A popular view holds that men and women differ in the types of social support they provide to distressed others: women provide emotional support and empathy while men offer instrumental support or try to minimize the importance of problems. Despite the prevalence of this view, there is limited evidence to support it. The present study sought to empirically assess the merit of this view. A total of 119 college students responded to seven situations involving a distressed other. Although women's responses were longer and contained more talk about emotions, women also talked more about instrumental actions than did men. Men devoted a greater proportion of their responses to talk about the problem and a larger proportion of their problem talk involved denying the problem. However, there were substantial similarities between men and women in the relative frequencies of different types of supportive responses used, and sex differences accounted for small percentages of variance. In contrast, situation exerted a strong, consistent influence on the responses of men and women alike.

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Background/Objectives: Qatar's entry to the global elite sporting scene, most obviously through its stunning coup to win the hosting rights for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, has been accompanied by pressure to increase participation of female athletes. In response, Qatar has dedicated considerable resources to women's sports and Qatari women have been prominently featured in the 2011 Arab Games and the 2012 Summer Olympics. Qatar officials have publicly voiced their hope that these women will serve as role models who encourage women and girls to engage in physical activity and sports. At the same time, lifestyle changes linked to globalization have wreaked havoc on the health of all Qataris, with rampant diabetes and obesity rates that are among the highest in the world. Women in Qatar may face particular constraints that make it potentially more challenging for them to engage in regular physical activity to combat these diseases. The particular question this study aims to answer is "are Qatari elite female athletes influencing women in Qatar to engage in physical activity/sports?" Method: We have utilized an 84-item survey to investigate what influences the physical activity of women in Qatar. The survey was open before, during and after the summer 2012 Olympics in English and Arabic. Results: The data reported here are based on one set of questions from the larger survey. We found that while personal role models such as friends and family play an important role in physical activity, public figure role models, such as those cited by Qatari officials, are far less frequently cited as influences and in fact, only one Arab public figure of any kind (celebrity, athlete, etc.) was mentioned as a role model for sports or physical activity participation. Conclusion: While the Qatari elite female athletes are smashing gender barriers, they have not yet started to function as significant role models for women in Qatar. Strategies to increase their effectiveness are identified. At this historic point in the development of elite female athletics in Qatar, the research provides data Qatari health officials can utilize in their attempts to combat diabetes/obesity and increase all women's activity levels.

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Purpose This paper aims to evaluate the FIFA requirement that World Cup host nations make alcohol available at World Cup stadia because of its sponsorship agreement with Anheuser-Busch. This paper suggests a framework that FIFA should use in evaluating potential host nations to address the ethical implications of alcohol at the World Cup, especially considering the recent Qatar 2022 World Cup, the first to be held in an Islamic Country. Design/methodology/approach Using historical analysis of recent World Cups and guided by the Culture-Centered Approach (Dutta, 2008) and stakeholder analysis literature, this paper examines the ethical dilemmas host nations have faced because of FIFA’s insistence on alcohol sales at World Cup stadia. Findings The analysis suggests that a three-step process of host country assessment, stakeholder mapping and negotiation would enable the discovery of potential ethical conflicts and thus their negotiation to mitigate the ethical conflicts FIFA’s preexisting sponsorship agreements create for some World Cup host nations, especially Islamic countries. Research limitations/implications While the framework is conceptual and has not been tested, the components from which the authors draw are well established. The application to mega events sports hosting negotiations is an original contribution. The interdisciplinary nature of the framework also provides a contribution to the research field. Practical implications Application of the framework would enable FIFA and host countries to negotiate mutually agreeable conditions and avoid placing host nations in ethically compromising situations, which is especially timely as FIFA expands into Islamic countries. Its utilization would provide a Halal environment for World Cups hosted in Islamic and perhaps other, countries. Social implications FIFA’s commitment to alcohol at World Cups should be questioned. FIFA should not expand this dangerous practice of associating sports with alcohol. Female fans may feel safer, as occurred in Qatar 2022. Originality/value This paper's framework uniquely combines communication and strategic management literature and applies it to mega sports events in an original way that would lead to more ethical and culturally contextualized World Cups rather than reifying the alcohol–sport nexus.