Wesley O’brien
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 1856338 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Wesley O’brien |
| PRENOMES | Wesley |
| SOBRENOME | O’brien |
| ASSINATURA | O’BRIEN W |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Griffith University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5104-9141 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 39 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 89 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 39 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2012 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 6 |
Perceptions of lifelong physical activity and the physical literacy journey
In recent years, the physical literacy (PL) journeys of children and young people (CYP) have become increasingly relevant to physical activity (PA), physical education (PE) and sport settings. While research has documented understanding of PL among specific stakeholders, such as physical educators and sports coaches, no such research exists regarding the voices of CYP across the island of Ireland (Northern Ireland and Ireland). As such, expanding…
Health literacy in Ireland
Low levels of health literacy have been consistently found in Ireland. Little is known about the contextual development of health literacy in Irish community settings, especially those identified as most deprived where improved health literacy can support better health outcomes. Individual interviews and focus groups were conducted with 105 participants across one rural and one urban community in Ireland. Recordings were transcribed verbatim and …
An analysis of primary school student’s holistic well-being using PhotoVoice
Purpose This study aims to capture children’s interpretation of holistic well-being within Irish primary schools and add to the development of a comprehensive systems-informed positive education model. Design/methodology/approach This study utilized visual participatory research methods, including PhotoVoice and one-on-one interviews, to assess children’s ( n = 16) well-being, guided by Von Unger’s comprehensive seven-step framework. Data analysi…
Compatibility of physical education curricula with physical literacy across 40 European countries
Although the student-centred concept of physical literacy (PL) has been emphasized by UNESCO, knowledge about its adoption/implementation into PE remains scant. Therefore, the goal of this study was to evaluate and compare the compatibility of PE curricula with PL in Europe. We collaboratively gathered a panel of experts encompassing 40 European countries. In the first step, the experts were invited to freely specify the compatibility of country’…
Children's perceptions of physical literacy
Introduction The concept of physical literacy has been defined differently across the world. To create a consensus statement and definition of physical literacy for England, it was felt important to incorporate the views and opinions of children and young people who are often the focus of interventions to increase physical activity and physical literacy. The aim of this qualitative study was to understand what physical literacy means to children …
Continuum of care to advance women as leaders in male‐dominated industries
Women who enter professions that have previously been male‐dominated often struggle to rise through ranks to leadership positions. Herein, we present the findings of a 12‐month cross‐sector intervention focused on embedding practices into organizations to create an inclusive organizational environment that fostered the development of women leaders. The intervention focused on three male‐dominated sectors, sport, surgery and trades. Managing the i…
Stakeholder perceptions of physical literacy
BackgroundThere is a lack of evidence of stakeholder perspective and understanding of physical literacy among relevant stakeholders from England. As part of research commissioned by Sport England to develop a physical literacy consensus statement for England, this study presents findings from the first national consultation with stakeholders in England.MethodsOne hundred and ninety-three individual stakeholders (50.3%) from education, community s…
Motor competence assessment in physical education – convergent validity between fundamental movement skills and functional movement assessments in adolescence
Background The meaningful assessment of motor competence is well positioned for school-based curricular emphasis, through the integration of motor skills and movement patterns in both primary, and second level school physical education. Aligned with the growing interest in holistic motor competence assessment in physical education, the aim of this study was to assess the convergent validity between fundamental movement skills and functional movem…
Women as leaders in male‐dominated sectors
Women in male‐dominated sectors face significant challenges to progress their leadership aspirations. While organizations have activated policies and practices that ostensibly assist women to progress, they still face entrenched gendered practices and cultures that create ongoing obstacles. In this paper, we examine the gendered social practices from insights of 15 women leaders in Australia as they attempt to advance their careers. In particular…
Gender Equality and Economic Entanglements in Male-Dominated Sport Organizations
Focusing on the Australian Football League and its development of a national competition for women, this article contributes toward broader debates around the inclusion and incorporation of women in professional sport. It traces the particular logics and desires (such as corporate expansion) that drove the Australian Football League to develop a women’s competition in the name of equality. We map the organizational tensions and affects that produ…
An Impossible Job
Deploying Foucault’s panopticon and technologies of self, this article examines how discourses, practices, and norms that circulate within the outdoor recreation industry to produce, what we have called, an “impossible job” for outdoor leaders (OL). Drawing on a case study conducted in Australia, we examine and critique how the expectation discourses within outdoor leader employment work to produce panoptic modes of surveillance for individuals a…
Are all domains created equal? An exploration of stakeholder views on the concept of physical literacy
Differences observed across stakeholder groups underline the importance of developing a shared vision for physical literacy, and the need to clarify and gain consensus on a definition of the term and its domains. Engaging and understanding the voice of stakeholders is critical in ensuring the relevance, ownership of and commitment to physical literacy statement operationalisation
Physical education student teachers’ wellbeing during Covid-19
The coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has given rise to significant global challenges across education, and specifically in the physical education teacher education (PETE) community. Students attending teacher education programmes during the Covid-19 pandemic have experienced an abrupt and unprecedented pedagogical transition from a face-to-face capacity to remote teaching, learning, and assessment environments. Crucially, student teachers' sc…
International High-Performance Sport Camps and the Development of Emplaced Physical Capital Among Pasifika Athletes
In this paper, the authors explore how athletes from the Global South interact with the material environment of an international training camp program in the lead up to a major event. Set within the context of Pasifika nations with colonial and missionary legacies, they examine the material, affective, sensory, and rhythmic forces at work to produce enabling or constraining capacities for emplaced physical capital in athletes. Driven by a desire …
Mental fitness in higher education
Purpose Higher Education Institutions observe that many students are experiencing mental health issues, such as high levels of anxiety and stress. Young adults are recognised as a vulnerable group who carry the burden of mental health problems worldwide. Mental health interventions can be effective in positively influencing students' emotional and behavioural wellbeing. Design/methodology/approach In the current study, the principles of Intervent…
Implications for European Physical Education Teacher Education during the Covid-19 pandemic
The present study, using a sample of Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) representatives from five Higher Education European institutions (England, Finland, Greece, Ireland, and Portugal) sought to investigate the proposed measures of change required for programme delivery during the academic year of 2020–21. Each team completed a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) examination through inductive cross-analysis, using a…
State of Mind Ireland-Higher Education
The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the SOMI-HE evidence-based intervention, and beneficial outcomes of a salutary approach to higher education student mental health
Investigating the Age-Related Association between Perceived Motor Competence and Actual Motor Competence in Adolescence
Irish adolescents have been found to possess high perceptions of motor competence. However, there is an evidential value to investigating the strength of the relationship between adolescent perceptions of motor competence and their low levels of actual motor competence. The purpose of this research was to gather data on the fundamental, functional, and perceived motor competence in adolescents, differentiated by year group, to discern if particip…
Gaelic4Girls—The Effectiveness of a 10-Week Multicomponent Community Sports-Based Physical Activity Intervention for 8 to 12-Year-Old Girls
Girls are less active than boys throughout childhood and adolescence, with limited research focusing on female community sports-based programs. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a multi-component, community sports-based intervention for increasing girl's physical activity (PA) levels, fundamental movement skill (FMS) proficiency, and psychological wellbeing, as relative to a second treatment group (the traditionally delivered nationa…
Physical Activity, Sport and Physical Education in Northern Ireland School Children
Internationally, insufficient physical activity (PA) is a major health concern. Children in Northern Ireland (NI) are recorded as having the lowest levels of PA in the United Kingdom (UK). To date, validated and representative data on the PA levels of NI school children are limited. The aim of this study was to provide surveillance data on self-reported PA, sport and physical education (PE) participation of school children in NI. Differences betw…
Feminism and a Vital Politics of Depression and Recovery
Run, jump, throw and catch
This study examined proficiency levels in fundamental motor skills (FMS) in children within Key Stage 1 and 2 of the English school system. Four hundred and ninety-two children aged 6–9 Years old (245 boys, 247 girls) from school Years Two ( n = 130), Three ( n = 154) and Four ( n = 208) participated in this study. FMS for the run, jump, throw and catch were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development – 2. The proportion of children who ac…
All in good fun
Summer camps have been conventionally associated with the positive development of individual character through the promotion of recreational ‘fun.’ However, popular narratives obscure more critical questions concerning the power-knowledge relations that have shaped the provision of summer camp fun as a significant site of child development in Canadian culture. In this article we examine how camp counsellors mobilise particular discourses about th…
Hymns for the Fallen
Book Review| July 01 2018 Hymns for the Fallen: Combat Movie Music and Sound after Vietnam Hymns for the Fallen: Combat Movie Music and Sound after Vietnam. By Todd Decker. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017. ISBN: 978-0-520-28233-9. Paper. Pp. 274. $34.95. Wesley O’Brien Wesley O’Brien Southern Connecticut State University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Music (2018) 36 (2): 264–266. https://doi.org…
Promoting active lifestyles in schools
Effective and sustainable strategies for physical activity promotion during childhood are of considerable importance to physical education, sport, and health organisations. Multi-component physical activity intervention approaches for children and young people are firmly rooted within the literature; however, there is a dearth of research evidence pertaining to healthy lifestyle promotion within and beyond the school environment. ‘Promoting activ…
Mothers with young children
Mothers with young children have been consistently identified in public health discourses as having lower levels of leisure time physical activity than the general population. They are subsequently positioned as an at risk population susceptible to, for example, weight gain and postnatal depression. Women's ethic of care and good mother discourses work together to constrain mother's physical activity levels. In addition, public health discourses …
Social recovery and the move beyond deficit models of depression
Exploring the emotional geography of the leisure time physical activity space with mothers of young children
Many women experience the transition to motherhood as a disconnection from the embodied and emotional self due to the demands articulated through contemporary discourses of motherhood. Using a qualitative approach, this paper explores the everyday emotional geographies of leisure time physical activity (LTPA), the emotions experienced, the physical and metaphorical spaces created, and the connections to embodied selves of mothers with young child…
Problematizing the neurochemical subject of anti-depressant treatment
In this article we situate empirical research into women’s problematic experiences of anti-depressant medication within broader debates about pharmaceuticalization and the rise of the neurochemical self. We explore how women interpreted and problematized anti-depressant medication as it impeded their recovery in a number of ways. Drawing upon Foucauldian and feminist work we conceptualize anti-depressants as biotechnologies of the self that shape…
Rethinking women's experiences of depression and recovery as emplacement
Sport and feminism in China
The spread of contemporary roller derby presents an opportunity to examine the ways sport can act as a form of feminist intervention. This article draws on a qualitative case study of a roller derby league in China, made up predominantly of expatriate workers, to explore some of the possibilities roller derby presents in activating glocal forms of feminist participatory action. The globalization of sport has often been associated with colonialism…
Immobility, Battles, and the Journey of Feeling Alive
Australian mental health services have responded to the problem of depression by adopting an early intervention and recovery orientation. Using qualitative research conducted in Australia with 80 women aged 20 to 75 years, we examine how participants invoked particular metaphors to construct meaning about the gendered experience of depression and recovery. We argue that women's stories of recovery provide a rich source of interpretive material to…
Women as leaders in male‐dominated sectors
Women in male‐dominated sectors face significant challenges to progress their leadership aspirations. While organizations have activated policies and practices that ostensibly assist women to progress, they still face entrenched gendered practices and cultures that create ongoing obstacles. In this paper, we examine the gendered social practices from insights of 15 women leaders in Australia as they attempt to advance their careers. In particular…
Gender Equality and Economic Entanglements in Male-Dominated Sport Organizations
Focusing on the Australian Football League and its development of a national competition for women, this article contributes toward broader debates around the inclusion and incorporation of women in professional sport. It traces the particular logics and desires (such as corporate expansion) that drove the Australian Football League to develop a women’s competition in the name of equality. We map the organizational tensions and affects that produ…
Physical education student teachers’ wellbeing during Covid-19
The coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has given rise to significant global challenges across education, and specifically in the physical education teacher education (PETE) community. Students attending teacher education programmes during the Covid-19 pandemic have experienced an abrupt and unprecedented pedagogical transition from a face-to-face capacity to remote teaching, learning, and assessment environments. Crucially, student teachers' sc…
Mothers governing family health
Stakeholder perceptions of physical literacy
BackgroundThere is a lack of evidence of stakeholder perspective and understanding of physical literacy among relevant stakeholders from England. As part of research commissioned by Sport England to develop a physical literacy consensus statement for England, this study presents findings from the first national consultation with stakeholders in England.MethodsOne hundred and ninety-three individual stakeholders (50.3%) from education, community s…
All in good fun
Summer camps have been conventionally associated with the positive development of individual character through the promotion of recreational ‘fun.’ However, popular narratives obscure more critical questions concerning the power-knowledge relations that have shaped the provision of summer camp fun as a significant site of child development in Canadian culture. In this article we examine how camp counsellors mobilise particular discourses about th…
Understanding women’s “incremental” leisure repertoires in the family leisure space
Research into women and family leisure has focused primarily on the constraints they face as a consequence of the ethic of care and ideas of intensive mothering. This paper considers mother’s experiences of family leisure, as a site of “incremental” leisure in and away from, the home. Eighteen mothers with one, or more children under five years of age, were interviewed in relation to their leisure participation. Women identified a range of leisur…
Power, Ethopolitics and Community Relations
Multi-owned properties (MOPs) continue to proliferate as governments seek to reduce urban sprawl, revitalize inner cities and meet the housing need of a growing population. Yet limited research has focused on the privatization of urban governance and liveability implications arising in these developments. The way power mechanisms are exercised in strata title communities and the resultant effects on unit residents and owners is a key issue. With …
Promoting active lifestyles in schools
Effective and sustainable strategies for physical activity promotion during childhood are of considerable importance to physical education, sport, and health organisations. Multi-component physical activity intervention approaches for children and young people are firmly rooted within the literature; however, there is a dearth of research evidence pertaining to healthy lifestyle promotion within and beyond the school environment. ‘Promoting activ…
Continuum of care to advance women as leaders in male‐dominated industries
Women who enter professions that have previously been male‐dominated often struggle to rise through ranks to leadership positions. Herein, we present the findings of a 12‐month cross‐sector intervention focused on embedding practices into organizations to create an inclusive organizational environment that fostered the development of women leaders. The intervention focused on three male‐dominated sectors, sport, surgery and trades. Managing the i…
Run, jump, throw and catch
This study examined proficiency levels in fundamental motor skills (FMS) in children within Key Stage 1 and 2 of the English school system. Four hundred and ninety-two children aged 6–9 Years old (245 boys, 247 girls) from school Years Two ( n = 130), Three ( n = 154) and Four ( n = 208) participated in this study. FMS for the run, jump, throw and catch were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development – 2. The proportion of children who ac…
The recovery imperative
Australia, like other countries in neo-liberal democracies, is grappling with the gendered health 'problem' of depression. More concerning is the issue of recovery and relapse, with depression being the third largest cause of disability-adjusted life years (DALY). In addition, advanced liberal discourses of health position recovery as an exercise of individual responsibility to return to a functioning and productive norm and prevent recurrence. T…
Immobility, Battles, and the Journey of Feeling Alive
Australian mental health services have responded to the problem of depression by adopting an early intervention and recovery orientation. Using qualitative research conducted in Australia with 80 women aged 20 to 75 years, we examine how participants invoked particular metaphors to construct meaning about the gendered experience of depression and recovery. We argue that women's stories of recovery provide a rich source of interpretive material to…
Mothers governing family health
Problematizing the neurochemical subject of anti-depressant treatment
In this article we situate empirical research into women’s problematic experiences of anti-depressant medication within broader debates about pharmaceuticalization and the rise of the neurochemical self. We explore how women interpreted and problematized anti-depressant medication as it impeded their recovery in a number of ways. Drawing upon Foucauldian and feminist work we conceptualize anti-depressants as biotechnologies of the self that shape…
Australia’s Digital Policy Agenda
Children’s engagement with online technologies may seem second nature, yet the impact that the Internet has on their lives is shaped by a powerful public policy agenda that largely overlooks children’s interests. Australia’s digital policy framework is dominated by discourses of safety and risk on the one hand and, on the other, neoliberal arguments about the possibilities for economic growth offered by e-commerce. In the midst of such powerful d…
Social recovery and the move beyond deficit models of depression
Cemented in their cells’
Keywords:: life without parolechildren's rightssentencingBronson BlessingtonMatthew ElliottJanine Balding
Mothers with young children
Mothers with young children have been consistently identified in public health discourses as having lower levels of leisure time physical activity than the general population. They are subsequently positioned as an at risk population susceptible to, for example, weight gain and postnatal depression. Women's ethic of care and good mother discourses work together to constrain mother's physical activity levels. In addition, public health discourses …
Power, Ethopolitics and Community Relations
Multi-owned properties (MOPs) continue to proliferate as governments seek to reduce urban sprawl, revitalize inner cities and meet the housing need of a growing population. Yet limited research has focused on the privatization of urban governance and liveability implications arising in these developments. The way power mechanisms are exercised in strata title communities and the resultant effects on unit residents and owners is a key issue. With …
Rethinking women's experiences of depression and recovery as emplacement
Exploring the emotional geography of the leisure time physical activity space with mothers of young children
Many women experience the transition to motherhood as a disconnection from the embodied and emotional self due to the demands articulated through contemporary discourses of motherhood. Using a qualitative approach, this paper explores the everyday emotional geographies of leisure time physical activity (LTPA), the emotions experienced, the physical and metaphorical spaces created, and the connections to embodied selves of mothers with young child…
Sport and feminism in China
The spread of contemporary roller derby presents an opportunity to examine the ways sport can act as a form of feminist intervention. This article draws on a qualitative case study of a roller derby league in China, made up predominantly of expatriate workers, to explore some of the possibilities roller derby presents in activating glocal forms of feminist participatory action. The globalization of sport has often been associated with colonialism…
Hymns for the Fallen
Book Review| July 01 2018 Hymns for the Fallen: Combat Movie Music and Sound after Vietnam Hymns for the Fallen: Combat Movie Music and Sound after Vietnam. By Todd Decker. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017. ISBN: 978-0-520-28233-9. Paper. Pp. 274. $34.95. Wesley O’Brien Wesley O’Brien Southern Connecticut State University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Music (2018) 36 (2): 264–266. https://doi.org…
Understanding women’s “incremental” leisure repertoires in the family leisure space
Research into women and family leisure has focused primarily on the constraints they face as a consequence of the ethic of care and ideas of intensive mothering. This paper considers mother’s experiences of family leisure, as a site of “incremental” leisure in and away from, the home. Eighteen mothers with one, or more children under five years of age, were interviewed in relation to their leisure participation. Women identified a range of leisur…
Can Human Rights Standards Counter Australia’s Punitive Youth Justice Practices
Recent practices in the administration of youth justice across Australian state and territory jurisdictions reveal a powerful tension between the punitive imperative of “tough on crime” political populism, and internationally agreed minimum standards relevant to the treatment of children. In questioning the extent to which human rights standards can and should be used as a useful tool to counter punitive youth justice practices, this article iden…
Feminism and a Vital Politics of Depression and Recovery
Run, jump, throw and catch
This study examined proficiency levels in fundamental motor skills (FMS) in children within Key Stage 1 and 2 of the English school system. Four hundred and ninety-two children aged 6–9 Years old (245 boys, 247 girls) from school Years Two ( n = 130), Three ( n = 154) and Four ( n = 208) participated in this study. FMS for the run, jump, throw and catch were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development – 2. The proportion of children who ac…
All in good fun
Summer camps have been conventionally associated with the positive development of individual character through the promotion of recreational ‘fun.’ However, popular narratives obscure more critical questions concerning the power-knowledge relations that have shaped the provision of summer camp fun as a significant site of child development in Canadian culture. In this article we examine how camp counsellors mobilise particular discourses about th…
Mental fitness in higher education
Purpose Higher Education Institutions observe that many students are experiencing mental health issues, such as high levels of anxiety and stress. Young adults are recognised as a vulnerable group who carry the burden of mental health problems worldwide. Mental health interventions can be effective in positively influencing students' emotional and behavioural wellbeing. Design/methodology/approach In the current study, the principles of Intervent…
Implications for European Physical Education Teacher Education during the Covid-19 pandemic
The present study, using a sample of Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) representatives from five Higher Education European institutions (England, Finland, Greece, Ireland, and Portugal) sought to investigate the proposed measures of change required for programme delivery during the academic year of 2020–21. Each team completed a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) examination through inductive cross-analysis, using a…
State of Mind Ireland-Higher Education
The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the SOMI-HE evidence-based intervention, and beneficial outcomes of a salutary approach to higher education student mental health
Investigating the Age-Related Association between Perceived Motor Competence and Actual Motor Competence in Adolescence
Irish adolescents have been found to possess high perceptions of motor competence. However, there is an evidential value to investigating the strength of the relationship between adolescent perceptions of motor competence and their low levels of actual motor competence. The purpose of this research was to gather data on the fundamental, functional, and perceived motor competence in adolescents, differentiated by year group, to discern if particip…
Gaelic4Girls—The Effectiveness of a 10-Week Multicomponent Community Sports-Based Physical Activity Intervention for 8 to 12-Year-Old Girls
Girls are less active than boys throughout childhood and adolescence, with limited research focusing on female community sports-based programs. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a multi-component, community sports-based intervention for increasing girl's physical activity (PA) levels, fundamental movement skill (FMS) proficiency, and psychological wellbeing, as relative to a second treatment group (the traditionally delivered nationa…
Physical Activity, Sport and Physical Education in Northern Ireland School Children
Internationally, insufficient physical activity (PA) is a major health concern. Children in Northern Ireland (NI) are recorded as having the lowest levels of PA in the United Kingdom (UK). To date, validated and representative data on the PA levels of NI school children are limited. The aim of this study was to provide surveillance data on self-reported PA, sport and physical education (PE) participation of school children in NI. Differences betw…
International High-Performance Sport Camps and the Development of Emplaced Physical Capital Among Pasifika Athletes
In this paper, the authors explore how athletes from the Global South interact with the material environment of an international training camp program in the lead up to a major event. Set within the context of Pasifika nations with colonial and missionary legacies, they examine the material, affective, sensory, and rhythmic forces at work to produce enabling or constraining capacities for emplaced physical capital in athletes. Driven by a desire …
Psychology (27 obras) · Sociology (25 obras) · Political science (22 obras) · Medicine (16 obras) · Law (12 obras) · Pedagogy (12 obras) · Children's Physical and Motor Development (11 obras) · Gender Studies (10 obras) · Social Psychology (10 obras) · Inclusion and Disability in Education and Sport (9 obras)