Andreas Ivarsson

Halmstad University · HOV- School of Health and Welfare

Indications of laterall biases favouring left-handers have been found in various sports; especially interactive sports where the athletes have limited time to react to incoming objects. The aim of this study was therefore to explore whether any lateral biases exist in handball by examining 7-meter shots. A total of 6846 7-meter throws from 240 7-me...

Objectives To, based on diagnostic interviews, investigate the distribution of mental disorders among a sample of Norwegian elite athletes with ‘at-risk scores’ on a self-report questionnaire measuring symptoms of mental health problems. Then, to investigate the relationship between ‘at-risk scores’ and diagnosed mental disorders. Methods A two-ph...

One perspective on leadership that has recently gained increased attention in sport is identity leadership; however, research on elite sport teams is still in its infancy. Thus, the main purpose of this research is to investigate identity leadership in elite team sports in relation to task cohesion, and subsequently to explore the mediating role of...

People with psychotic disorders have a significantly increased risk of physical diseases and excessive mortality rates. The aim of the study was to investigate relationships between changes in physical activity, levels of salutogenic health, and glycated hemoglobin among people with psychotic disorders after participation in an individualized lifes...

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of autoregulating strength training volume based on an objective (external load match performance) versus a subjective (self-selected) method in professional male football players. Sixteen players completed a 10-week strength training programme where the number of sets was regulated based on football...

Background: Regular sport participation is essential for youths physical, mental, and social health. Research shows, however, that sports participation peaks at around 10-14 years of age before declining through adolescence. Soccer, which is the most popular youth sport in Sweden, is no exception to dropout problems during adolescence. Purpose of...

Background: Regular sport participation is essential for youths physical, mental, and social health. Research shows, however, that sports participation peaks at around 10-14 years of age before declining through adolescence. Soccer, which is the most popular youth sport in Sweden, is no exception to dropout problems during adolescence. Objectives:...

Research on the ergogenic effects of music on athletic performance usually includes multiple antecedents simultaneously. Consequently, this study set out to isolate a single antecedent using a highly controlled experiment. More specifically, the aim of the study was to investigate the effect of pre-task, slow-and fast-tempo music on arousal, affect...

Up to 50% of patients who suffer an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury receive or opt for rehabilitation alone as initial treatment in Scandinavia. Knowledge of whether patients treated with rehabilitation alone after ACL injury are satisfied is lacking. This study aimed to explore the experiences of patients treated with rehabilitation alone...

Female endurance athletes are considered a high-risk group for developing Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs). Due to the lack of educational and behavioral intervention studies, targeting and evaluating the effects of the practical daily management of REDs, we developed the Food and nUtrition for Endurance athletes—a Learning (FUEL) program...

Background Athlete monitoring trends appear to be favouring objective over subjective measures. One reason of potentially several is that subjective monitoring affords athletes to give dishonest responses. Indeed, athletes have never been systematically researched to understand why they are honest or not. Objective Because we do not know what moti...

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of incurable visual impairment and impacts daily life. These impacts include loss of social activities, decreased functional independence, and reduced physical activity. This protocol aims to describe a prospective, mixed-methodology for studying a population with AMD before, during, a...

Objectives We examined the manner in which age, participation in other sports, socioeconomic status, perceived sport competence, achievement goal orientations, and perceived motivational climate may interact to predict the risk of dropout among adolescent female soccer players. Methods Self-reported data from 519 female soccer players between 10 a...

In recent years an increased drop-out rate in adolescents’ soccer participation has been observed. Given the potentially adverse consequences of drop-out from soccer, more information about risk factors for drop-out is warranted. In the current study, Classification and Regression Tree (CRT) analysis was used to investigate demographic and motivati...

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between physical performance tests and on-ice external load from simulated games (scrimmages) in ice hockey. Methods: A total of 14 players completed a physical performance test battery consisting of 30-m sprint test-run and 30-m sprint test-skate (including 10-m split times and maximum speed), countermov...

Accepted author manuscript version reprinted, by permission, from International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.2022-0225. © Human Kinetics, Inc Purpose: To investigate the relationship between physical performance tests and on-ice external load from simulated games (scrimmages) in ice hockey. Met...

Objective/background Healthy sleep is particularly important for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as sleep disturbances might aggravate disease symptoms. This review aims to synthesize and report evidence on the effectiveness of sleep interventions in increasing sleep, quality of life (QoL), and ADHD symptoms among chi...

Military and sport have attracted increased research interest separately as two distinctly demanding performance- and leadership-driven contexts. However, cross-contextual psychological research in leadership is lacking. Such research has potential to expose unique cross-fertilising insights into resemblances in leadership challenges among military...

An asymmetry in the prevalence of left-handedness vs. right-handedness in society has supposedly resulted in negative frequency-dependent advantages for left-handers in interactive sports. The aim of this study was to test whether these advantages apply to handball by examining whether being left-handed is beneficial when executing 7 m shots, a hig...

Background: The purpose was to investigate if participation in a three-month electronic tracking outdoor physical activity and a motivational interviewing (MI) intervention led to positive behavioural, psychological, and physiological outcomes. Methods: Based on a two-group pre-post design, 12 middle-aged women and 6 men were randomly assign to an...

(1) Background: The aim was to explore the impact of adaptive responses (resilience factors) on student-athletes’ behaviors during a stressful period of life during the SARS-CoV-2-pandemic of 2020 and 2021. (2) Methods: A constructivist-based grounded theory (CGT) was used guided by a biopsychosocial approach. Based on purposeful sampling, 22 male...

The “11 for Health in Denmark” in‐school educational football program has shown to have numerous positive physiological and psychological effects in 10–12‐year‐old schoolchildren. A key part of the successful application of the program, however, has not yet been examined, namely the motivational processes underlying participation and behavioral cha...

There are many axioms in sport that are taken at face value. One of them is that the playoffs are somehow totally different from the regular season. The aim of this study was to test that axiom by comparing in-game statistics during the regular season and the playoffs in the semi-professional Icelandic elite men's handball league. Data from 724 gam...

Background Despite anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) re-ruptures being common, research on patient experiences after knee trauma has primarily focused on the time after primary ACL reconstruction. Integrating qualitative research and patient experiences can facilitate researchers and clinicians in understanding the burden of an ACL re-rupture. The a...

Background: An increasingly aging population is a global phenomenon. While considered a positive step forward, vulnerability to age-related health problems increases along with the ageing population. The aim of the study was to investigate weighted blankets' effect on health regarding quality of life (QoL), sleep, nutrition, cognition, activities...

Introduction: Enjoyment is a critical component of youth sporting experiences and coaches have been recognised as a key influence on its development (McCarthy & Jones, 2007). However, most studies examining coach influences on enjoyment have used a cross-sectional design. Hence, little is known regarding how enjoyment develops, and is influenced wi...

Introduction Depression is common, increasing among adolescents and carries risk of disability, lower educational achievements, cardiovascular disease, substance abuse, self-harm and suicide. The effects of evidence-based treatments with medication or psychotherapy are modest. Aerobic exercise is a promising intervention for adolescents with depres...

Psychological readiness to return to sport (RTS) after injury is a critical and timely area of research that has received significant research attention of late. Although research on psychological readiness to RTS has burgeoned in recent years, there remains a lack of conceptual clarity on what psychological readiness is. As such, our aims in this...

Background Mediation analysis is important to test the theoretical framework underpinning an intervention. We therefore aimed to investigate if the healthy body image (HBI) intervention’s effect on eating disorder (ED) symptomatology and use of muscle building supplements was mediated by the change in risk and protective factors for ED development...

During the last decades, an increased drop-out rate in adolescents’ team sport participation is observed. Given the potential adverse consequences of drop-out from team sport more information about risk factors for drop-out is warranted. The objectives of this systematic review were to (1) synthesise the literature on factors associated with future...

Objective A limited number of studies have explored the external load experienced in indoor sports such as ice hockey, and few the link between training and match performance. As a paucity exists within this topic, this study explored whether a simulated match design (i.e., scrimmage) could be representative of official match demands and elicit sim...

Objectives: Self-Determination Theory posits that managers' autonomy-supportive behavior and employees' autonomy causality orientation, are motivation constructs to explain internalization of values, functioning, and wellness at work. Hypothesis 1 tested whether profiles comprising perceived dental clinic managers' autonomy-supportive, as opposed...

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between legal stops and winning in team handball. Real-time analysis was performed on all games played in the Icelandic elite division for both males and females (regular season and playoffs) between 2017–2021 (854 games [570 male games, 284 female games], 32,392 legal stops in total). Legal...

Football is a popular sport among adolescent females. Given the rate of injuries in female footballers, identifying factors that can predict injuries are important. These injuries are often caused by complex reasons. The aim of this study was to investigate if the combination of demographic (age, number of training and match play hours/week), psych...

The creation of risk profiles using the model of stress and athletic injury1 represents a proposed shift from the reductionism paradigm to the complex sport approach in an attempt to formulate prevention strategies to combat the increasing number of injuries being reported in sporting populations. As a result, the primary purpose of this study was...

Background While the psychosocial risk factors for traumatic injuries have been comprehensively investigated, less is known about psychosocial factors predisposing athletes to overuse injuries. Objective The aim of this review was to systematically identify studies and synthesise data that examined psychosocial risk factors for overuse injuries in...

Cognition plays a key role in sports performance. This meta-analytic review synthesizes research that examined the relationship between cognitive functions, skills, and sports performance. We identified literature by searching Cochrane Library, APA PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science. We included studies conducted on competitive athletes, assessed...

Background Despite ACL re-ruptures being common, research on patient experiences after knee trauma has primarily focused on the time after primary ACL reconstruction. Integrating qualitative research and patient experiences can facilitate researchers and clinicians in understanding the burden of an ACL re-rupture. The aim of the study was to explor...

Background Sustainable injury preventative behavior is a key factor in increasing the duration an athlete is free from injury. A better understanding of the interplay between different psychological factors and injury preventative behavior (IPB) is needed to be able to translate current knowledge to real-life injury prevention. Objective The aim o...

Knowledge sharing involves the provision or receipt of information, know-how, best practices, lessons learned, and/or feedback about a task, product, and/or procedure in order to develop new skills and competencies at work which can improve individual, group, and/or organizational performances. Based on self-determination theory, the study partners...

Objectives The objective of the study was to describe high-level senior and junior, male and female footballers’ levels and changes in mental health and well-being throughout a 8-week period of varying lockdown conditions and restricted training during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method One-hundred and one player’s belonging to four t...

Background: In Denmark, the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown resulted in a compact season finisher for elite footballers, potentially impacting their mental health. � Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the protective role of resilience and the impeding role of trait anxiety on elite footballers' level and variability of well-being and emotion...

Objectives Studies including people with severe mental illness (SMI) have reported beneficial effects from physical activity (PA) on psychiatric symptoms, quality of life, and global functioning. However, it is important to be regularly physically active to obtain these effects. Using the motivational lens of self-determination theory, the aim of t...

The motivational influence of wearable fitness technology (WFT) on increasing physical activity (PA) is unclear, and improvements in PA have been shown to be driven by both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In the current study, PA (daily number of steps), moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity, and muscular strength training were measu...

Abstract Background Most injuries in track and field are caused by overuse with conflicting reports concerning the underlying mechanisms. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how biomechanical and clinical factors relate to the risk of overuse injuries, and to investigate whether the relationships between potential risk factors and injury beco...

Background Sick leave due to stress-related mental ill health increases in society. In occupational therapy, occupational balance is considered important for experiencing health and well-being. Thus, knowledge regarding occupational balance and occupational value constitute essential parts of occupational therapists’ work with people suffering from...

The present study examined relationships between golfers’ self-perceived emotions (e.g., irritability, nervousness, tension), task-oriented coping, perceived control, and performance during a golf competition. We implemented a process-oriented golf analysis in which competitors rated these variables hole-by-hole in a competitive golf round. Within...

Overuse injuries account for a substantial part of sport injury incidence among athletes of various sports and levels. Despite the gradual onset of symptoms, athletes often persevere in training and competing. The present exploratory study aimed to identify a psychological risk profile for overuse injury. One hundred and forty-nine athletes competi...

The successful implementation of injury prevention programs is reliant on athletes and coaches accepting, adopting, and complying with behaviors that reduce injury risk. Exploring factors, such as motivation and planned behavior, that might increase the frequency of these behaviors warrants investigation. The aim of the study was to investigate the...

The aims of the study were to: (a) analyse the re-selection patterns in European youth basketball national teams, and (b) investigate how the chance of re-selection is influenced by the initial selection age and relative age of the players, as well as the long-term performance of the country at the youth level. The sample consisted of 8362 basketba...

Objective To investigate the prevalence of mental health problems and satisfaction with life among different groups of elite athletes during a selected period of the COVID-19 pandemic and examine how COVID-19 related consequences were associated with these variables. Design Cross-sectional data collection during a selected period of the COVID-19 p...

In this paper, the authors share how a career assistance program was developed, implemented, and evaluated with a Swedish elite handball team. Within this case study, the initial version of the career assistance program’s content was created based on the career-long psychological support services in a Swedish handball framework and the first author...

Sport participation for youth with immigrant background is often argued to play an important role for migrant youth integration into their new host society. Although few well sampled longitudinal studies has been conducted. The aim of this study was to study the impact that sport participation has on two integration-related outcomes (problem behavi...

This study investigated the temporal relations of adolescents’ basic need satisfaction in physical education (PE) and global selfworth in a sample of 3,398 lower and upper secondary school students (49% boys, 51% girls, average age T1 = 15.00, SD = 1.79). Four models and competing hypotheses were tested, and the model with bidirectional paths speci...

Scanning in football (soccer) denotes an active head movement where a player's face is temporarily directed away from the ball to gather information in preparation for subsequently engaging with the ball. The aim of this study was to learn more about the ways that 27 elite professional football players in an English Premier League club use scanning...

The aim of the study was to examine the temporal relationship between facets of sport-specific dispositional mindfulness (i e., Awareness, Refocusing, Nonjudgemental attitude) and shooting performance in actual competitions, in a population of 25 elite biathlon athletes. Findings indicated that mindfulness facets were positively associated with sho...

In 2009, the Swedish government launched a nationwide dissemination and implementation project regarding substance abuse treatment, Knowledge to Practice (KTP), which was commissioned by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (SoS). Aim The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a national project to disseminate and implement eviden...

Objective: This study examined the effects of consistency tendency on the predictive power of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in relation to physical activity behavior. Methods: In this randomized controlled cross-over trial, we recruited 770 undergraduate students from Indonesia who were randomly assigned into two groups. Participants complet...

Background: Athletics is a sport with a high incidence of injury, where most injuries are caused by overuse. Research on injury incidence and the occurrence of overuse injuries during a season in athletics is scarce. An athlete availability (unrestricted ability to participate in training or competition) of less than 80% has been linked with athle...

The present study identified profiles of perfectionism and inauthenticity at baseline and tested whether they differed in the maladaptive outcomes of controlled motivation, performance anxiety, and exhaustion after a nine-month period. We purposefully selected elite junior performers (NT1 = 219; NT2 = 156), 16–19 years of age, from Norwegian talent...