Anxiety and coping strategies in sport contexts (original) (raw)

Anxiety and Coping Strategies in Sport Contexts: A Look at the Psychometric Properties of Portuguese Instruments for their Assessment

The Spanish journal of psychology, 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Portuguese versions of the Sport Anxiety Scale and of the Brief COPE, as well as of the Cognitive Appraisal Scale in Sport Competition– Threat Perception, namely regarding their factor structure validity and internal consistency. Participants were 550 male and female athletes of several sports, aged 15 to 35 years old (M=19.8; SD=4.5). Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis indicated that the instruments demonstrated good psychometric properties. In general, the measurement models provided a good fit to the empirical data and with the exception of some scales of the Brief COPE, the calculated Cronbach's a coefficient of reliability indicated adequate internal consistency for the three instruments. Overall, the results of the present study provided evidence for these instruments' validity and reliability, ultimately supporting their importance for research and psychological intervention in sport...

The relationship between multidimensional competitive anxiety, cognitive threat appraisal, and coping strategies: A multi-sport study

International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2012

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between, multidimensional competitive trait anxiety (cognitive and somatic anxiety), trait cognitive threat appraisal, and coping styles. Five-hundred and fifty male and female athletes of several individual and team sports, between the ages of 15 and 35 (M ¼ 19.8 + 4.5), completed the translated and adapted versions of the Sport Anxiety Scale and of the Brief COPE, as well as the Cognitive Appraisal Scale in Sport Competition -Threat Perception. Pearson and Canonical correlations showed that higher levels of trait cognitive anxiety and threat appraisal were positively related to emotion-focused and avoidance coping and inversely related to problem-focused coping. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of individual differences in trait anxiety and threat appraisals, regarding athletes' coping styles.

Psychometric properties of the Three-Dimensional Anxiety Scale for Sport (ETApE) through CFA and IRT approaches

2019

The present study aimed to improve and examine the reliability, evidence regarding internal structure and invariance of the ETApE, an anxiety trait scale for sport. The study sample was formed by 500 athletes from the south of Brazil, being 64% males, from different sports and competitive levels, ranging from international to local. To examine the psychometric properties of the measurement model, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with maximum likelihood method was conducted and the composite reliability was assessed. Item parameters were analysed in light of the Item Response Theory (IRT). Moreover, the model’s invariance was tested and a latent means comparison according to gender was performed. The instrument presented good psychometric qualities that point to its validity regarding internal structure. Good indicators of reliability and factorial invariance were also achieved. A statistically significant difference was found in the three dimensions of the instrument according t...

The level of anxiety as a facilitating or inhibiting factor in sports performance

The „Black Sea” Journal of Psychology, 2023

The research part of the paper is based on four hypotheses that aim to verify the following correlations: correlations between sports anxiety and anxiety as a feature, then between cognitive anxiety and self-esteem, correlations between anxiety in team sports and individual sports. Sport anxiety and sport performance were also investigated, as well as exploring sport anxiety to reduce it and increase athletes' sport performance. Regarding this, three online questionnaires were administered to a group of 90 athletes (48 from individual sports and 42 from team sports) of both female and male gender, for a period of 6 months. The team sports were basketball and football and the individual sports were gymnastics, martial arts and wrestling. The respective questionnaires represented the research instruments and were as follows: ASQ, Rosemberg and CSAI 2. The research aimed to find out through the results obtained whether anxiety in its forms, as a characteristic, or cognitive influences positively or negatively the performance outcomes of athletes. At the same time, it was found that self-esteem represents an important factor in helping to reduce cognitive anxiety, and even more importantly, it helps athletes to use anxiety effectively. It has been found that sports performance is affected by anxiety, especially in elite athletes, who feel a major pressure on their way to competitive success. Correlations between the ASQ and subscales of the CSAI-2 test found that anxious individuals already have a background for developing greater sport anxiety, interpreting certain situations negatively, compared to individuals who are more positive.

Athlete anxiety questionnaire: the development and validation of a new questionnaire for assessing the anxiety, concentration and self-confidence of athletes

Frontiers in Psychology, 2023

Introduction: Anxiety is one of the most prevalent issues among athletes. Therefore, measuring the stress caused by high-stakes situations could be important for investigating the issue. In sports psychology literature, no valid and reliable questionnaire is available in Hungarian for assessing the anxiety experienced by athletes in high-stakes situations. This study aimed to create a new Hungarian questionnaire to measure anxiety, self-confidence, and concentration during high-stakes contests. Methods: 263 athletes of various sports participated in the cross-sectional study (age: 16.18 ± 3.46 years). The structure of the Anxiety Athletes Questionnaire (AAQ) was examined through factor analysis, where exploratory factor analysis (EFA) as well as confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were carried out. The internal consistency of the subscales of AAQ was measured by Cronbach's alpha. Through a convergent validity test, the AAQ questionnaire was compared to the subscales of the CSAI-2 and ACSI-28 questionnaire subscales by Spearman's rank correlation coefficients. Through a discriminant validity analysis, the differences by age group, sex, and sport variables were examined by AAQ scores. The Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H tests were utilized in the analysis. The SPSS 28.0 software was used for the statistical analysis, and the level of significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: Four factors have been identified through the EFA. The CFA analysis showed the four-factor model an acceptable model fit (SRMR, RMSEA CFI, TLI). Cronbach's alpha of the four subscales showed acceptable internal consistency (cognitive anxiety: α = 0.871; somatic anxiety: α = 0.700; self-confidence: α = 0.832; concentration: α = 0.747). The convergent validity showed a weak or moderate, significant relationship between AAQ subscales and subscales of CSAI and ACSI (R = −0.398-0.412). Conclusion: The Athlete Anxiety Questionnaire can be considered a reliable and valid measurement tool for measuring athletes' anxiety, self-confidence and concentration in high-stakes situations.

Examination of the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Approach to Coping in Sport Questionnaire

Revista de Psicologia del Deporte

This study examined the psychometric properties of a Spanish version of the Approach to Coping in Sport Questionnaire and potential cultural differences in coping strategies between Spanish, Korean and US athletes. A total of 190 Spanish athletes (Male, N =152; Female, N = 38; M age = 21.2 + 4.4 years) from various sports participated in the study. After specifying the frequency of the experience of psychological difficulties during competition, the athletes indicated how often they used each of the coping strategies targeted in the ACSQ-Spanish and they also completed the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory-28. The results of CFA provided support for the factorial validity of the ACSQ-Spanish and preliminary evidence regarding concurrent and convergent validity was garnered. Differences in the use of different coping strategies between the Spanish, Korean, and US athlete groups emerged.

Factor Structure and Gender Invariance Testing for the Sport Anxiety Scale-2 (SAS-2)

Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 2018

This study aimed to provide further psychometric validation of the Sport Anxiety Scale-2 (SAS-2) by assessing the factor structure, invariance across gender, and convergent and divergent validity of the SAS-2 by correlating both related (i.e., anxiety sensitivity, brief fear of negative evaluation, intolerance of uncertainty, and negative affect) and unrelated constructs (i.e., positive affect, self-confidence). A total of 542 current and former competitive athletes completed a questionnaire through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk system. All data were collected via online survey. Participants were randomly assigned to an exploratory factor analysis (n = 271) and confirmatory factor analysis group (n = 271). Results indicated that both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the three-factor model of anxiety involving somatic anxiety, worry, and concentration disruption. Additionally, this study found the SAS-2 to be reliable, gender invariant, and have strong construct vali...

A Comparison Study and Investigation on Sport Competition Attributive Anxiety among Elite Athletes

Anxiety is one of the mental disorders in human being, which can influence the performance of each person, especially while doing physical activities and sports. Anxiety is defined in two major levels: Attributive Anxiety and Conditional Anxiety. Anxiety is one of the most popular forms of excitement among athletes in sport competitions, and when it lasts for a long period it will increase the muscular tensions and reduce the level of performance. As a matter of fact, the role of anxiety in sports and competitions is noticeable and important. This survey, compare and investigate the sport competition attributive anxiety among male athletes who had taken part in national university championships (Iran) . The statistical population in this research was 252 male athletes from football, futsal , Table Tennis and Badminton disciplines. The mean age was 24 and the standard of deviation was 2.6. The instrument for evaluations was the special questionnaire of Sport Competition Attributive Anxiety Test (SCAT) developed by Renner Martins, which has 15 questions. The perceptive statistical methods for comparing the mean of sport disciplines anxiety was one way ANOVA and LSD test, and one sample T-Test was used for comparing the anxiety in individual and team event competitions. One sample Kolmogorov Smirnov (K-S) test was used for examining the symmetry of the distributions, which showed that the selected test was not significant (P>0.05) and the distribution of collected data was normal. There is a significant relation between the sport competition attributive anxiety in athletes who participate in individual sports with their ages (P<0.01, r=0.504) There is a significant differences between the sport competition attributive anxiety among the above athletes participated in sport disciplines (P<0.05, F=8.25) Anxiety in sport psychology is one of the major aspects for controlling the situation and the conditions of athlete and competition; while anxiety could be under your control and kept in a acceptable values, we would expect the better outcome and performance from the athlete. Keywords: Anxiety, Sport Competition Attributive Test (SCAT), Athlete.

Measurement and correlates of sport-specific cognitive and somatic trait anxiety: The sport anxiety scale

Anxiety Research, 1990

This article describes the development and validation of the Sport Anxiety Scale-2 (SAS-2), a multidimensional measure of cognitive and somatic trait anxiety in sport performance settings. Scale development was stimulated by findings that the 3-factor structure of the original Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS; Smith, Smoll, & Schutz, 1990) could not be reproduced in child samples and that several items on the scale produced conflicting factor loadings in adult samples. Alternative items having readability levels of grade 4 or below were therefore written to create a new version suitable for both children and adults. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses replicated the original SAS factor structure at all age levels, yielding separate 5-item subscales Somatic Anxiety, Worry, and Concentration Disruption in samples as young as 9 to 10 years of age. The SAS-2 has stronger factorial validity than the original scale did, and construct validity research indicates that scores relate to other psychological measures as expected. The scale reliably predicts precompetition state anxiety scores and proved sensitive to anxiety-reduction interventions directed at youth sport coaches and parents.