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Competition has characteristics that position sport as a fruitful field for the study of human affective processes of interest for psychology, such as anxiety, especially in disciplines such as military parachuting due to its uniqueness. This study aimed to analyse the validity of the Spanish version of the CSAI-2R inventory through a reliable model and to determine the interrelation, both among themselves and with anxiety, of certain specific technical variables related to sports performance in parachuting. The questionnaire was supplied to 42 jumpers in the Spanish National Military Championship. The results indicate that a reliable model has been established, but it is necessary to realise a multivariate relationship between components of competitive anxiety and specific variables of military skydiver's sporting experience in competition. It would be appropriate to reflect on what other psychological and technical variables may influence the sporting performance achieved, because it is a modality that has very particular conditions compared to the rest, not only because of the space, environment and form where and how the activity itself is carried out but also because of the context in which it is framed, as a result of the peculiarities that define the group to which the competitors belong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Excessive competitive anxiety induces adverse effects on athletic performance and planning efficient management methods is crucial. Objectives: We aimed to assess the effects of acupuncture on competitive anxiety. Methods: In this cross-over study, 20 male soccer players under 21 years (U-21) were randomized equally into acupuncture or control groups. The acupuncture group received acupuncture on fifteen anxiety-related points and the control group received acupuncture on fifteen points unrelated to anxiety for thirty minutes. We measured the participants' resting heart rate and galvanic skin conduction and asked them to answer the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) questionnaire at baseline and the end of the intervention. Results: We detected a significant treatment effect in the cognitive anxiety level (-1.05 ± 0.91; p = 0.02) but not in the somatic anxiety level (-0.46 ± 1.68; p = 0.43), Sport Self-Confidence (-1.06 ± 2.21; p = 0.11), heart rate (0.20 ± 2.2; p = 0.93), and skin conductance (-0.50 ± 0.77; p = 0.19). Conclusion: Based on these results, acupuncture might decrease cognitive anxiety but might not affect somatic anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The study was to investigate the relationships between perfectionism (i.e., self-oriented and socially-prescribed perfectionism) and psychological well-being (i.e., vitality)/ill-being (i.e., emotional/physical exhaustion) and to examine the mediating effects of competitive state anxiety on the relationships. Three hundred two collegiate athletes participated in the study (Mage = 21.12yrs, SD = 1.28). The participants completed four questionnaires: Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, Revised Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2, Subjective Vitality Scale, and Emotional/Physical Exhaustion from Athlete Burnout Questionnaire. The hypothesized model presented an acceptable fit to the data. Specifically, X2 (80) = 179.99 (p < 0.001), CFI = 0.973, TLI = 0.965, SRMR = 0.042, and RMSEA = 0.052 with 90% CI [0.042, 0.062]. The results indicated that self-oriented perfectionism was negatively related to competitive state anxiety (ß = -.14, p < .005) and positively related to vitality (ß =.26, p < .001), whereas socially-prescribed perfectionism was positively related to competitive state anxiety (ß =.28, p < .001) and emotional/physical exhaustion (ß =.15, p < .05). Competitive state anxiety was negatively related to vitality (ß = -.14, p < .05) and positively related to emotional/physical exhaustion (ß =.31, p < .001). Competitive state anxiety partially mediated the relationships between socially-prescribed perfectionism and emotional/physical exhaustion. The full mediating effects of anxiety on the relationships between self-oriented perfectionism and emotional/physical exhaustion and between socially-prescribed perfectionism and vitality were observed. Findings supported that self-oriented perfectionism was functionally adaptive to and socially-prescribed perfectionism was maladaptive to athletes' psychological well-/ill-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competitive anxiety can have a detrimental or positive impact on the athletes' success during the competition. It varies significantly in its strength and depends on gender, ethnicity, role, and training experience. Due to the importance of the hardiness and coping strategies for the maintenance of health and productivity, it was hypothesized that competitive anxiety could be affected by these traits as well as the anxiety trait. Relationships between competitive anxiety, hardiness, coping strategies, anxiety trait, and anxiety state are investigated within this research. Members of the national female handball team aged 22 to 35 were study participants. In total, 19 responses were included in the analysis. Russian versions of Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Sports Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT), and Personal Values Survey III-R (PVSIII-R) were used. While their hardiness scores were higher than the ones reported for non-athletes, no association between hardiness and competitive anxiety was revealed. Distancing and Escape-Avoidance coping strategies were positively correlated with anxiety traits. The negative association between Self-Controlling and Seeking Social Support was considered to be inherent for a sample on the female national handball team. It was concluded that the strength of competitive anxiety is not associated with coping strategies and hardiness. A connection between the direction of competitive anxiety with coping mechanisms and hardy attitudes can be assumed for further researches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study determined optimal zones of heartrate, anxiety intensity and arousal for archery performance among Malaysian elite developmental archers. Using a cross-sectional study design, nineteen archers (Mean age = 15.37± 1.5) participated in the study. Participants underwent three months of routine training session with two competitions within the three months. Throughout the training sessions and during competition, archers' heart rate, anxiety intensity, arousal level, and shooting performance were monitored. All parameters were measured weekly until end of the study. The revised Competitive State Anxiety-2 (CSAI-2R) and revised Sport Grid (Sport Grid -- R) were used to measure competitive anxiety and arousal. In addition, Polar heart rate monitor (S710i, Polar Electro Oy, Finland) was used to monitor participants' heart rate. Cluster analysis was used to create the archers' performance profile and One Way ANOVA was used to compare the difference between the clusters. The results of ward method revealed a two-cluster profile. Profile 1 exhibits a low range of heart rate, but relatively high in shooting score and psychological variables. Profile 2 is characterized by high range of heart rate but low in shooting score and psychological variables. T-test results revealed significant differences between cluster group in shooting score, cognitive anxiety and somatic anxiety. It is concluded that better shooting score is associate with lower heart rate, lower arousal, higher self-confidence as well as higher in cognitive and somatic anxiety among archers in the current study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competitive anxiety is related to athletes' performance. Due to this, it is important to maintain it on an optimal level. While anxiety has a well-studied gender difference that is related to the opposite patterns of activity in left parietal and temporal lobes, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, cerebellum, and occipital gyrus, gender differences in competitive anxiety and its factors are not fully investigated. Exploratory research of competitive anxiety and coping strategies in Ukrainian junior handball national team was conducted. Participants of the study are 35 adolescences with mean age 15.63 and standard deviation equal to 0.49. 13 participants were male, while 22 participants were female. Participants completed Ways of Coping Questionnaire, which was developed by Folkman & Lazarus in 1988 and adopted byBityutskaya in 2015, and Sport Competition Anxiety Test, which was developed by Martens in 1977 and adopted by Hanin in 1982. Female athletes have significantly higher scores on both Competitive Anxiety and Accepting Responsibility scale with p=0.007 and p=0.006 respectively. Cohen's d was 0.47 for both tests. Spearman correlation test revealed moderate correlation r = 0.39 with p = 0.02 for the whole sample. Thus, accepting responsibility coping strategy is associated with increased competition anxiety in Ukrainian athletes. Both accepting responsibility coping and competitive anxiety level is gender biased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elite athletes differ from each other in their characteristics according to their discipline. This study aimed to identify performance predictors in elite Croatian sprinters taking into consideration their anthropometric, psychological and genetic characteristics. One hundred and four elite Croatian sprinters (68 males and 36 females) participated in this study. Of them, 38 are currently competing in the 100-metre dash. The others are former sprinters. The participants underwent direct anthropometric assessment. Participants were also tested by means of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 and for ACE and ACTN3 polymorphisms. Multiple linear regression analysis was applied to identify the best model for performance prediction. Different models were developed for males and females. Anthropometric traits accounted for 44% of the variance in performance for males, 62% for females. Once other traits (psychological for females) were entered into the model, no additional contribution to the variance was observed. The most significant predictors of higher running velocity were bicristal diameter and foot dimensions in males, and leg length and clean one-repetition maximum in females. The findings suggest that performance in sprinters is associated with anthropometric characteristics, with biomechanical implications that may be used to provide a more complete evaluation of sprinters' performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to a competition, athletes may frequently experience various (e.g., cognitive, somatic) symptoms of competitive anxiety. Different models have been developed to explain sport related anxiety and its relationship with athletic performance. Cheng et al. (2009) proposed a model that considers competitive anxiety in sports as multi-dimensional, including cognitive, physiological, and regulatory processes. Initial evidence suggests that these processes are related to athletic performance, yet, the factors influencing these processes are underexplored. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether sources of perceived competence (i.e., performance satisfaction, motivational climate) can predict the cognitive, physiological, and regulatory processes of competitive anxiety in adolescent downhill skiers. One-hundred and fifteen athletes between the ages of 14 and 19 (Mean,=16.64, SD=1.19, 47% female) participated and completed the Three Factor Anxiety Inventory, the Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire, and the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sports Questionnaire. Three multiple regressions with the processes of competitive anxiety as dependent variables were calculated. The findings indicated that 42% of the variance of the regulatory component of competitive anxiety was predicted by dimensions of performance satisfaction. Ego-oriented climate predicted 13% of perceived cognitive symptoms of competitive anxiety. Perceived physiological symptoms of competitive anxiety were neither predicted by performance satisfaction nor motivational climate. The results indicate that satisfaction with one's performance plays an important role in the perception of competence prior to a stressful competitive situation. In addition, the emphasis of comparison and ranking (i.e., ego-orientation) by teammates or coaches may be related to more intense perceptions of cognitive symptoms of competitive anxiety prior to a competition. Coaches and athletes are advised to build a realistic perception of competence (e.g, by emphasizing the process of skill development and satisfactory performances) rather than the outcome in preparation for a competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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• Game self-efficacy can help manage dysregulated emotions in competition. • Sports competition anxiety is a multi-dimensional type. • Not all types of anxiety have a negative impact on competition performance. Sports psychology has devoted much attention to studying the relationship between psychological factors and sports performance, yet eSports, as an emerging sport, is still under-researched, and research on eSports players' game self-efficacy, competitive anxiety, and competitive performance is quite rare. To address this gap, this study, based on the multidimensional anxiety theory, explored their correlates. For research purposes, eSports players in China who had participated in the Honor of Kings Champion Cup were invited to take part in the study. There were 232 effective participants in total, and the data were analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling to verify the research hypotheses. The results showed that game self-efficacy was negatively related with three types of competition anxiety (negative appraisal, inability, and opponent performance). Regarding their relationship with competition performance, negative appraisal anxiety was positively related, inability anxiety was negatively related, and opponent performance anxiety was not significantly related. Finally, gameplay self-efficacy was indirectly positively related with competition performance mediated by the three types of competitive anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Portuguesa de Ciências do Desporto is the property of Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Desporto and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examined competitive anxiety in sports among the participants in a high school located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. One hundred and fifteen students (60 males and 55 females) took part in this study, all of who at least participated in a sport or game representing sport house, school, or district level. All subjects were 15 years old. The results showed that there was a significant difference between male and female participants where male participants reported lower level of competitive anxiety than female. As predicted, participants represented district level also reported lower of competitive anxiety compared to participants representing sport house or school level. No significant difference in competitive anxiety emerged among participants of different ethnicity. Recommendations were suggested for further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationship between competitive anxiety and swimmers' positive/negative self-talk in competition. Participants were 76 swimmers (35 males and 41 females) with a mean age of 18.20 years (SD = 5.21). The Greek version of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-II (?àκκ?ç & ?ἐ ρρβaç, 1996), which assesses competitive state anxiety, and the Automatic Self-talk Questionnaire for Sports (Zourbanos, Hatzigeorgiadis, Theodorakis, & Chroni, 2006; Zourbanos, Theodorakis, & Hatzigeorgiadis, 2006), which assesses positive and negative self-talk, were used. Regression analysis showed that confidence predicted positive self-talk and had a negative relationship with athletes' negative self-talk, whereas competitive cognitive and somatic anxiety predicted athletes' negative self-talk. The findings are discussed in relation to theory and other studies exploring relationships between competitive anxiety and self-talk, as well as with regard to the effects of self-talk on performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present study was to develop a psycological skills training program for reducing competitive anxiety among Korean athletes. The development of the program was proceeded integrating the sport-specific version of Cognitive Rational Restructuring developed by Y. S. Kim, which uses the list of self-statements as a mental relaxation skill, the simple version of Progressive Muscle Relaxation as a somatic relaxation skill, and some basic tenets of other psychological intervention techniques. The pro- gram consists of 8 sesssions. The self-statement list (125 items) were developed from a variety of relevant literatures and from interviewing former national level athletes and instuctors. This self-statement list was developed for field instructors who are not familiar with professional knowledge on psychology. The intervention program was completed by modifications through it's field applications on national level athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]