Coping Style Following Acute Stress in Competitive Sport

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to ascertain coping styles among competitive athletes in response to various acute stressors. Specifically, the authors used a 134-item survey to measure approach and avoidance coping styles, with task-focused and emotion-focused coping tendencies nested hierarchically as subdimensions under each. Australian and U.S. college-aged participants indicated the extent to which they used approach, avoidance, task-focused, and emotion-focused coping strategies (a 4-factor model) in response to selected acute stressors experienced during sport competition. The authors computed confirmatory factor analysis to test the theoretically driven model. The criterion loading of .30 and above for each of the factors reduced the survey to 65 items. Findings indicated stronger links between the 2 approach constructs of task- and emotion-focused coping than between the 2 avoidance constructs of those subdimensions. The goodness-of-fit indices for the 4-factor model were 0.58 and 0.57 for Australian and U.S. samples, respectively, and .71 overall. Concomitant low correlations between the 2 approach (0.18) and the 2 avoidance dimensions (0.43) reflected relatively high residuals between stressors. In general, psychometric analyses suggest that coping style may be more prevalent in some situations than others, lending partial support for the transactional model of coping.

The Causes of and Psychological Responses to Lost Move Syndrome in National Level Trampolinists

“…Anshel, Williams, and Williams (2000) assert that individuals who perceive stressful situations as highly controllable will use an approach coping style, attempting to deal with the stressor. However, participants in the present study who adopted this style described it as maladaptive in dealing with the stressor (the lost skill) leading to overanalysis.…”

The approach-avoidance framework for identifying athletes’ coping style as a function of gender and race

“…Occasionally, coping in sport researchers have incorrectly used the terms “styles” and “strategies” interchangeably. Coping style in sport, defined as the athlete’s disposition to use certain types of coping strategies during the competitive sport event, has been previously studied (e.g., Anshel, 1996; Anshel & Wells, 2000; Krohne & Hindel, 1988). Coping styles differ from coping strategies despite the propensity of researchers to use these concepts interchangeably and, therefore, inaccurately (Anshel, 2005; Anshel et al , 2001b).…”

Competing Under Pressure: State Anxiety, Sports Performance and Assessment

“…Overall, there is a lack of support for the notion that athletes do cope in a similar manner with different situations, and the approach has also been criticised as being atheoretical (Crocker, Kowalski, & Graham, 1998;Lazarus, 1999). Instead, coping style is suggested to be characteristic of the typical coping strategies used with regard to each of several specific stressors appraised as personally relevant (Anshel et al, 2000). Moreover, a diversity of personality dispositions has been found as related to the adoption of stable patterns of coping strategies among individuals (Richards, 2004).…”

“…Even though the view of coping as a process is the most widespread approach within sport psychology research (Richards, 2004), other researchers contend that individuals possess different coping styles that predispose them to use a preferred set of coping strategies across a variety of situations or, alternatively, over time but in similar situations (Anshel & Weinberg, 1999;Anshel, Williams, & Williams, 2000;Wang, Marchant, & Morris, 2004). Overall, there is a lack of support for the notion that athletes do cope in a similar manner with different situations, and the approach has also been criticised as being atheoretical (Crocker, Kowalski, & Graham, 1998;Lazarus, 1999).…”