Anxiety symptom interpretation in high-anxious, defensive high-anxious, low-anxious and repressor sport performers

Richard Mullen, A Lane, S Hanton

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

For the first time in a sport setting this study examined the intensity and direction of the competitive state anxiety response in collegiate athletes as a function of four different coping styles: high-anxious, defensive high-anxious, low-anxious and repressors. Specifically, the study predicted that repressors would interpret competitive state anxiety symptoms as more facilitative compared to high-anxious, defensive high-anxious, and low-anxious performers. Separate Multivariate Analyses of Variance (MANOVA) were performed on the intensity and direction subscales of the modified Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2). A significant main effect was identified for trait worry revealing that low trait anxious athletes reported lower intensities of cognitive and somatic anxiety and higher self-confidence and interpreted these as more facilitative than high trait anxious athletes. The prediction that performers with a repressive coping style would interpret state anxiety symptoms as more facilitative than performers with non-repressive coping styles was not supported.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)91 - 100
Number of pages9
JournalAnxiety, Stress and Coping
Volume22
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Dec 2008

Keywords

  • trait
  • state
  • intensity
  • direction
  • repression

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