African Journal for Physical Activity and Health Sciences (AJPHES) - latest Issue

Employment of the right caliber of staff is pivotal to successful achievement of an organisation’s aims and objectives. This cardinal principle cuts across organisations regardless of whether or not they in public or private socioeconomic and sevice sectors. Organisations are usually guided by specific vision, mission and value statements which promote their brand and drive them toward meeting defined targets or success benchmarks and goals. In addition to the numerous criteria used by organisations for potential staff selection and subsequent employment, it is important to periodically examine the extent to which employees’ fit dimenstions match those of the organisation and its impact on their commitment and job satisfaction. Such relationships could significantly affect organisational success. In his study titled, “South African amateur coaches’ perceptions of the relationship between employee fit dimensions, organisational commitment and job satisfaction,” Dhurup recommends the need for empoyers of coaches, particularly in schools, to evaluate these constructs in their environment as the fit dimensions could also be used as criteria to screen applicants for employment. The findings of Dhurup’s study have profound human resource implications for sport organisations and was therefore selected as the lead paper of this issue of AJPHES.

Recently, there has been an effort to integrate the individual, the job and organisational foci of theory that guide the examination of the reciprocal relationships between individuals and their employing organisations. This study is propelled on the elementary assumptions of organisational psychology, which proposes that behaviour is a function of person, job and the environment in which an employee works. The study examines the relationship between fit dimensions (personorganisation fit, person-job fit, person-environment fit) on organisational commitment and the influence of organisational commitment on job satisfaction among amateur schools sport coaches. The study was located within a post-positivist quantitative paradigm with survey data obtained from 250 amateur coaches in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Results of correlation analysis revealed that person-job fit (p=0.672), person-environment fit (p=0.646), person-organisation fit (p=0.537) had strong positive associations with organisational commitment. Organisational commitment further showed strong positive correlation with job satisfaction (p=0.642). The regression analyses revealed that employee fit to job (t=6.865; p<0.05; β= .402), fit to organisation (t=4.204; p<0.05; β=.248) and fit to the environment (t=4.759; p<0.05; β = .240) positively influenced their organisational commitment. Furthermore, organisational commitment positively influenced job satisfaction of the amateur sport coaches (t=0.661; p<0.05). The findings have implications for human resource practitioners in sport organisations and schools, who are encouraged to consider the three fit measures during job applicants’ interviewing process as they have a significant potential to influence organisational commitment and job satisfaction.

Despite a substantial body of literature examining sources of stress among soccer coaches in South Africa, little is known about how coaches cope with stressors. This study examined the adaptation strategies used to deal with stressors by soccer coaches in Gauteng Province, South Africa. A quantitative approach was adopted in which 150 soccer coaches completed the Coping Function Questionnaire (CFQ). Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Overall, the results showed that soccer coaches mostly used a problem-focused (M = 3.85, SD = 1.22) coping strategy, followed by emotion-focused (M = 3.73, SD = 1.21) and avoidance-focused (M = 3.10, SD = 1.46) strategies. Female coaches had a greater tendency than their male counterparts to apply more problem-focused (M = 3.88, SD = 1.30) and emotion-focused (M = 3.82, SD = 1.23) coping styles. Findings also indicated that the application of all three coping strategies consistently decreased with age among the coaches. Soccer coach education programmes should include foci on stress and coping strategies to help coaches effectively manage stressors, thereby improving their jobrelated performance and overall quality of life.

The study aimed to assess the prevalence and associated factors of different levels of physical activity (PA) among adults aged 18 to 64 years in a national community-based survey in Laos. This cross-sectional study involved 2,543 adults who responded to the “Global Physical Activity Questionnaire”, health examination and biochemistry tests in 2013. The participants’ PA levels were low (13.0%), moderate (21.8%) and high (65.2%), respectively. Multinomial regression analysis indicates that PA decreased with age in both sexes. Among women, living in urban areas, had secondary or more education, and were Lao-Tai had a lower odds for high PA. Low PA was uncommon in the travel and work-related PA domains. In order to still increase PA in this population’s leisure-time PA, women and urban residents may be targeted.

Illicit marijuana practices, such as its commercial cultivation, trading and trafficking in South Africa, is a worrying phenomenon in spite of it being a criminal offence. This study aimed to provide empirical evidence on the nature of adolescents’ illicit marijuana practices in the Ingquza Hill Local Municipality of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. A retrospective qualitative research approach was used to interview forty-seven participants from two communities selected through the snowball sampling technique and subdivided into four categories. The findings revealed that the participants were involved in illicit marijuana practices in the selected communities and most of the practices happened in their early childhood. An adolescent’s illicit marijuana practice was also found to be largely dependent on his or her physique, ability and the nature of marijuana-related activities perpetrated in their homes. The practices were however introduced either by their parents, caretakers, close relatives or peers. Illicit marijuana-related activities often carried out by the adolescents included sowing of seeds, watering, clearing of weeds, application of manure, harvesting, transporting, drying, sorting and in some cases, trafficking marijuana. The adolescents were often unaware of the illegal implications of their activities. The findings have serious public health implications for the affected communities as adolescents could be influenced to use marijuana leading to its associated health consequences. There is therefore a need to educate children, adolescents and their relatives on the dangers of indulging in illicit marijuana activities and also to equip them with desirable lifeskills so that they can refrain from illegal marijuana activities and avoid its deleterious health consequences.

Extended Curriculum Programmes (ECP) were introduced by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) to increase access and throughput of students entering universities. ECP allows a student to complete a tertiary qualification at least a year after the prescribed period. The Nursing Department at Durban University of Technology commenced the ECP in 2013. This study explored the experiences of students enrolled in the ECP since its inception. Audio-recorded indepth interviews were conducted with thirty-three purposively selected ECP students. The interview data were transcribed and analysed thematically. Findings indicated that the majority of the students felt unhappy with the prolonged period of training and the discrimination that they experienced from mainstream students and some lecturers. However, the majority of students agreed that the academic literacy modules addressed many challenges that they faced with their studies, which included computer and information literacy, English language communication, and critical thinking skills. The students enrolled in the ECP require support to mitigate the problems affecting their throughput rate. The ECP proves to be a successful programme in providing a smooth transition from high school to university and empowers students with the necessary academic literacy skills.

The World Health Organisation and the National Department of Health (NDoH) in South Africa (SA) accept and recognise the use of African traditional medicines (ATM) as part of health care. Therefore, health care professionals should be cognisant of ATM, as it may have implications for the conventional management of diseases. Medical doctors are at the helm of public health care, and are expected to be knowledgeable about all medicines and other health practices including traditional medicine. This study aimed to investigate the perceptions and knowledge of medical students about ATMs within the health care system. A descriptive quantitative study was conducted on 167 third year medical students at the University of Limpopo, South Africa, using a self-administered questionnaire. Ninety two percent of participants were aware of ATM use by the public and 60% knew someone who had used ATMs, while only 32% reported self-use. Participants perceived that ATMs are neither effective (41%) nor beneficial (36%) when combined with conventional medicines. The medical students identified plants (98%) and animals (78%) as sources of ATM and believed that common users were the superstitious (91%), rural dwellers (84%) and the poor (81%). Participants had not been taught about ATM (98%), but were familiar with the oral (97%), topical (81%) and inhalational (78%) routes of administration. Sources of information for participants included family/relatives (78%) and the media (70%). It is recommended that ATM be incorporated into the medical curriculum in order to bridge the identified gaps.

This study investigated the effects of a 12-week aerobic dance programme on the serum glucose and lipid profiles of employees (n = 26) of the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD), Gaborone, Botswana, who registered for the workplace programme. The participants’ baseline anthropometric characteristics expressed as mean ± SD included: age = 35.4 ± 4.3 years; body weight = 77.2 ± 6.3 kg; height = 1.62 ± 2.4 m; BMI = 30.18 ± 3.7 kg/m2; waist circumference = 88.62 ± 1.2cm; hip circumference = 111.03 ± 2.1cm; and % body fat = 8.52 ± 1.1%. A quasi experimental design (one group pre-test-post-test design), in which participants’ serum glucose and lipid profiles were assessed before and after the 12-week aerobic dance programme at 60-70% HRR (Karvonen’s HRR method), was used. Fasting blood samples were collected from the participants using the vacutainer method and biochemically analysed using standard protocols. Using paired t-tests to compare the means of the participants’ pre-test and post-test masurements, results at p ≤ .05 showed significant increases in high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (from 1.09 to 1. 21 mmol.L-1), whereas mean values of low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC) decreased substantialy post-test (from 2.83 to 2.47 mmol.L-1), triglycerides (from .9048 to .7467 mmol.L-1) and blood glucose (from 4.785 to 4.617 mmol.L-1). Conclusively, a 12-week aerobic dance programme could promote healthy blood glucose and lipids in previously sedentary employees.

Doping cases among East African athletes have been reported in the past few years, jeopardizing their international reputation. Pro-doping behaviours in sports can be assessed using Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) which proposes that goal orientation and motivational climate influence attitudes and behaviours. This study examined the relationships among East African university athletes’ achievement goal orientations, perceived coach-created motivational climate and attitudes towards doping in sports. Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 327 student-athletes during the 2016 East African University Sport Championships. Athletes’ doping attitudes were assessed using a modified Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale (PEAS). The athletes’ perception of success or achievement goal orientation in sports was assessed through the Task and Ego Goal Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEGOSQ), while their perceptions of coach motivational climate were assessed using an adapted version of the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire (PMCSQ). Based on responses to a five-point Likert scale, results yielded the following: doping attitude scale (Mean =2.14 ± 0.73), Ego orientation (Mean = 3.77 ± 0.86), Task orientation (Mean = 4.41 ± 0.87) and Performance motivation climate (Mean = 2.59 ± 0.89). About 71% (229) of the respondents were least likely to dope, while 29% (94) had high likelihood of engaging in future doping behavior. Binary logistical regression analysis showed that Performance motivation climate had the most significant unique contributions to attitudes towards doping (χ2 = 6.35; p = .012). Fostering performance motivation climate during coaching and deemphasising task orientation in sports could promote athletes’ inclination towards doping.