Interactions Between Gender, Age and Competitive Level on Elite Student-athletes’ Religious Coping Experiences in the Week Leading Up to Competition

Abstract

In recent times, religiosity and spirituality have been embraced by most athletes as alternative coping mechanism around the world. Although extensive scholarly works on different dimensions of coping exist in sport, only few studies have explored the use of other coping strategies like religious coping. The current study investigated elite student-athletes' religious coping strategies as a function of gender, age and competitive level in the week leading up to competition. This cross-sectional study conveniently recruited a sample of 300 student-athletes competing at the 2018 West Africa University Games (WAUG) in Nigeria. Sociodemographic data (i.e., gender, age category and competitive level) and religious coping using the Brief RCOPE Scale were assessed. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to evaluate the possible effect of gender, age and competitive level on religious coping. Results indicate that no significant interaction effects were realized across all between-subject factors: gender-age-competitive level on religious coping. However, a significant main effect was noted for only participants' competitive level on religious coping, with international students employing more religious coping strategies (both positive and negative) compared to their national and regional counterparts. Sport psychologists, coaches and managers working closely with these athletes could integrate positive religious coping strategies for athletes of different competitive levels as part of an adaptation framework that may independently influence important outcomes such as emotion and cognitive regulation, including their psychological wellbeing.

Reproducibility of the brief religious coping inventory with African athletes’ sample using ordinal factor analytical approach

“…Empirical studies have demonstrated that many people rely on religiousness as an internal resource to understand, cope and deal with adverse life events or stressful situations (e.g., Pargament, 2012 ; Abu-Raiya et al, 2015 ; Abu-Raiya and Pargament, 2015 ; Vishkin and Tamir, 2020 ). For example, persons with professed spiritual backing (e.g., faith in God and use of prayer as coping resources) were more likely to manage better with high levels of life-event stress (e.g., Hagan and Schack, 2017 ; Hagan et al, 2019 ; Frimpong et al, 2021 ; Hagan, 2021 ; Vishkin, 2021 ). One mechanism through which religion exerts its positive effects on people during times of stress is religious coping [RC] ( Ano and Vasconcelles, 2005 ; Cummings and Pargament, 2010 ).…”

“…The purpose of this decision is not to refute the findings of studies which adopted the RCOPE scale responses as continuous but to expand on the utility of the Brief RCOPE instrument using a different approach and thus, contributing to the validity evidence of the measure. In Sub-Sahara Africa, research on religion and spirituality among different samples has increased in recent years, with some studies in Nigeria (e.g., Amadi et al, 2016a ), Uganda ( Mutumba et al, 2017 ), and Ghana ( Frimpong et al, 2021 ; Hagan, 2021 ). Although these authors employed the Brief RCOPE in their studies, information on the psychometric properties and performance of the scale across the chosen samples were not reported.…”

“…According to Ghana Statistical Service [GSS] (2021) , Christians form about 71% of the population, with Muslims constituting 18 percent, 5% of the populace adheres to indigenous or animistic religious beliefs, while 6% belongs to other religious groups or with no religious inclination. Considering that issues connected with spirituality and religion are dominant in Africa, with proof of more doctrinal codes or religious orientation of its people ( Hagan and Schack, 2017 ; Hagan et al, 2019 ), evaluating the psychometric properties of Brief RCOPE in an African setting to better understand the possible cultural influences that previous studies (e.g., Amadi et al, 2016a ; Mutumba et al, 2017 ; Frimpong et al, 2021 ; Hagan, 2021 ; Rashid et al, 2021 ) have ignored is warranted.…”

“…Research has further shown that athletes experience stress before impending competitions due to the mental preparations they go through, the uncertainty of sporting outcomes, and other events which may happen before the competition ( Giacobbi et al, 2004 ; Hoar et al, 2020 ). Previous studies have found that some athletes adopt religious coping ( Sarkar et al, 2015 ; Frimpong et al, 2021 ; Hagan, 2021 ). The adoption of this type of coping approach has been attributed to the long-standing pervasion of spirituality and religiosity embraced by athletes, especially those in Africa, before and during sporting competitions ( Dodo et al, 2015 ; Hagan et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Understanding the reproducibility of the Brief RCOPE within the African context provides useful information on the functionality of the instrument in Africa, following the widespread use of the measure ( Amadi et al, 2016b ; Frimpong et al, 2021 ). Issues of religion are not distinct from culture and this transcends to religious coping within a particular culture ( Croucher et al, 2017 ; Quansah et al, 2022a ).…”