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The present study examined the relationship between religiosity and competitive anxiety in college athletes and whether there were differences in competitive anxiety for intrinsically religious and extrinsically religious individuals. College athletes (N = 95) from three separate sports from the NCAA completed a questionnaire that included the Age-Universal I/E Scale, the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 Revised, open-ended questions on habits related to religion, and demographic items. Results revealed no significant relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity and competitive anxiety. Extrinsically religious athletes had higher somatic anxiety than intrinsically religious athletes. The majority of participants (77%) reported praying before games primarily for comfort. Athletes turn to religion to calm their nerves but it is important to understand that their approach to religion may relate to increased anxiety. This information is useful for sport practitioners and coaches as they seek to help their athletes seek an intrinsic approach to religion in sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sets out to evaluate the effect of mental skills training on pre-match competitive anxiety in schoolboy rugby players. Participants (M = 13.3 years) were assigned into control (n = 20)andintervention groups (n = 20). Both groups completed the modified Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) at two baseline and two follow-up matches, with the intervention group receiving two 2-hour sessions of mental skills training after the two baseline matches. Results indicated no statistically significant effects for the mental skills training on any of the domains of competitive anxiety, apart from statistically significant group and time main effects for somatic anxiety intensity. The results raise doubts regarding the suitability of the current mode of mental skills training for young athletes in contact team sports. Future work should explore how to best tailor a programme to suit the needs of such athletes and investigate the timeframe required for proper evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Athletes’ precompetitive appraisal determines which emotion they experience with regard to an upcoming competition. Such precompetitive emotions have powerful and potentially destructive consequences for performance. To control and optimise these consequences, it is important to examine precompetitive appraisal. Currently, such efforts are hampered by the lack of a valid measurement tool. The present study aimed to develop a novel measure of precompetitive appraisal. Specifically, the Precompetitive Appraisal Measure (PAM) was constructed by adapting an existing self-report scale. Female and male intercollegiate team sport athletes (N = 384) completed the PAM, along with a measure of intensity and interpretation of precompetitive anxiety symptoms (CSAI-2D) prior to competition. On these responses, (a) a Principal Component Analysis and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the PAM’s suggested two-factor structure (Primary and Secondary Appraisal), (b) cluster analyses indicated the measure’s ability to distinguish theoretically congruent appraisal profiles (Threat and Challenge) and (c) a MANOVA and multiple regression analyses demonstrated that PAM-responses predicted precompetitive symptom intensity and interpretation. Further, analyses revealed that the majority of athletes appraised the upcoming competition as a challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cognitive models postulate that respondents to a questionnaire follow a four-stage process when answering a question: comprehension, memory retrieval, decision, and response. Cognitive interviewing is a qualitative tool to gain insight into this process by means of letting respondents think aloud or asking them specific questions (Willis, 2005). It allows one to evaluate whether an individual respondent understands and processes the instrument's items as was intended by the instrument's developer. Flaws and errors in the item response stemming from any of the four stages can be detected. However, cognitive interviewing has rarely been employed in the construction of questionnaires in sport science. In order to promote its use, a short introduction is given and an example from sport psychology is provided. Potential applications for the enhancement of questionnaire construction in sport science, for example, in cross-cultural studies, are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The age-appropriate Sport Anxiety Scale-2 (SAS-2; Smith, Smoll, Cumming, & Grossbard, 2006) was used to assess levels of cognitive and somatic anxiety among male and female youth sport participants. Confirmatory factor analyses with a sample of 9-14 year old athletes (N=1038) supported the viability of a three-factor model of anxiety involving somatic anxiety, worry, and concentration disruption previously demonstrated in high school and college samples. Tests for factorial invariance revealed that the three-factor model was an equally good fit for 9-11 year olds and 12-14 year olds, and for both males and females. Gender and age were modestly related to anxiety scores. Worry about performing poorly was highest in girls and in older athletes, whereas boys reported higher levels of concentration disruption in competitive sport situations. Implications for emotional perception and for the study of competitive anxiety in young athletes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]