A University of Queensland academic has been using her sport psychology skills to improve the life-satisfaction and self-worth of orphans in Mexico.
Earlier this year Associate Professor Stephanie Hanrahan, an expert in sport and exercise psychology, conducted a three-week course of games and psychological skills with 34 Mexican orphans aged 15 to 20.
The orphans, from the Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH) participated in discussions and activities designed to improve self-confidence and communications skills and to develop teamwork and trust.
“I believe that participation in the program gave the orphans a sense of control that may have been missing in their lives,” Dr Hanrahan said.
Dr Hanrahan said she found the program resulted in significant increases in life-satisfaction and global self-worth.
“The results of this study indicate that psychological skills traditionally taught within sport psychology may enhance the global self-worth and perceived life-satisfaction of orphans in Mexico,” she said.
NPH has been caring for orphaned and abandoned children in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1954. Since then, more than 15,000 children have found a new home and future through the organisation.
Dr Hanrahan was inspired to work with the orphans after receiving a photograph from her mother, which showed the children playing volleyball using a piece of string with plastic bags pinned to it as the net.
“Having spent 18 years of my life playing volleyball at an elite level, I felt compelled to improve their sporting equipment,” she said.
“Donations from friends and colleagues were collected and sent.
“A year or two later I was wondering whether helping a team win a few extra games each season was really making a significant difference in the grand scheme of things.
“In my undergraduate classes I often mention how psychological skills are not only beneficial for enhancing performance and enjoyment of participation, but also for learning skills useful in areas of life outside sport.
“The arrival of an NPH newsletter in the mail one day gave me the idea of teaching psychological skills to the orphans.”
Money for the sporting equipment donated to the orphans was raised by the Sociedad Para Los Niños charity with an additional donation from UQ`s Dean of Students Dr Lisa Gaffney.
Dr Hanrahan said she hoped to further the study in other locations.
“NPH has homes in eight other Latin American countries and I would enjoy the opportunity to extend the research in these areas,” she said.
“Ideally local psychologists would be involved in the program in each country to make the program an on-going enterprise.”
Media: For more information, contact Dr Stephanie Hanrahan (telephone 07 3365 6453, email steph@hms.uq.edu.au) or Chris Saxby at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2479, email c.saxby@uq.edu.au).
