NEWS

ICU Faculty Member Receives Best Paper Award at the 22nd Conference of Kanagawa Society of Physical Education and Sports Science

Update: November 6, 2018

At the 22nd Conference of Kanagawa Society of Physical Education and Sports Science held on Saturday, October 20, Mina Takanashi, Instructor by Contractual Appointment, Health and Physical Education Program at ICU, received the best paper award (the president's award).

One paper is selected for the best paper award (the president's award) and two for the excellent paper award (the chairman's award) from the papers published in Taiiku Kenkyu (physical education study journal) in academic year 2017 by seven reviewers. This year, Ms. Takanashi's paper received the best paper award.

The research theme of Takanashi:

Practical Study of Human Relationship Training Using Wall Climbing
-Review of the impact of psychological intervention to develop and promote parent-child relationship-

Research summary:

In sports classes, while it is commonplace to see parents one-sidedly cheering children, it is not so often that they work together with children on something and review the shared experience. In August 2017, a parent-child climbing class was held at the climbing facility of ICU as part of social contribution activities.

Two-and-half-hour session for two days was held three times. Some 12 primary and junior high school children from the neighborhood and eight of their parents took part in it. The study, through the shared experience of climbing by the parents and children, considered

1. The relationship between the parent's "evaluation of the child's resilience" and "child rearing style" and the child's "recognition of own resilience" and "awareness regarding involvement of parents."
2. The changes in each item before and after the class and after one month from the class through the participation and practice in the climbing class were studied to identify whether there would be changes in the four items in 1).

The result showed that the changes were greater in the parents' involvement with children than that in the children. Factors such as the experience of "doing something," which they thought "they couldn't," and the joy of "being encouraged by those around" as well as seeing the children in situations in which they don't usually see them and the feelings generated by working on the same task had significant impact on the changes.

Comment on receiving the award:

I am delighted to receive such an award. I am really grateful to those who supported me as well as those who participated in the study, without which I wouldn't have received this award.

Though the number of samples was low for a research study, climbing as such is utilized as a form of therapy overseas and it is set to attract even more attention as an official event in the Olympic Games in 2020. I would like to utilize the facility and continue to work on research so that I can recommend methods to use climbing not just to make improvements in sports but also in education.