place with my friends, mother or grandmother! Food is a matter of state importance in France and I was surprised to see that the Finnish population does not deal with it the same way as I do. I have an insight of Finnish food habits during my training as I work in a place where elderly people come several times a week. They spend the day, have some fun and eat breakfast and lunch there. The main thing is the unbelievable number of coffees drunken everyday by almost all the Finnish!! The difference with France is not only the consumption, but also the way to drink it: loads of Finnish drink â€Å"white coffee†, with milk, which are quite long ones whereas in France, you drink only a little cup but quite a strong, and if you need milk, you have to ask as it is not an usual thing in France. When I observed people drinking coffee, I had the feeling that there is kind of a â€Å"coffee culture†: people drink coffee to start off the day, after lunch, in the afternoon and so on. However they really appreciate it as they t ake time to dress the table, to help oneself, to relish it Coffee is also always served with food: slices of bread at breakfast, biscuits, cakes or karjalan piirakka in the afternoon snack. In France, at breakfast, people usually eat some slices of bread (the most popular one is called â€Å"baguette†, it’s a long white bread) with butter and jam. Here, bread is quite always a wholegrain one on which the Finnish put some slices of cheese, ham, margarine and some vegetables (cucumber, tomatoes, salad). I have also seen many old people at work eating some porridge in the morning but not with oasts, I’m not sure of that but I think it’s wheat, that they cook in water or sometimes milk. At lunch, my first observation is that the Finnish have lunch quite early (11 am, in France it’s not usual to have lunch before 12 am). Lunch is quite the same as in France for entrà ©e and main dish which is meat or fish with vegetables, but people drink milk, and put some margarine on the slices of bread. The last thing about food I have noticed is that many people, during the day, drink sirop and no pure water. Some others differencesabout sports, I have noticed that here when you talk about ski, people think about cross country skiing whereas in France and especially in my region, ski means for everybody alpine skiing. I have noticed that the most popular sports in Finland are especially healthy ones, like cross country skiing, ice skating, running, biking, swimming, Nordic walk and so on. In a general way, I think Finnish people have a healthy life, and take a better care of themselves than French people. According to what I saw still at work, the Finnish appear less stress than the French and it even seems to be connected to the general way of life : jacouzis and saunas everywhere, healthy food, few smockers places, regularly practice of sport, and of course this peaceful environment! Last observation, life in Finland is really expensive, some people say that it is the same in all the Nordic countries? To conclude, Finland is quite a different country compared to France, in many ways. I think most of the differences can be explained by the simple fact of geography, weather and temperatures, density of people in a km ² I am pleased to live in Finland for now. I think it’s a nice and beautiful country. Moreover, it’s really interesting to live for few months in such a different cultural way of life. I am crazy about nature and sport, and here I have so many opportunities to take advantage of it ! Sometimes I’m thinking that I could live herebut the Finnish tongue seems to me so difficult that I have to think deeper about this possibility! Anyway, my stay in Finland will remain for an happy and cherish time! Research Papers on Differences Between France and Finland - Humanities EssayThe Spring and AutumnMind TravelAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 219 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraWhere Wild and West MeetQuebec and CanadaUnreasonable Searches and SeizuresCapital PunishmentAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeThe Masque of the Red Death Room meanings

Do women suffer mental health issues after experiencing an abortion Research Paper

Do women suffer mental health issues after experiencing an abortion - Research Paper Example The way in which an abortion impacts a woman is founded in the external support and the internal ability to cope that she has available. Mental health issues after abortion Introduction The issue of abortion concerns a great number of factors that involve both moral and ethical social considerations. As a medical procedure, abortion is an effective means of terminating a pregnancy with the result of little to no ill physical effects in the long term. However, do women suffer mental health issues after experiencing an abortion? While both sides of the issue have research that has validity in regard to the effects of an abortion on mental health, from a psychosocial point of view the answer of the potential for mental health being affected by the event of an abortion is clearly possible. Yes, women may suffer from an impact on their mental health from the experience of having an abortion. The effect on having done the procedure on a woman’s psychological health may create proble ms as her emotional state, where it concerns her reproductive health, can be affected. In addition, guilt and shame may impact her psychological profile over the long term. An abortion also has the potential of complicating an existing mental health issue through emotions that come in conflict with the manifestations of the disease. While there are some studies that show that there are little to no psychological issues after an abortion, it is more likely that such a socially controversial decision which is accompanied with enormous levels of guilt and shame will have long-term psychological ramifications on the mental health of a woman who undergoes the procedure. Reproductive emotions Miller and Green (2002) conducted a meta-analysis of 24 studies which concerned the mental health of women after they had gone through an abortion. In an inquiry that asked the question of ill effects in mental health after an abortion, their conclusion was that, â€Å"the simple answer to this ques tion in the vast majority of cases is no† (p. 313). They furthered their broad based, simplified answers on this subject by suggesting that most women felt better after their procedure than they did while they were still pregnant. Posavac and Miller (1990) found that levels of well-being had little measurable difference between women who have had an abortion and women who have not had an abortion. Mental health differences were observed to be less than one tenth of a difference. Because of the criteria and methodologies of these studies, the conclusions found little to no difference in the mental health and well-being of women who took their pregnancies to term in comparison to those who had abortions. One of the issues in measuring post-abortion emotions is that the disruption that pregnancy causes within a woman is so extreme that differences between those who have had an abortion and those who have not had an abortion are difficult to measure. According to Hewson (2001), â €Å"Attitudes to pregnancy are, however, inextricably bound up with how society views sex, women, and the fertile woman in particular. Pregnancy and birth are not minor