oURspace
University of Regina Institutional Repository
The mission of the oURspace digital repository is to share and preserve the scholarly, creative, and cultural work produced at the University of Regina.
What are some of the benefits of depositing your works in oURspace?
- Increased access to your scholarly publications.
- Content is indexed and discoverable in Google Scholar.
- Compliance with open access funding requirements.
- Long term preservation of your work.
Please contact ourspace@uregina.ca if you have questions or want more information about oURspace.
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Recent Submissions
The supportive sideline: understanding parental impact during athletic transitions
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2025-04-25) Schenn, Sydney A.; Dorsch, Kim
The purpose of this study is to explore how parental involvement, pressure, and support are communicated to athletes during their transition into high-performance sports. Parents play a crucial role in athletic development by providing opportunities for early sport sampling and eventual specialization. However, there is a lack of research on how these factors are communicated to athletes. Using qualitative interviews with six high-performance athletes, it was revealed that while parents initially played a strong role in decision-making, athletes gradually gained autonomy over time. Parental involvement shifted from active participation to a spectator role as the athletes matured. Parental support was primarily financial, but emotional support, including attendance, non-verbal cues, and verbal affirmations, was also crucial. Athletes who shared the pressures of high-performance sports with their parents found relief, though many struggled to open up. While parental pressure was generally perceived as supportive and expectations were reasonable, most athletes internalized pressure. Athletes typically led conversations regarding their performance, with most valuing honest feedback. The importance of parental communication is highlighted in shaping an athlete’s experience during a critical transition in their athletic career.
Emotion regulation under pressure: the impact of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression on stress responses
(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2025-04-25) Shafiq, Ayesha; Gallant, Natasha; Haczkewicz, Kelsey
Acute social stress, a common type of stress faced in situations of intense pressure and social evaluation, induces both psychological and physiological responses. When these responses are prolonged or poorly managed, they can have detrimental effects on one’s health. Emotion regulation, the capacity to control and modulate one’s emotional responses, is a central mechanism that shapes how individuals experience and recover from stressors. This study examined how two prevalent emotion regulation strategies, cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES), influence acute social stress responses. Participants (N=58) completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire as part of an online survey to assess their use of each strategy. They then participated in the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and control version of the TSST (C-TSST) in a counterbalanced design. Physiological markers (heart rate [HR], heart rate variability [HRV], and skin conductance level [SCL]), along with subjective stress ratings, were collected through both tasks. Through a manipulation check, it was concluded that the TSST successfully induced more stress than the C-TSST. Multiple linear regression analyses and linear mixed-effects models assessed associations between emotion regulation strategies and stress responses. ES was significantly associated with higher perceived threat and showed a slight trend towards slower HR recovery. CR was not found to be significantly linked to physiological or subjective stress markers, although slight trends were present. These findings highlight the potential impact of emotion regulation on stress reactivity. By gaining a deeper understanding of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, interventions that promote healthier coping mechanisms can be implemented.
Exploring participant engagement in the coping with infertility program
(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2025-04) Odaware, Ufuoma Hannah; Gordon, Jennifer
Infertility affects approximately 15% of reproductive-aged couples worldwide, with significant physical and psychological consequences. Individuals experiencing infertility report elevated distress, particularly the intended pregnant parent who often bear greater physical burdens related to conception difficulties. The Coping with Infertility (CWI) Program is a cognitive behaviour therapy-based self-guided intervention that was co-created with patients to target infertility-related distress. The CWI program consists of 7 brief weekly module videos, paired with post-module homework assignments. While a recent randomized controlled trial (n = 170) has confirmed the program's efficacy in improving mental health outcomes, the current analysis examined 1) which baseline characteristics predicted the number of module videos viewed and self-reported homework engagement, as assessed using the Homework Rating Scale and 2) the degree to which these markers of engagement predicted pre-to-post changes in fertility-related quality of life (FertiQoL), anxiety symptoms (GAD-7), and depressive symptoms (PHQ-9). Results revealed that program engagement was high, with 78% of participants watching all 7 module videos. Younger age and greater perceived program credibility and expectations of benefit predicted greater homework engagement. A higher number of modules viewed predicted pre-to-post improvements in quality of life while greater homework engagement predicted improvements in all three mental health outcomes assessed. These findings suggest that, in the context of a self-guided mental health intervention, increasing users’ perceptions of the intervention’s credibility and potential efficacy may optimize intervention efficacy through greater homework engagement.
Bayesian probabilistic projections of future climate over Canada based on the RCM ensemble
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2024-03) Song, Tangnyu; Huang, Guohe (Gordon); Veawab, Amy; Zhu, Hua; Deng, Dianliang; Li, Jonathan
In this research, a series of approaches are proposed to address the challenges in
generating robust probabilistic projections of climatic variables (e.g., temperature,
precipitation, and Intensity-Duration-Frequency curves) and analyzing the associated
uncertainties based on the Regional Climate Model (RCM) ensemble. The proposed
approaches have been applied to Canada for demonstrating their effectiveness.
Specifically, a new discriminant-Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) ensemble
climate modeling (DBEC) approach is developed to help address the neglected
spatiotemporal variations of model biases. Through the proposed method, the BMA
weights are used as prior distributions to drive the Bayesian discriminant analysis in order
to generate refined weights for individual ensemble models according to their spatiallyand
temporally-clustered performance. The results suggest that the DBEC approach can
improve both the accuracy and reliability of ensemble projections to some extent,
especially in winter and Arctic regions. The probabilistic projections of temperature for
three future periods under two emission scenarios are then obtained through the proposed
DBEC model. The results indicate that comparatively larger temperature increases can be
observed in Arctic regions. In addition, the magnitude of uncertainties is found to be
negatively correlated to the elevation.
Then a new multi-dimensional discriminant-BMA ensemble approach (MDBE) is
developed to quantitively characterize the relationships between the modeling
performances and climatic conditions. Through the comparative assessments of the
proposed approach against three other ensemble methods, its effectiveness in generating
the probabilistic projections of annual and seasonal precipitation over Canada has been
illustrated. In detail, the R2 and percentage coverage will increase up to 0.15 (from 0.52 to
0.67) and 20% (from 60% ~ 80%), respectively. The generated projections suggest that
significant precipitation increases are observed in future periods, especially in the Arctic
regions. The warming climate could be the primary reason for such increases. Moreover,
the intensified atmospheric radiative cooling is also a possible explanation for the winter
precipitation increase.
Finally, a new CDF-distance-based method is proposed to generate ensemble
projections of IDF curves over Canada. Compared with the traditional ensemble methods,
the proposed CDF-distance-based ensemble approach depends less on the simulated
accuracy of annual maximum precipitation time series. Consequently, it can improve both
the accuracy and reliability of the probabilistic projections in IDF curves. The proposed
method has been applied to Canada for assessing the future changes of the IDF curves.
The results suggest that the upward shifts of the IDF curves under all return periods are
observed under changing climate conditions. Moreover, the percentage changes of
precipitation intensities increase with return periods.
Meteorological risk assessment of Canadian transcontinental freight railway: Case study of Saskatchewan and Ontario
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2023-08) Bahramimehr, Mehrnoush; Khan, Sharfuddin; Khondoker, Mohammad; Ruparathna, Vithanapalpita Koralalage Rajeev Jayanga
Railway transportation is the heart of the supply chain in Canada. The reason is that railway
transportation is known as one of the most reliable and safest modes of transportation. However,
due to its complexity, a wide range of risks are associated with this means of transportation.
Considering Canada's climate, studying meteorological risks associated with the railway network
can be useful for decision-makers in railway transportation, especially when preparing for cold
seasons and implementing railway network development. In this study, a comprehensive spatial
analysis using ArcMap has been applied to identify hotspots and vulnerable geographical areas in
terms of meteorological factors in two provinces with slightly different climates: Saskatchewan
and Ontario. Floods, rain, snow, minimum temperature, and wind have been selected as factors to
generate meteorological risk maps for the mentioned provinces. The selected railway network for
analysis is the Canadian National Railway (CN), one of the two major railways in Canada and the
only Transcontinental Freight Railway in North America. However, the results can be applied to
any other railway network in Canada. After developing risk maps for each factor, 5 different types
of integrated risk maps are generated in this thesis. The first type assumes that the weight
(importance) of all factors in causing accidents or service disruptions is the same. Two versions
utilize different weights for different factors. One version applies score-based weighting of factors,
while the other employs expert opinion-based Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Additionally,
two season-based risk maps for warm and cold seasons are also generated. The risk maps
demonstrate hotspots and hazardous areas that require more attention and planning to maintain the
continuity of the supply chain. The results can be used to enhance safety, reduce service
disruptions, and ensure the smooth operation of the railway network.