The importance of self-confidence within collegiate level athletes has increased tremendously in recent years. Identifying the sources of self-confidence is the first step to understanding the roots of it within collegiate athletes. The next step is reviewing factors that influence it. These factors could include coaches, peers, or the climate the athlete competes in. Understanding how to positively or negatively affect self-confidence, could allow an athlete to compete to their highest potential. The purpose of this synthesis project is to review the literature on the sources of selfconfidence in collegiate athletes.

As the sports world has pushed performance levels to new heights, elite athletes are pushing boundaries to find ways to increase their performance. With increased pressure on elite performance, the importance of understanding eating disorders in elite or college athletes has become increasingly important. Analysis of previous research of eating disorders in elite athletes has shown that performance decreases as the prevalence of eating disorders or disordered eating is shown in elite athletes. Research also shows an increase in mental and emotional health challenges when elite athletes have eating disorders or experience disordered eating habits. It has been suggested that to prevent future eating disorders in elite athletes, education of all athletic personnel and athletes is vital to keeping athletes safe. The purpose of this synthesis was to review the literature on how eating disorders affect the performance of elite and college athletes.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a disability that affects one in 68 children. The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) states that students with disabilities should have equal opportunities in an educational environment including physical education. Undergraduate students in physical education preparation programs and in-service teachers lack the knowledge and experiences needed to teach inclusive physical education. Students with ASD face issues related to individual challenges, peer interactions and exclusion. In order for students with ASD to be successful in inclusive physical education it is essential that physical education teachers are highly qualified, and understand the barriers that students with ASD face and how to overcome them. The purpose of this synthesis project is to review the literature on overcoming barriers on including of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders in physical education.

Gender equity in the United States has received considerable attention since the passage of Title IX in 1972. This synthesis seeks to explore the impact on the officiating industry for both male and female referees. Based on a critical mass of research conclusions were drawn to infer how Title IX has helped the officiating industry grow by increasing the job opportunities for officials seeking a career in sports. Conclusions drawn from the critical mass include that there are similarities and differences of female officials to male officials in general. However, the intent of Title IX was to create gender equity. The findings from the current research and conceptual writing on the topic demonstrate that the American sport industry has farther to go in creating equal opportunity for both males and females to benefit from the increased sport participation that has occurred as a result of Title IX. Further, a major finding in this synthesis is that there is inadequate research on Title IX and its impact on the makeup of officials who cover the games that both males and females play. With the female athlete participation rate almost five times that of the pre 1972 rate, why has that not translated over into the officiating realms, this is not clearly understood. In some instances, findings support that female participation in officiating has decreased since the enactment of Title IX. Although not a tenant of gender equity legislation specifically, only a small number of females officiate in the male dominated professional sports. More research is needed on opportunity as well as potential differences in males and females in decision making to determine if this exclusion from male professional sport is warranted or simply an avenue for discrimination that Title IX has not impacted.

Recent research has postulated that strengthening the muscles surrounding the head-neck vertebrae may help minimize the risk of concussion in football. Although no study has confirmed that stronger and larger neck muscles will minimize football related concussions, nevertheless sport practitioners have incorporated a wide array of strength training protocols focused on strengthening this area in an attempt to dissipate the force of an impact away from the brain. The purpose of this synthesis was to examine if a critical mass of literature supported the perception that stronger and larger neck muscles facilitate the attenuation of impact forces to the head thus minimizing the risk of concussion. The studies reviewed within the critical mass of this synthesis related to neck strength and the diminished risk of concussion in sport failed to support this direct correlation. However a number of studies indirectly showed that cervical musculature can minimize several risk factors of concussions such as head impact angular, rotational and linear acceleration. Additionally it was deduced that neck stiffness or muscle activation upon impact rather than cervical size and strength alone may be the greatest contributor to the dissipation of forces to the head upon impact. This information provides a better understanding of the risk factors associated with a concussion and how an athlete’s cervical anatomy is affected and can affect the onslaught of a concussive force. More research is needed to study the best strength training strategies possible as well as if and how polymeric training rather than isotonic resistance training improves the cervical musculature responses to a traumatic head impact and eliminate the risk of concussion.

Concussions are a common injury that can occur at almost any time. There are many different causes of these injuries, but athletic participation is one of the most common. There are many different ways in which sustaining multiple concussions can have an impact on your overall health and well being not only immediately after the injury, but also moving well into the future. Although these injuries cannot be completely prevented in athletics, there are steps that we can take that can help to limit the number of these injuries in athletics.

The purpose of this synthesis was to examine the existing scholarly knowledge regarding impact of peer tutoring programs on students with disabilities and typically developing students in physical education. Previous research identified several factors that contributed to the benefits and barriers of peer tutoring programs in physical education. Studies reviewed within the critical mass had common themes such as increase in socialization among students, engagement in activities, and improvement of skills. Common barriers that were discovered included, time consuming program, non-trained peer tutors, and peer tutors not participating in activities. Peer tutoring is an instructional strategy that is thought to be difficult to implement, however the benefits outweigh the barriers. Although, previous research notes peer tutoring program being effective and impactful on both students with and without disabilities in physical education, further research is necessary. Further research should study the effects of removing paraeducator proximity while implementing peer tutoring programs.

This synthesis will review the benefits of Sport Education on secondary physical education. More specifically, the literature review will review benefits in the topics of enjoyment, activity time and participation, skill increase, content knowledge and motivation. The literature review uses peer-reviewed and scholarly articles in order to examine the benefits in these areas. The literature review points to benefits in all these areas of physical education for secondary students and also provides results to be considered by current and future teachers. Results show that Sport Education can be especially beneficial for low-skilled and amotivated students. Sport Education can increase enjoyment, activity time and participation, skills, content knowledge and motivation. Sport Education provides teachers with a different way of delivering content to students which has the potential to benefit students in multiple areas of learning.

The purpose of this synthesis was to review the literature on factors that increase physical activity for youth who are visually impaired. The selected studies for this synthesis describe barriers and facilitators that influence physical activity levels in youth ages 7-19. As Kozub and Hyun-Kyoung Oh, (2004) noted, individuals with visual impairment have reported lower levels of physical activity in relation to their same age sighted peers. It is important to understand where this population loses its ground in being regularly and adequately physically active. Research indicates several factors that have been shown to increase physical activity in young people with visual impairments that include the use of external motivators as well as through parental influence.

Children with disabilities are more likely to be sedentary in comparison to their typically developing peers. This especially occurs with children who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) as many of these individuals show impairments in motor and physical functioning. Research has shown that children with ASD have been found to be less physically active in an after-school setting in comparison to their peers of typical development. There are several categories of barriers and facilitators impacting the after-school physical activity levels of children with ASD. Previous research separates these barriers and facilitators into four categories including: interpersonal, intrapersonal, physical, and community/institutional. To date, several research studies have assessed the barriers and facilitators children with ASD encounter when participating in after-school physical activity, but there has been no attempt by researchers to prioritize their importance. Therefore, the purpose of this project was to synthesize relevant literature to prioritize the importance of the known barriers and facilitators of after-school physical activity participation for children with ASD. Coded data from 10 research articles were used to list all the known barriers and/or facilitators and both were prioritized by counting the number of times they were cited in the original literature. The most frequently cited categories of barriers in the literature were intrapersonal, followed by interpersonal, physical, and community/ institutional. The most frequently cited categories of facilitators were interpersonal, followed by physical, intrapersonal, and community/institutional.