Stewart Vella

• Ph.D. (Psychology)
• Senior Researcher at University of Wollongong

Open goals (eg, ‘see how many steps you can reach today’) have developed as a promising strategy for increasing physical activity and producing beneficial psychological outcomes such as autonomous motivation, enjoyment and confidence. However, it is not yet clear what the long-term outcomes of open goals are, what factors moderate their use or whet...

Suicide and self-harm are a leading cause of death globally, with females aged 15–24 years being a high-risk group requiring urgent intervention. Promoting mental health literacy is a well-established strategy for early intervention. No review has explored the available interventions promoting mental health literacy for female adolescents and their...

Background Mental wellbeing, one continuum alongside mental illness in a dual-continua mental health model, has attracted less attention compared with substantial studies concerning mental illness amongst elite athletes. Notably, the promotion and protection of mental wellbeing contribute to not only a positive status of flourishing but also a redu...

Loneliness is an established risk factor for mental and physical health problems. Individuals involved in sport face many unique stressors, some of which could exacerbate the risk of loneliness. To bring clarity to published evidence in this area, inform future research, and develop applied recommendations to prevent and reduce loneliness in the sp...

Continuum conceptualizations of mental illness are prevalent in adolescent mental health promotion despite a lack of research into how they relate to mental health stigma and help-seeking and help-providing intentions. Moreover, adolescent males are one of the least likely populations to seek help for a mental illness. The present study examined th...

Objectives: Mothers of young children are at-risk for low physical activity. Organised team sport provides additional social and mental health benefits above that of physical activity. To better understand engagement in team sport, this study aimed to apply the theory of planned behaviour, with the addition of maternal identity and social support....

The incidence of mental health problems among young people has increased dramatically in recent years (Hossain et al., 2022). Similarly, the focus on mental health outcomes of participation in youth sport has intensified. Targeted mental health literacy programs have increased in popularity, with major sports organisations and tournaments contribut...

North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Exercise

Across the academic landscape, scientific organizations host conferences that enable researchers to come together to foster learning, stimulate innovation, and promote change. Within the diverse field of kinesiology, conferences can help develop and disseminate knowledge on a range of issues such as athlete development and coach education. The purp...

Ahead of the Game (AOTG) is a comprehensive multi-level, multi-component programme for adolescent males delivered through community sporting clubs and organisations. The programme includes four components, two interventions for adolescents targeting mental health literacy and resilience, a parent mental health literacy intervention, and an interven...

Women’s participation in cricket has accelerated within Australia. Despite this trend, there is little research into the mental health risk and protective factors of elite women cricketers. The purpose of this study was to examine elite women cricketers’ perceptions of sport-based mental health risk and protective factors. Twelve women cricketers t...

Regular sport participation can lead to several known physical and psychological health benefits. However, some sport environments may be contributing to the development of mental health disorders in participants. Elite sporting organisations have introduced several guidelines and position statements to ensure psychologically safe sport environment...

Sports settings have been identified as an ideal place to conduct complex multi-level health-promotion interventions, with the potential to engage a broad audience. Whilst the benefits of delivering health-promotion interventions in sports settings are well documented, such interventions' real-world implementation and success must be better underst...

Background: Mothers with young children in Australia have significantly low rates of participation in physical activity and sport. This is potentially due to the postpartum transition to motherhood, and the expectation of the maternal role. This study aimed to apply an extended model of self-determination theory to compare mothers who have and have...

Millions of adolescents participate in sport programs annually across the globe. In this chapter, we will discuss key issues related to adolescent sport participation. First, demographic information, including inequalities related to sport participation, are discussed along with details on the organization of youth sport. Then, we present how adole...

The concept of clutch performance (improved or successful performance under pressure) has gained traction in both research and the media in recent years, with notable, high-profile sporting moments occurring more frequently. As athletes inherently experience pressure when competing in sporting events, researchers and sport practitioners aim to work...

Engaging young men in mental health promotion initiatives is important given the negative attitudes toward mental health and increased suicide rates, reported by young men. Ahead of the Game (AOTG) is a sport-based, psychoeducational initiative which uses sports as a mental health and resilience promotional medium. This study sought contribute to t...

Physical activity (PA) is an effective and evidence-based intervention for the promotion of mental health, and prevention and treatment of mental health problems. However, little is known regarding the impact of contextual factors that may optimise the mental health benefits of PA. Contextual factors are the qualitative characteristics of PA that i...

Objectives: This consensus statement from Sports Medicine Australia and the Australian Psychological Society aims to provide guidance to practitioners on the ways that physical activity can be promoted to maximise benefits to mental health. Methods: Following the Clinical Consensus Statement protocol, an expert group comprised of eight members w...

Widespread adolescent involvement in organized sport means that sport contexts are well-suited to ‘actively’ integrate prevention programs that may promote population-level change. This mixed methods study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a peer-based mental health literacy intervention. The intervention (i.e., Team Talk) was...

Organised sports are the most common settings for sports participation. Despite a range of documented benefits from participation, these positive outcomes are not always guaranteed. Emotional distress from pressure and injuries can mean some participants experience negative outcomes. To ensure organised sports are well equipped to promote the menta...

The focus on mental health outcomes in sport, including the ways in which mental health can be protected and promoted, has become a major international priority for all sports, including the recreational sports system. The aim of this paper is to outline a systems theory of mental health care and promotion that is specific to needs of the recreatio...

It is important to explore the types of conceptualisations and causes presented in online mental health promotion given the implications that these presentations may have on mental health stigma. This study systematically reviewed 92 Australian webpages focused on either mental health, mental illness, depression, or schizophrenia, to explore the ty...

This study examined the effects of goal types on performance and commitment in a cognitive task. Sixty-six participants (Mage = 30.42, SD = 12.25) completed six trials of the Letter Number Identification Task. Participants were given a different goal type for each trial: specific-easy, specific-challenging, specific-unrealistic, open, do-your-best,...

Objectives Clutch performance refers to positive performance under pressure. Definitions of clutch performance, however, differ on the performance level required to constitute this phenomenon. This definitional divergence centres on whether clutch performance requires increased, or maintained, performance. Further, it is unclear what performance be...

Despite the pervasive belief that sport can serve as a vital context for positive youth development (PYD), the associated empirical evidence to support these claims is less compelling. To advance the field, the purpose of this scoping review was to better understand how sport-based PYD researchers conceptualize PYD, and both operationally define an...

There has been longstanding interest in understanding how people think, feel, and behave in sport and exercise activities. Although naturalistic recordings, momentary assessments, and post-event questionnaires have been employed to capture information on people’s experiences, these methods can have some shortcomings for researchers interested in ad...

Background This study aimed to investigate prosocial behaviour—those behaviours that benefit others or enhance relationships with others—as a mediator of the associations between green space quality and child health-related outcomes (physical activity, mental health, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL)). Methods This study involved data fro...

Recent evidence suggests non-specific goals may be beneficial for physical activity adoption, however, it is currently unclear which variation of non-specific goal is most beneficial. Therefore, this study compared open, do-your-best, as-well-as-possible, SMART goals and no instruction (control) on distance walked during a series of six-minute walk...

The present study investigated the relationships between continuum and categorical beliefs, stigma, and help-seeking in response to vignettes depicting depression and schizophrenia. Participants were 193 adolescents aged 13-18 years. Results showed no relationships between continuum beliefs and stigma or help-seeking intentions for the depression v...

There has been a rapid proliferation of empirical research on the relationship between sport participation and mental health. As a result of this movement, there has been an increased focus on the constructs that can predict or explain mental health outcomes in sport. Psychological safety in sport is among the constructs surfaced in the movement. D...

The SMART acronym (e.g., Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timebound) is a highly prominent strategy for setting physical activity goals. While it is intuitive, and its practical value has been recognised, the scientific underpinnings of the SMART acronym are less clear. Therefore, we aimed to narratively review and critically examine th...

Among other responsibilities, youth sport coaches are positioned to monitor and address the mental health needs of their athletes. Despite this, there are limited interventions aimed at improving coaches’ mental health literacy. Using a mixed-methods design, the aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and mental heal...

Clutch performance refers to improved or successful performance under pressure. Whether such performances should be assessed using objective indicators (e.g., performance statistics) or subjective indicators (e.g., athletes’ perceived performance) remains an important unresolved issue within the field. The aim of this study was to examine the types...

Organised sport is a widely accessible context that can promote health and health behaviours among participants. For that reason, recent decades have brought forth a number of sport-based interventions aimed at improving mental health literacy and symptoms. Despite this trend, there has yet to be a systematic review and meta-analysis to synthesise...

A plethora of studies has shown that parents experience their own range of outcomes as a result of having a child involved in organised sport. Despite this, the literature on parent-specific outcomes in youth sport has yet to be reviewed and synthesised. The aims of this study were to systematically review and synthesise, assess study quality, and...

Most research investigating the effect of continuum beliefs on stigma has used weak manipulations which may contribute to mixed findings within the experimental literature. There is also a lack of research into how continuum belief manipulations may impact help-seeking and help-provision. This study used an online manipulation of continuum and cate...

The systematic analysis of academic publishing and citation practices serves as an indication of the conceptual and intellectual structure of a defined field of study. To highlight the structure of research in sport-based positive youth development, 198 peer-reviewed articles published between 1999 and 2020 were subject to citation network analysis...

Introduction Adolescent males are at increased risk of mental illness and are reluctant to engage in treatment. This study aims to identify subgroups of help‐seeking intentions among a sample of Australian male adolescents. Methods A sample of 1038 male adolescent sport participants in Australia (age M = 14.69 years, SD = 1.35) reported help‐seeki...

Objectives The Integrated Model of Flow and Clutch States describes two overlapping psychological states that underlie exceptional performance and rewarding exercise experiences. However, research based on this model is currently hampered because no validated measure has yet been developed. Therefore, the aim of this multi-study paper was to develo...

Youth sport offers physical and psychosocial components that may be beneficial for adolescents’ mental health, but the prospective directionality between sport participation and mental health has not been clearly established. The current study examined longitudinal associations between sport participation (individual and team sport) and mental heal...

Objectives The purpose of this systematic review was to provide clarity, guidance, and an overview of existing statements regarding athlete mental health and wellbeing. Design We systematically searched and reviewed all mental health position statements that have received formal endorsement from a governing sport body (e.g., National Sporting Orga...

Potential pathways linking green space quality to prosocial behaviour have not been investigated so far. This study aimed to examine 15 candidate mediators of the association between green space quality and prosocial behaviour across physical activity, social interaction, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), child and caregiver mental health. Th...

This research sought to test whether sport participation relates to the development of trait extraversion across three life phases. Sport participation and extraversion were measured in children aged 10.5 ± 0.5 years (n = 3600), in adolescents aged 14.5 ± 0.5 years (n = 3463), and in adults with a mean age of 49.4 ± 18.0 years (n = 12,280), with co...

Objective This study aimed to understand adolescent males' experience of participating in a sports-based mental health literacy intervention (Help Out a Mate), and provide insight into their perceptions of the effectiveness and implementation of the program. Method Thirty-three adolescent males (12-15 years old) who had recently participated in He...

Adolescent males are at particularly high risk of mental health problems and suicide. However, many in need are left undetected and untreated, and rates of help-seeking are low. To help explain this unmet need, the current study aimed to utilise Exploratory Factor Analysis to validate a measure of help-seeking attitudes using 16 items of the Mental...

Executive functions and psychosocial health during childhood are positively associated with health and developmental outcomes into adulthood. Electronic media use has been reported to adversely affect health and development in children; however, what remains unclear is whether contemporary media behaviors, such as electronic application (app) use,...

This controlled trial evaluated the effectiveness of a mental health literacy intervention for parents delivered through community sport clubs. In total, 540 parents (321 females, 219 males) of adolescent athletes participated in a brief educational workshop on youth mental health (n = 352) or a community-matched control group (n = 188). Generalise...

Background Studies investigating the potential role of neighbourhood green space quality on the development of prosocial behaviour among children are sparse. This study aimed to investigate the longitudinal association between caregiver perceived green space quality and child prosocial behaviour, and identify potential effect modifiers of the assoc...

Organized sport is a context in which to promote positive youth development (PYD). Interventions with a PYD lens are often implemented to promote a wide range of physical or psychosocial benefits through sport participation. To date, no meta-analytic review of the effect of these interventions has been conducted. This is important because such inte...

Objectives The term “clutch” is colloquially used to describe important or crucial situations in sport, with clutch performance referring to successful performances during these pressurised circumstances. Positioning the clutch as an objective, situational variable, however, may not account for the athletes' subjective appraisal of such situations....

Objectives The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the relations of having a child involved in youth sport and primary (i.e., parent that knows the child best) and secondary parents' mental health. Design Parents from Wave 7 of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children reported their child's involvement in organised youth spor...

In this epilogue to the special issue of Journal of Applied Sport Psychology on mental health in sport, we draw together just a few of the lessons that can be learned from the six papers presented within. Specifically, we draw attention to three issues that reflect the state of field: models of athlete mental health care; the role of recreational s...

Welcome to this special issue of Journal of Applied Sport Psychology on mental health in sport. The special issue comes at a particularly pertinent time as the study of mental health in sport gathers significant momentum. In this introduction – and throughout the special issue—we aim to provide robust, thought-provoking research and commentary on a...

Background: Current evidence from studies on green space and child prosocial behaviour suggests a paucity of studies investigating the plausible role of green space quality in shaping the development of prosocial behaviour. This study aimed to examine longitudinal association between green space quality and prosocial behaviour among children. Meth...

To examine the longitudinal associations of objectively measured physical activity and modified organized sport participation with executive functions and psychological health in preschoolers. One hundred and eighty-five preschool children, mean age 4.2 ± 7.68; (years:months), 34% girls were followed for one year. Physical activity was measured usi...

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the efficacy of an embedded after-school intervention, on promoting physical activity and academic achievement in primary-school-aged children. Methods: This 6-month, 2-arm cluster randomized controlled trial involved 4 after-school centers. Two centers were randomly assigned to the intervention,...

Background: The impact of declining physical activity and increased sedentary behaviour in children and adolescents globally prompted the development of national and international physical activity guidelines. This research aims to systematically identify and compare national and international physical activity guidelines for children and adolesce...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Purpose: In this study we tested the effectiveness of a multi-component sports-based program aimed at promoting early intervention, help-seeking and resilience among a sample of adolescent male sport participants. Methods: The Ahead of the Game program comprised four intervention components and a messaging campaign. Two components targeted menta...

Purpose Social identity (i.e., the strength with which individuals identify with a group) is a key mechanism through which youth sport participants derive developmental benefits. However, despite the importance of one’s social identity in promoting these benefits, our understanding of the correlates of social identity within the sport context is li...

Improved performance under pressure in sport and exercise has been termed clutch performance. The aim of this study was to systematically review, synthesise, and evaluate existing research on clutch performance. Specifically, this review explored: (i) research designs used to examine clutch performance; (ii) definitions of clutch performance; (iii)...

Objectives This paper aimed to report the prevalence of drop-out from organised sports between the ages of 10 and 14 years, and to examine potential associated detriments to levels of body fat. Methods All data were drawn from waves 4–6 of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Participants’ sport participation was parent reported and body...

The plausible role of nearby green space in influencing prosocial behaviour among children and adolescents has been studied recently. However, no review has been conducted of the evidence testing the association between green space and prosocial behaviour. This systematic review addresses this gap among children and adolescents. Within this review,...

Objectives Goal-setting is one of the most common strategies used to increase physical activity. Current practice is often based on specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART) goals. However, theory and research suggests that this approach may be problematic. Open goals (e.g., “see how well you can do”) have emerged as a pos...

Objective To examine whether meeting the Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines was associated with cognitive and psychosocial development in preschoolers. Design Prospective observational study Methods Cross-sectional (n = 247) and 12-month longitudinal (n = 185) data from the PATH-ABC study were examined. Physical activity was assessed by accel...

Goal-setting is a widely used and accepted strategy for promoting physical activity. Locke and Latham’s goal-setting theory is the primary theoretical framework for setting goals in psychology and plays a prominent role in physical activity promotion. Recently, however, there have been calls to reconsider current goal-setting practice in this field...

This study aimed to systematically review the current body of research on parent and caregiver mental health literacy. Electronic databases were searched in January 2018 with 21 studies meeting inclusion criteria. A narrative synthesis of quantitative and qualitative studies was conducted. Findings across studies suggest that parents and caregivers...

This study assessed whether participants’ social identification with their team moderated the association between self-determined motivation and mental health and wellbeing among adolescent male team sport participants. Participants were 383 adolescent male team sport participants. Moderated regression analyses showed that, at average and higher le...

Intervention studies have rarely targeted parent mental health literacy despite its importance for adolescent mental health. This qualitative study evaluated the experiences of parents (n = 352) who participated in the Ahead of the Game mental health literacy workshop delivered through community sport clubs. Moreover, the study aimed to investigate...

Background Research focused on mental health in sport has revealed a need to develop evidence-supported mental health practices that are sensitive to sport culture, particularly for non-elite athletes. A consensus statement was produced to assist effective mental health awareness in sport and guide programme implementation in this rapidly emerging...

Adolescents are at increased risk of mental illness and prefer to seek help from informal supports. By increasing knowledge and skills, peers may act as gate-keepers to mental health services. The aim of the current study was to assess the effects of a brief, sports-based mental health literacy program to increase competencies and intentions to bot...

Objectives: The aim of this study was to simultaneously explore multiple pathways through which sports participation during childhood and adolescence may be associated with adiposity over time. Design: Data were drawn from the Kindergarten cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. A total of 4286 children provided sports participa...

Objectives Formative evaluation is critical in maximising the implementation strategies and processes of interventions. It is also critical to both providing contextual explanations for and maximising the success of such interventions. The purpose of this study was to undertake a comprehensive formative evaluation of the implementation process of a...

Purpose: The development of a physical literacy definition and standards framework suitable for implementation in Australia. Method:Modified Delphi methodology. Results: Consensus was established on four defining statements: Core-Physical literacy is lifelong holistic learning acquired and applied in movement and physical activity contexts; Composi...

Objective: To investigate associations of traditional (program viewing) and contemporary (electronic applications, or apps) electronic media use with preschoolers' executive function and psychosocial development 12 months later. Methods: We conducted an analysis of longitudinal data from 185 children (mean age, 4.2 ± 0.6 years). Parents reported...

Assessment of physical literacy poses a dilemma of what instrument to use. There is currently no guide regarding the suitability of common assessment approaches. The purpose of this brief communication is to provide a user's guide for selecting physical literacy assessment instruments appropriate for use in school physical education and sport setti...

Objectives Understanding how to promote rewarding exercise experiences is important for attempts to help individuals be physically active. This qualitative study aimed to investigate the optimal psychological states experienced during rewarding exercise activities. Specifically, participants were interviewed as soon as possible after recent, reward...

Background Overweight and obesity among young people is alarmingly high. While hundreds of millions of children participate in organised sports worldwide, it is currently unknown whether time spent in organised sports is associated with levels of adiposity among young people. This study aimed to investigate bidirectional associations between partic...

One of the most salient purposes of examining the potential existence and predictors of distinct trajectories of mental health during childhood is to enable effective prevention and intervention strategies. More specifically, the aim is to inform an understanding of the types of prevention and intervention strategies that may be effective in reduci...

The 2018 AHKA Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Young People was developed using synthesised data from a number of national and state/territory based surveys. The AHKA Research Working Group evaluated all the data in order to assign letter grades to each of the 12 indicators using pre-determined criteria and benchmarks and provided...

Emotions are predicted to influence judgement and decision-making across a range of performance contexts. This experiment tested whether motivational-general arousal imagery can improve the decision-making performance of elite endurance cyclists. In total, 54 cyclists (38 men, 16 women) were assigned to either a positive imagery condition (where po...

The mental health literacy of parents may be critical in facilitating positive child and adolescent mental health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to develop, pilot, and evaluate a targeted parent mental health literacy intervention through community sports clubs. Sixty six parents (Mage = 44.86 ± 5.2 years) participated in either a brief me...

Purpose To investigate the associations of physical activity intensity and modified organized sport with cognitive (i.e., executive functions) and psychosocial development in preschoolers. Methods Preschool children (n = 247; 4.2 ± 0.6 years) had their physical activity intensity (light: LPA; moderate: MPA; vigorous: VPA; moderate-to-vigorous: MVP...

The objective of this study was to investigate potential mediating effects of health-related quality of life between children's participation in organised sports and measures of adiposity. The sample consisted of 4116 children derived from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Participants were aged 10.32 (SD = 0.47) years at baseline (201...

Background Children fluctuate in their risk for mental health‐related problems. While children have demonstrated consistent trajectories for various types of mental health problems, the existence of developmental trajectories of overall risk of mental health problems has not been explored. This study aimed to identify distinct trajectories of overa...