Validating a Self-Report Measure of Student Athletes’ Perceived Stress Reactivity: Associations With Heart-Rate Variability and Stress Appraisals

Abstract

Student athletes experience multiple stressors relating to both their sporting and academic commitments. Individual differences play a significant role in how well student athletes cope with the demands they face. When assessing individual differences in stress reactivity, there are a lack of valid alternatives to costly and time-consuming lab-based physiological methods (e.g., cortisol sampling, cardiac variables). This paper aims to further validate a self-report measure of adolescent athletes’ individual differences in perceived stress reactivity, by comparing to a psycho-physiological measure of emotion regulation (heart-rate variability) assessed during a socially evaluated cold pressor test. 30 student athletes and 31 student non-athletes completed a measure of perceived stress reactivity and took part in the socially evaluated cold pressor test while their heart-rate variability was assessed, along with their self-reported appraisals of stress, pain, and unpleasantness experienced during the procedure. Controlling for gender and athleticism, individual differences in perceived stress reactivity showed no associations with tonic or phasic levels of heart-rate variability. However, perceived stress reactivity was associated with levels of self-reported stress, pain, and unpleasantness experienced during the socially evaluated cold pressor test. These findings therefore suggest that perceived stress reactivity is associated with cognitive responses to stress (i.e., stress appraisals). However, further research is needed to confirm its relationship with physiological measures and responses. This further adds to the understanding of perceived stress reactivity, and validity of the perceived stress reactivity scale for adolescent athletes.

Stress and Coping in Esports and the Influence of Mental Toughness

“…Previous studies have found athletes with higher overall MT perceive stressors more as a challenge than a threat . First, the present findings suggest that the relationship between challenge and threat appraisal is not dichotomous (Britton et al, 2019). Esports athletes appear to appraise stressors as both a threat and challenge at the same time.…”

“…To measure how esports athletes appraise stress, participants were asked to report a stressor that they recently encountered while playing their esport. On analog scales, participants rated the intensity of the stressor (Kowalski and Crocker, 2001) (1 = not stressful, 10 = extremely stressful), how much control they felt they had over the situation (1 = no control at all, 10 = full control), how much of a threat they felt the situation was (1 = not at all threatening, 10 = extremely threatening), and how challenging they felt the situation was (1 = not at all challenging, 10 = extremely challenging) (Kaiseler et al, 2012;Britton et al, 2019).…”

Relevance of Objective Measures in Psychiatric Disorders—Rest-Activity Rhythm and Psychophysiological Measures

“…However, while they mitigate error from wire data transmission, ambulatory systems are more susceptible to motion artifacts [ 72 •]. Therefore, to increase reliability of use, ambulatory sensor devices should be validated against stationary physiological acquisition systems, and programs which add artifact correction should be integrated [ 73 ].…”

Does Eligibility Classification Matter? Tracking Cardiac Autonomic Function during a Collegiate Soccer Season

“…Participating in sport and education is highly stressful [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. In particular, collegiate student-athletes are susceptible to experiencing multiple stressors from both their sporting and academic commitments [ 5 ]. Student-athletes are required to balance the demands of class, practice, competition, and their own personal life on a continuous basis [ 1 ].…”