Section: Overview
Overview
Key publications
Research funding
Supervising & teaching
Career

Key details

Areas of expertise

  • Choking under pressure & sport anxiety
  • Psychological stress
  • Physical activity interventions to improve stress resilience
  • Sport and exercise psychology
  • Mental health and sport participation

Available to supervise research students

Available for media queries

About Christopher Mesagno

Christopher is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology with expertise in stress and anxiety in sport and exercise.

With over 20 years of research expertise in anxiety, attention and concentration skills, Christopher has successfully developed theory-matched interventions to improve performance for highly anxious and “choking-susceptible” athletes. Christopher also investigates how physical activity/exercise can improve the health and wellbeing of people in highly stressful occupations and how these interventions can improve resilience to stress.

Christopher maintains a robust academic research profile with more than 50 research articles and book chapters and has given various presentations at national and international conferences. This international research profile has been recognised with awards and keynote conference presentations within sport and exercise psychology. Christopher has also worked (and continues to work) with numerous athletes from a range of team and individual sports to enhance mental skills for better performance and mental health outcomes.

Prior to being employed at Victoria University, Christopher worked at Federation University Australia for 13 years, where he holds an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow position within the Exercise and Sport Science discipline. Christopher maintains strong working relationships national and internationally with partners in Germany, United Kingdom (UK), Austria, and the United States (USA).

Qualifications

  • PhD, Victoria University, Australia, 2006
  • MS (Exercise and Sport Science), University of Florida, U.S.A., 2001
  • BS (Psychology), University of Florida, U.S.A., 1999
  • GCETT, Federation University, Australia, 2017

Key publications

Year Citation
2024 Duggan, L., Harvey, J., Ford, K., & Mesagno, C. (240701). The role of trait mindfulness in shaping the perception of stress, including its role as a moderator or mediator of the effects of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 224

doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2024.112638

2024 Simic, M. R., Porter, J. E., Peck, B., & Mesagno, C. (240501). I Just Know if I Keep Going, I'll End Up Hating Nursing. Lived Experiences of Emergency Nurses Three Years Into the Global COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 50(3), (425-435).

doi: 10.1016/j.jen.2024.01.003

2024 Simic, M. R., Porter, J. E., Peck, B., & Mesagno, C. (240301). I Don't Really Wanna Go Back. I Know What I've Got in Front of Me. Lived Experiences of Emergency Nurses 2 Years Into the Global COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 50(2), (273-284).

doi: 10.1016/j.jen.2023.11.011

2024 Tibbert, S. J., Andersen, M. B., Morris, T., & Mesagno, C. (240301). Australian Football Coaches Tales of Mental Toughness: Exploring the Sociocultural Roots. Sport Psychologist, 38(1), (48-59).

doi: 10.1123/tsp.2023-0029

2024 Beseler, B., Plumb, M. S., Spittle, M., Johnson, N. F., Harvey, J. T., & Mesagno, C. (240201). Examining Single Session Peer-Teaching Instructional Approaches on Pre-Service Physical Education Teachers Throwing Techniques. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 131(1), (246-266).

doi: 10.1177/00315125231214126

2024 Eime, R., Harvey, J., Charity, M., Pankowiak, A., Westerbeek, H., & Mesagno, C. (240101). The motivations to play organised club-based sport in Australia. Leisure Studies,

doi: 10.1080/02614367.2024.2347282

2024 Muller, S., Beseler, B., Morris-Binelli, K., & Mesagno, C. (240101). Temporal samples of visual information guides skilled interception. Frontiers in Psychology, 15

doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1328991

2023 Tillman, G., March, E., Lavender, A. P., Braund, T. A., & Mesagno, C. (230901). Disordered Social Media Use during COVID-19 Predicts Perceived Stress and Depression through Indirect Effects via Fear of COVID-19. Behavioral Sciences, 13(9),

doi: 10.3390/bs13090698

2023 Jackson, M. R., Porter, J. E., Peck, B., & Mesagno, C. (230901). If I Can't Do It, Who Will? Lived Experiences of Australian Emergency Nurses During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 49(5), (733-743).

doi: 10.1016/j.jen.2023.05.004

2023 Jackson, M. R., Porter, J. E., & Mesagno, C. (230501). Exploring the experiences of frontline nurses during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic: An integrated literature review. Nursing Open, 10(5), (2705-2719).

doi: 10.1002/nop2.1534

Research funding for the past 5 years

Please note:

  • Funding is ordered by the year the project commenced and may continue over several years.
  • Funding amounts for contact research are not disclosed to maintain commercial confidentiality.
  • The order of investigators is not indicative of the role they played in the research project.

Sport uniforms for athletes in Summer Olympic Games
From: International Olympic Committee Advanced Olympic Research Grant Program
Other investigators: Prof Clare Hanlon
For period: 2023-2026
$45,692

PUMA: What girls want in sport uniforms
From: PUMA SE,
Other investigators: Prof Clare Hanlon, Dr Elliott Flowers
For period: 2022-2023
Not disclosed

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the following organisations for their support and essential contributions to my research:

  • Australia-Germany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme Grant

    Mesagno, C. (CI), Beckmann, J., & Gropel, P. (2016-17): Total Funding $22,800 for the project titled "Choking under pressure: Interventions and mechanisms"

  • South Gippsland Shire Council

    Porter, J. E., Mesagno, C. (Investigator), James, M., & Prokopiv, V. (2020): Total Funding $10,000 for the project titled "South Gippsland Suicide Prevention Project"

  • Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) - Latrobe Health Assembly

    Porter, J. E., Reimers, V., Barbagallo, M., Prokopiv, V., James, M., Dabkowski, E., Mesagno, C. (Investigator), Peck, B., Jones, J., Missen, K., Bailey, C., Snell, C., & Brito, S. (2020): Total Funding $143,866 for the project titled "The Latrobe Health Assembly Community Programs Evaluation"

Supervision of research students at VU

Available to supervise research students

Available for media queries

Currently supervised research students at VU

No. of students Study level Role
1 PhD Principal supervisor

Currently supervised research students at VU

Students & level Role
PhD (1) Principal supervisor

Completed supervision of research students at VU

No. of students Study level Role
1 PhD Principal supervisor

Completed supervision of research students at VU

Students & level Role
PhD (1) Principal supervisor

Other supervision of research students

Christopher brings a wealth of research supervision experience from Federation University Australia where he supervised 30+ honours and post graduate students to completion: 5 PhD, Federation University Australia, Principal Supervisor, 1 PhD, Federation University Australia, Associate Supervisor, 1 PhD, Technical University Munich, Germany, Co-Supervisor, 1 PhD, Ruhr University, Germany, Co-Supervisor, 3 Masters, Federation University Australia, Associate Supervisor.

Teaching activities & experience

Christopher has taught for more than 20 years at universities within Australia and internationally focusing on Sport and Exercise Psychology courses/units, but also teaching into Motor Learning and Research Methods based courses/units.

Christopher is Unit Convenor for:

Key academic roles

Dates Role Department / Organisation
Jan 2015 - Jan 2018
Faculty/ School Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Coordinator
Federation University Australia
Jan 2018 - Oct 2021
School Honours Degree Coordinator
Federation University Australia
Jan 2021 - Oct 2021
University-wide Research Committee Member
Federation University Australia
Dates Role & Department/Organisation
Jan 2015 -
Jan 2018
Faculty/ School Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Coordinator
Federation University Australia
Jan 2018 -
Oct 2021
School Honours Degree Coordinator
Federation University Australia
Jan 2021 -
Oct 2021
University-wide Research Committee Member
Federation University Australia

Key industry, community & government roles

Dates Role Department/Organisation
Jan 2015 - Jan 2018
Dissertation Award Committee Chair
Association for Applied Sport Psychology
Dates Role & Department/Organisation
Jan 2015 - Jan 2018
Dissertation Award Committee Chair
Association for Applied Sport Psychology

Awards

Year Award
2020

Award for Excellence in Graduate Research Supervision - Special Commendation - Federation University Australia

2007

Dissertation Award - Association for Applied Sport Psychology

Keynote and invited speeches

Year Title/Description
2014

Choking under pressure in sport and music: Key concepts, theories, and interventions

Opening Keynote Presentation for the German Association for Sport Psychology Conference, Munich, Germany.

2016

Using sport research to understand components of music performance

Art in Motion (AIM) Training for Excellence Symposium, Munich, Germany.

2018

Choking under pressure: Attention and anxiety-based models and theory-matched interventions

Invited Plenary Session presented at the European Congress of Sport Science, Dublin, Ireland.

Professional memberships

  • Academic Member, Australian Psychological Society