Pre-competitive confidence, coping, and subjective performance in sport

Measuring emotional contagion as a multidimensional construct: the development and initial validation of the contagion of affective phenomena scales

We offer an alternative conceptualization of the construct of susceptibility to emotional contagion and four related studies where two separate measures were developed and initially validated. The Contagion of Affective Phenomena Scale-General (CAPS-G) is a 5-item scale that measures the general susceptibility to the contagion of affect, and the Contagion of Affective Phenomena Scale - Emotion (CAPS-E) assesses six distinct emotions. Study 1 generated items with experts. Study 2 explored and confirmed construct validity and the factorial structure of both measures using exploratory structural equation modeling. Study 3 established test-retest reliability, concurrent validity, and discriminant validity. Study 4 found predictive validity with a sample of competitive swimmers. In four separate samples, a 21-item and 6-factor first-order structure of CAPS-E provided the best model fit. We provide initial evidence that supports the use of CAPS-E and CAPS-G as reliable and valid measures of the susceptibility to contagion of affective phenomena.

The role of the six factors model of athletic mental energy in mediating athletes' well-being in competitive sports

In the realm of high-performance sports, athletes often prioritize success at the expense of their well-being. Consequently, sports psychology researchers are now focusing on creating psychological profiles for athletes that can forecast their performance while safeguarding their overall well-being. A recent development in this field is the concept of athletic mental energy (AME), which has been associated with both sporting success and positive emotions. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore if AME in athletes can mediate this directly observed relationship between performance and psychological well-being. For stronger predictive validity these relationships were examined across two studies with each involving distinct sets of participants engaged in various sports disciplines, including football, cricket, basketball, archery, and more. The self-report measures of sports performance, athletic mental energy (AME), and psychological well-being (PWB) were administered post-competition on the local, regional, state, national, international, and professional level athletes of age 18 and above. Our study found that both, the affective and cognitive components of AME mediated the athletes' performance and psychological well-being relationship. Interestingly, the study found no significant gender differences in AME and PWB scores. While family structures didn't yield significant variations in AME scores, there were some descriptive distinctions in PWB scores across different family structures. Our research offers preliminary evidence suggesting that AME can play a pivotal role in preserving athletes' psychological well-being following competitive events.

Sport bodies: An examination of positive body image, sport-confidence, and subjective sport performance in Jamaican athletes

Guided by the Sport-Confidence Model, this study examined the associations among a positive body image, sport-confidence, and sport performance evaluations. Using a cross-sectional design, a purposive sample of 314 Jamaican athletes (male = 70.7%; Mage = 22.85; SD = 4.89) completed measures of body and functionality appreciation, sport-confidence, and subjective sport performance. Results from path analysis provided evidence for good model-data fit. Body (B = 9.03, p < .001) and functionality (B = 4.93, p = .036) appreciation exerted direct effects on sport-confidence. Sport-confidence exerted a direct effect on sport performance evaluations (B = 0.09, p < .001). Body (B = 0.79, CI95% [0.44, 1.17]) and functionality (B = 0.43, CI95% [0.05, 0.92]) appreciation exerted indirect effects on sport performance evaluations through sport-confidence. Results indicate that supporting the development of a positive body image in athletes may contribute to feelings of sport-confidence and positive performance outcomes.

Pain and Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport in Elite Volleyball Players: A Cross-Sectional Study

Pain is modulated by multiple factors. A relevant psychological process peculiar to athletes and which could be associated with pain is Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport (PRRS). The analysis of this association in competition context is particularly important.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the correlation between the PRRS and pain intensity in elite volleyball players during their participation in a continental sporting event.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted. Data from 107 male volleyball players (23.50 ± 4.08 years of age) participating in the South American Volleyball Championship were used. The athletes answered a self-report questionnaire on the day the championship began regarding their history of injuries in the previous six months. The athletes who declared injuries were asked about the current pain intensity using the Pain Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) and Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport using the Injury-Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport scale (I-PRRS).

RESULTS

43.93% (n = 47) of the athletes (23.70 ± 3.54 years) reported an injury in the six months prior to the championship. They presented a median on the NRS of three (interquartile range (IQR), 2-5), and 54 (IQR, 46-58) on the I-PRRS. The Spearman's Rho correlation test showed an inversely and moderate correlation (r_s = -0.36; p = 0.011; CI: -0.64--0.08) between pain intensity and PRRS.

CONCLUSIONS

In male elite volleyball players who participate in a Continental Championship in South America, higher levels of PRRS was correlated to lower pain intensity.

Relationship between Aggressiveness, Self-Confidence, and Perceived Coach Support and Head Impact Exposure in Youth Football

This study evaluated head impact exposure (HIE) metrics in relation to individual-level determinants of HIE. Youth (n = 13) and high school (n = 21) football players were instrumented with the Head Impact Telemetry (HIT) system during one season. Players completed the Trait-Robustness of Self-Confidence Inventory (TROSCI), Sports Climate Questionnaire (SCQ), and Competitive Aggressiveness and Anger Scale (CAAS), measuring self-confidence, perceived coach support, and competitive aggressiveness, respectively. Relationships between HIE metrics (number of impacts, median and 95th percentile accelerations, and risk-weighted exposure (RWE)) and survey scores were evaluated using linear regression analysis. For middle school athletes, TROSCI scores were significantly negatively associated with the number of competition impacts and the mean number of impacts per player per competition. SCQ scores were significantly positively associated with median linear acceleration during practice. CAAS scores were not significantly associated with biomechanical metrics at either level of play. Perceived coach support and self-confidence might influence HIE among middle school football players. Football athletes' competitive aggressiveness may have less influence their HIE than other factors.

Revisiting the Self-Confidence and Sport Performance Relationship: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis

Self-confidence is a common research topic, and most applied textbooks include interventions designed to enhance athlete confidence. Our purpose was to quantify the self-confidence and sport performance literature using meta-analytic techniques. We also examined potential risk of bias indicators, and the moderation effects of study quality, sport characteristics, timing of confidence measurement, and individual differences among participants. Following a review of two past meta-analyses, a systematic search of APA PsycArticles, ERIC, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, PsychINFO, and SPORTDiscus within the EBSCOhost platform, and some hand searching, 41 articles published between 1986 and 2020 met the inclusion criteria. Collectively, the included studies investigated 3711 athletes from 15 countries across 24 sports. The overall random effects estimate of the relationship (expressed as r) between self-confidence and performance was 0.25 (95% CI 0.19, 0.30), with little evidence of publication bias. The summed total risk of the individual study bias score did not moderate the confidence–performance relationship, whereas significant moderator effects emerged for individual sports (0.29) compared with team sports (0.14), objective (0.29) compared to subjective (0.14) performance measures, and 100% male (0.35) compared to 100% female (0.07) samples. In conclusion, the confidence–performance relationship is small in magnitude, nearly free of bias, and moderated by sport type, performance objectivity, and athlete sex.

Psychological Vulnerability Associated With Stress Coping Strategies in Japanese University Athletes

This study examined the stress coping strategies of athletes with high psychological vulnerability. The participants were 487 university athletes (mean age = 19.8 years, SD = 0.88, 153 women). Data were collected using the Vulnerability Scale for University Athletes and General Coping Questionnaire and analyzed by conducting a multivariate analysis of variance. The results showed significant relationships between vulnerability and coping strategies (r = .11−.39). Vulnerability was most strongly related to the emotional support seeking aspect of emotion-oriented coping (r = .39). There was no significant difference in cognitive reinterpretation (r = .07). Vulnerability had a stronger relationship with emotion-oriented than problem-oriented coping, and high (vs. low) vulnerability athletes had significantly higher emotion-oriented-coping scores. These results suggest that vulnerable athletes need to be provided with appropriate emotional support to cope with stressful situations, as they rely heavily on a stress management strategy focusing on emotion regulation.

Thriving Through Relationships in Sport: The Role of the Parent-Athlete and Coach-Athlete Attachment Relationship

The aim of this research was to examine whether attachment relationships to significant others, such as to parents and/or sports coaches, enable thriving and competition performance within sport. Two studies employing cross-sectional and prospective designs were carried out across different samples of athletes of varied skill levels and sports. In Study 1, we found athletes' attachment to their sports coach was significantly associated with athlete thriving and mediated by psychological needs satisfaction. Results of Study 2 found that athletes' secure attachment to their mother and/or father positively predicted the experience of thriving at the competition while athletes' insecure attachment did not predict thriving. Furthermore, athletes' attachment to both mother and father did not predict competition performance. Together, these two studies acknowledge the significant role that athletes' secure attachment relationships with parents and coaches play in facilitating thriving in athletes. These findings have significant implications for research and practice.

Burnout and Coping Perceptions of Volleyball Players Throughout an Annual Sport Season

Burnout is a psychological syndrome of reaction to chronic stress that occurs in athletes who feel exhausted by a sport activity that was previously pleasurable and enjoyable. One technique to prevent and control the syndrome is through coping, which is the ability to deal with stressful situations. In contrast to traditional cross-sectional approaches, this study aimed to investigate burnout and coping strategy characteristics over time and to analyze the relationship between burnout dimensions and coping strategies. Fifty-four high-level volleyball athletes (twenty-eight men and twenty-six women, age M = 25.57, SD = 4.72, range 18-35) completed paper-and-pencil measures of burnout and coping four times throughout a sport season. The Friedman test presented a significant increase in the reduced sense of athletic accomplishment (X² = 20.58; p < 0.01) and sport devaluation (X² = 19.83; p < 0.01) perceptions during the season. However, no coping differences were observed through the longitudinal analysis. Burnout dimensions showed a moderate inverse correlation to confidence/motivation at all measurement points during the season. Overall, the findings suggest that burnout perceptions increase as the season progresses, highlighting the relevance for the periodization of burnout prevention and control

A repeated-measures examination of organizational stressors, perceived psychological and physical health, and perceived performance in semi-elite athletes

Organizational stressors can undermine the psychological well-being and performance of athletes. Less is known, however, about how these relationships unfold over time and whether organizational stressors can impact upon perceived physical health. The current study, therefore, used a repeated-measures design to examine relationships between organizational stressors with components of perceived psychological (anxiety and depression) and physical (illness symptoms and missed training days via illness) ill-health, and perceived performance at the within-person level. Twenty-three semi-elite female rowers completed monthly measures of study variables for six-months. Multilevel models indicated that selection-related stressors positively predicted symptoms of perceived psychological and physical ill-health, and negatively predicted perceived performance. Conversely, coaching stressors negatively predicted symptoms of perceived psychological ill-health. Logistics and operations stressors positively predicted perceived performance, whereas goals and development stressors negatively predicted perceived performance. These findings demonstrate for the first time that, with a repeated-measures design, organizational stressors can predict components of perceived physical and psychological ill-health, and perceived performance at the within-person level in athletes. From a practical perspective, practitioners should incorporate these findings when diagnosing the need for, developing, and optimally implementing primary and secondary stress management interventions.

Leveling the playing field: can psychological coping resources reduce the influence of physical and technical skills on athletic performance?

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The present study assessed the extent to which individual differences in psychological coping resources are related to athletic performance; whether they can attenuate the amount of performance variance accounted for by physical/technical skills; and whether coping resources remain significant predictors of performance when physical/technical skill level is statistically controlled.

METHODS

Twenty college golf coaches rated the physical/technical skills of 189 men and women varsity golfers on their teams. Athletes completed the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI-28), with the total (Personal Coping Resources) score serving as a global measure of sport-relevant psychological coping resources. Subsequent performance (stroke average per round) of 105 golfers was assessed over a mean of 12.04 competitive rounds during the remainder of the season.

RESULTS

Physical/technical skills and psychological coping resource measures were minimally correlated and both were significant and similarly influential predictors of performance. With psychological resources controlled, performance variance accounted for by physical/technical skills was reduced from 21.2% to 10.6%. With physical/technical skills statistically controlled, psychological coping resources, though reduced from 18.2% to 7.5% of accountable variance, remained a significant predictor of performance.

CONCLUSION

Results support the significant role played by psychological coping resources as predictors of athletic performance, together with their ability to "level the field" by reducing the influence of physical/technical talent.

Thriving on Pressure: A Factor Mixture Analysis of Sport Performers' Responses to Competitive Encounters

Although considerable research exists on performers' responses to sporting encounters, little is known about thriving in sport contexts. The current study examined if distinct response patterns existed between sport performers who thrived in competitive encounters compared with those who did not. Participants were 535 sport performers (134 women; M_age = 23.60 years, SD_age = 8.08; M_competing = 11.84 years, SD_competing = 7.11). Results of factor mixture analysis supported a four-profile solution comprising a thriving group (n = 146), a low-functioning group (n = 38), and two groups characterized by scores marginally above (n = 131) and below (n = 209) the sample mean. Profile membership was found to be predicted by personal enablers (viz., personal resilient qualities, psychological skills use) and process variables (viz., basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration, challenge appraisal). This examination of thriving in sport performers offers significant implications for research and practice.

Preoperative surgical rehearsal using cadaveric fresh tissue surgical simulation increases resident operative confidence

BACKGROUND

Rehearsal is an essential part of mastering any technical skill. The efficacy of surgical rehearsal is currently limited by low fidelity simulation models. Fresh cadaver models, however, offer maximal surgical simulation. We hypothesize that preoperative surgical rehearsal using fresh tissue surgical simulation will improve resident confidence and serve as an important adjunct to current training methods.

METHODS

Preoperative rehearsal of surgical procedures was performed by plastic surgery residents using fresh cadavers in a simulated operative environment. Rehearsal was designed to mimic the clinical operation, complete with a surgical technician to assist. A retrospective, web-based survey was used to assess resident perception of pre- and post-procedure confidence, preparation, technique, speed, safety, and anatomical knowledge on a 5-point scale (1= not confident, 5= very confident).

RESULTS

Twenty-six rehearsals were performed by 9 residents (PGY 1-7) an average of 4.7±2.1 days prior to performance of the scheduled operation. Surveys demonstrated a median pre-simulation confidence score of 2 and a post-rehearsal score of 4 (P<0.01). The perceived improvement in confidence and performance was greatest when simulation was performed within 3 days of the scheduled case. All residents felt that cadaveric simulation was better than standard preparation methods of self-directed reading or discussion with other surgeons. All residents believed that their technique, speed, safety, and anatomical knowledge improved as a result of simulation.

CONCLUSIONS

Fresh tissue-based preoperative surgical rehearsal was effectively implemented in the residency program. Resident confidence and perception of technique improved. Survey results suggest that cadaveric simulation is beneficial for all levels of residents. We believe that implementation of preoperative surgical rehearsal is an effective adjunct to surgical training at all skill levels in the current environment of decreased work hours.

The Development of a New Sport-Specific Classification of Coping and a Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between Different Coping Strategies and Moderators on Sporting Outcomes

There is an ever growing coping and sports performance literature, with researchers using many different methods to assess performance and different classifications of coping. As such, it makes it difficult to compare studies and therefore identify how coping is related to performance. Furthermore, there are no quantitative syntheses of the results from these studies. A quantitative synthesis would facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of how coping is associated with athletic performance. In order to accurately compare studies, our first aim was to develop a new coping classification that would make this possible. Firstly, we reviewed the strengths and limitations of the different coping classifications and then identified the commonalities and differences between such classifications. We opted for a three-factor classification of coping, because the evidence suggests that a three-factor classification provides a superior model fit to two-factor approaches. Our new classification of coping was based on an existing model from the developmental literature, which received an excellent model fit. We made some adaptations, however, as our classification was intended for an athletic population. As such, we classified coping as mastery (i.e., controlling the situation and eliminating the stressor), internal regulation (i.e., managing internal stress responses), or goal withdrawal (i.e., ceasing efforts toward goal attainment). Undertaking a meta-analysis, our second aim was to identify which coping strategies correlated with sports performance and whether this relationship varied according to moderator variables. Articles were sourced from online electronic databases and manual journal searches. PRISMA guidelines were used to search, select, and synthesize relevant studies. Random effects meta-analyses were performed to identify associations between coping classification and sport performance. Q, I2, and R2 values assessed heterogeneity. Eighteen published investigations, including 3900 participants and incorporating fifty-nine correlations, indicated an overall positive effect for mastery coping, a negligible negative effect for internal regulation coping, and a negative effect for goal withdrawal strategies. The findings of this meta-analysis could be used by sports practitioners to help them deliver effective coping interventions. In order to maximize performance, practitioners could encourage the use of mastery coping, but advise their athletes not to use goal withdrawal strategies.

The Influence of the Social Environment Context in Stress and Coping in Sport

Lazarus (1999) model of stress and coping is based on the reciprocal interaction between the person and the environment. The aim of this study therefore was to examine whether the social environment (significant others) are of influence on the stress and coping of team athletes. The study consisted of two separate studies in which a total of 12 team athletes participated. First, six field hockey players (two males, four females) aged 18–29 years (M = 23.0 years) participated in a diary study. Second, six team athletes of different sports (two males, four females) aged 24–29 years (M = 25.8 years) were interviewed. The results showed that in particular teammates are important for the appraisal of stress and coping in team sports. For over half (i.e., 51.5%) of the reported stressors in the diary study the participants felt that others were of influence on their coping. Team athletes experienced the highest stress intensity during competition, or when they appraised the situation as a threat. When others were of influence the team athletes were most likely to appraise the situation as a challenge and use problem- or emotion-focused coping strategies. These finding might provide a new portal for intervention to enhance coping with stress in sport and enhance performance and satisfaction.

Anxiety and attention shifting in professional baseball players

Based on the work of both Eysenck and Nideffer, we hypothesized that higher ranking players (HRP) would have lower competitive anxiety and more flexible attention-shifting, compared to lower ranking players (LRP). In addition, different patterns of attention (low anxiety and flexible attention) would be represented by a different pattern of brain activity within the temporal lobe and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In accordance with the rookie draft ranking, the players were classified into 2 groups: HRP (top 30% of those selected in the draft) vs. LRP (bottom 30% of those selected in the draft). For assessment of executive function, a computerized version of the Wisconsin Card-sorting Test (WCST) was used. Brain activity was assessed using 1.5-Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging. In response to scenes depicting baseball errors, HRP showed increased activation in the left cingulate cortex and decreased activation in right middle temporal gyrus, compared to LRP. In response to the simplified WCST in the scanner, HRP showed increased activation in left superior frontal cortex (DLPFC), compared to LRP. The present results suggest that HRP may demonstrate elevated cingulate activation and lower temporal cortex activation in response to scenes depicting baseball errors.