Anxiety and Affect in Successful and Less Successful Elite Female Basketball Players: in-Situ Sampling Before Six Consecutive Games

Abstract

Justification and aim of the study: Successful athletes tend to approach contest situations with different psychological mind-set than their less successful counterparts. The aim of this repeated-measures design study was to assess whether a successful (national league third rank) and a less successful (11th rank) first division women's basketball team differ in anxiety, positive affect, and negative affect before six consecutive games in the annual championship. Methods: Two psychometrically validated questionnaires, the Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT;Martens et al., 1990) and the Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale (PANAS;Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) were used to measure pre-competitive anxiety and positive-and negative affect. The scales were completed by first division female basketball players, who were members of either the successful or the less successful team, before six matches; three played at home and three played away from home. Results: Successful players reported lower anxiety before games (effect size (Cohen's d = 1.2) than less successful players. Both teams displayed more positive affect before the games played at home than before the games played away from home (d = .44). However, ratings of the subjective states varied substantially across the games. Conclusion: The results, interpreted in light of an interactional model (Cerin et al., 2000), show that subjective appraisal of each competition situation yields very specific or unique expectations, which in turn determine the psychological states of the players before the upcoming contest. more successful team demonstrating lower negative affect (p = .12; Fig. 2) and higher overall positive affect (p = .15; Figure 3).

Polish Psychological Bulletin

“…Research findings (Szabo, Szucs, Gaspar, & Sule, 2014), support the idea that an environmental or competitive situation is not necessarily stressful by itself. Thus, according to Lazarus (2000aLazarus ( , 2000b, a racing situation may act as a stimulus to cause anxiety, but if it eventually causes an athlete's anxiety, depends mainly on how the athlete will perceives and interprets this specific situation.…”

Tenis y salud mental: el papel de las federaciones en la promoción y prevención de la salud mental y el bienestar

“…Similarly, some theories argue that the sporting context is not necessarily stressful in itself, but that stress levels have a fundamental personal and subjective, and therefore cognitive, component (Lazarus, 2000;Szeko, 2000;Szeko, 2000). (Lazarus, 2000;Szabo et al, 2014). Going further, although some research has shown that sport can be a very effective means for the prevention of various psychological problems such as depression or anxiety disorders (Barbosa & Urrea, 2018).…”