Sport psychology

Background. In the competitive world of emerging athletes, performance is crucial; in sports, it is essential. However, under the spotlight of competition, performance anxiety lurks as the unseen rival every athlete must conquer. Two important factors are fundamental to this dynamic—athletic identity and perceived coaching styles. Athletic identity becomes an athlete’s armor, while the coaching styles catalyze transformation. Their alliance can either elevate performance or diminish it.

Objective. To investigate the relationship between athletic identity, perceived coaching styles, and performance anxiety among university athletes.

Design. Using a correlational research design, 353 university athletes (191 men, 162 women, aged 18-25, M= 20.8, SD= 1.78) were recruited through non-probability purposive sampling from various universities. The athletic identity measurement scale (AIMS), leadership scale for sports (LSS), and sport anxiety scale-2 (SAS-2) were used to measure the constructs; the athletes also completed a demographic information sheet and provided informed consent.

Results. The Pearson product moment correlation results indicated a significant negative correlation between athletic identity and performance anxiety, while perceived coaching styles were significantly positively correlated with performance anxiety. The moderation analyses revealed that training and instruction, social support, democratic behavior, and positive feedback significantly moderated the relationship between self-identity and performance anxiety. Additionally, training and instruction and autocratic behavior significantly moderated the relationship between negative affectivity and performance anxiety.

Conclusion. This study underscores the importance of understanding the dynamics between athletic identity, perceived coaching styles, and performance anxiety to optimize athletic performance and reduce performance anxiety among university athletes.

Background. The concept of mental workload (MW) is a conceptual framework for evaluating the balance between the cognitive resources allocated to a task and those available to an individual. MWis influenced by the effort expended, the complexity of the task, and the individuals total processing capacity and resources.

Objective. This paper aims to explore MW in the field of sport and its relationship with other psychological variables, such as anxiety and burnout. This approach is not widely used in this context so this analysis is considered novel and unique.

Design. This paper is a cross-sectional study, with a sample selected by convenience sampling, consisting of Bulgarian athletes divided into three qualification categories: athletes competing at international competitions, athletes participating in national-level competitions, and non-professional athletes. The sample consisted of 107 athletes from various sports, with 62% male and 38% female participants.

The instruments used to assess the different psychological variables included the NASA-TLX for MW and an abbreviated questionnaire derived from the SAS-2 for Anxiety and Burnout based on ABQ. 

Results. Athletes' mental workload is multifaceted, influenced by physical and psychological factors, which may also act as a protective factor against anxiety. Team sports show higher levels of mental workload due to contextual uncertainty (entropy), which could reduce performance anxiety. Two athlete profiles emerged: a bright side (high effort, low anxiety) and a dark side (low effort, high anxiety).

Conclusion. These findings contribute to existing knowledge in sports psychology, providing deeper insights into the role of mental workload in athletic preparation and its potential function as a protective factor against anxiety.

Background.  Sports performance anxiety is understood as a tendency to respond with cognitive or physical anxiety in competitive situations where the athlete's performance can be assessed. 

Objective. To investigate the role of social desirability and competitive anxiety in male football players with varying levels of skill. The study had two main objectives: first, to assess the levels of social desirability and competitive anxiety in two different groups, and second, to compare the levels of social desirability and competitive anxiety between highly skilled and less skilled players and explore their relationship.

Design. Participants were divided into highly skilled (n = 39) and less skilled (n = 39) football players. The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was used to assess the participants’ social desirability bias. The Sport Competition Anxiety Test assessed the level of competitive anxiety. The t-test for independent samples was used to compare social desirability and competitive anxiety between the groups. A linear regression model was used to determine if social desirability could predict anxiety levels among the players. 

Results. The t-test showed that highly skilled players have a lower level of competitive anxiety than less skilled participants. However, social desirability did not show a statistically significant difference between the highly skilled and less skilled football players. The regression analysis showed a statistically significant association between social desirability and competitive anxiety (inverse relation) in both groups. 

Conclusion. Highly skilled football players demonstrated less competitive anxiety than less skilled ones. Lower levels of competitive anxiety are associated with higher social desirability among football players in both groups.

Background. Motivation is considered crucial in sports participation and performance, influencing athletes’ psychological well-being, investment in training, and interpersonal relationships. Self-determination theory (SDT) is a prominent framework used to understand motivation in sports, highlighting the importance of autonomous motivation for optimal performance and well-being. A large number of questionnaires for examining processes in sports were created by relying on the constructs of SDT.

Objective. This study explores the psychometric characteristics (construct validity) of the Sport Motivation Scale II (SMS-2), as well as gender and age differences in motivation among young Serbian athletes. This questionnaire has proven to be important for understanding the motivation of adult athletes, but so far, its psychometric characteristics have not been sufficiently examined on a sample of young athletes in Serbia. Given the high dropout rate from sports in adolescence, valid questionnaires to assess the motivation of young athletes can help to identify athletes who are at risk of leaving a sport.

Design. The sample consisted of 365 young athletes (51% girls, aged 12–16) from Serbia participating in team sports (at an organized level, not a recreational level), including volleyball, basketball, and handball. They completed the SMS-2 using paper and pen, in the presence of a psychologist and with parental consent obtained by the clubs. The questionnaire has been translated into Serbian. Young athletes from team sports were selected due to the large number of adolescents in Serbia who are engaged in organized team sports. There is a small number of adolescents who are involved in organized individual sports.

Results. Factor analysis of the SMS-2 revealed six factors, in line with the original structure of the Scale: identified motivation, intrinsic motivation, amotivation, external motivation, integrated motivation, and introjected motivation. The questionnaire demonstrates satisfactory psychometric properties, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients indicating good internal consistency. Gender differences were obtained only in external motivation, where boys scored higher than girls. No significant differences emerge in motivation across age groups or among athletes participating in different sports. It is possible that differences were not found in relation to the type of sport because there are similarities in the process of working with young athletes in team sports.

Conclusion. The Sport Motivation Scale II (SMS-2) showed satisfactory psychometric characteristics in a Serbian sample of young athletes. The original structure was replicated, with six factors representing six types of motivation, in line with SDT. These findings suggest the SMS-2’s validity across gender, age, and sport types, offering a valuable tool for assessing motivation in young athletes engaged in organized team sports.

Background. The COVID-19 pandemic declared on March 11th, 2020, has had a substantial impact on the lives of all over the world. The student population, being one of the most vulnerable and substile ones, was forced to face specific unexpected circumstances for the first time in their lives.

Objective. In this paper, the authors explored the reflections of the COVID-19 experience and basic segments of everyday life of university students after the first academic year under pandemic measures and a follow-up year with their subjective perception of to what extent their lives have changed and how they were able to adapt to COVID-19 emergency measures.

Design. The field research was conducted among students in two European countries: Slovenia and Serbia. The qualitative semi-structured interviews with students (N=20, 50% male) were executed in June-July 2020 and June-July 2021.

Results. The basic segments of students' daily lives underwent significant changes, yet they successfully coped and adapted to the COVID-19 emergency measures. Notably, improvements were observed in study strategies, reducing fear and loneliness. Above all, the primary longing was for social contact and gathering with friends. In their private lives, they were more concerned about opportunities but on the other hand, they gained more free time for various non-academic activities. Finally, sports science students have proven better-coping mechanisms with extraordinary circumstances.

Conclusion. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the changes in the daily lives of students during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background. Women’s football (soccer), despite official recognition and growing popularity, is perceived as a gender-non-typical sport. This contradiction can be implicitly transmitted by society and acts as a condition of conflict in the self-consciousness of teenage female football players (TFFPs). In this study, the model of self-consciousness is defined as the semantic structures generated in the dialogic interaction “person – sociocultural environment”.

Objective. Various options, including internally conflicting ones, for the content of self-consciousness in the context of both gender (girl) and professional sports (football player) are identified in comparison with the gender personality type of TFFPs.

Design. The psychosemantic method of multiple identifications is used to assess self-consciousness in participants. Image-markers of self-identification in gender and professional sports semantics are assessed through verbal personal characteristics and non-verbal color-associative stimuli. Sample: 29 female football players aged 15 years who have been involved in pre-professional football for the last 5–7 years.

Results. In TFFPs with androgynous and masculine gender personality types, self-consciousness is not conflicted; the image of a football player has masculine semantics. In TFFPs with a feminine gender personality type, self-consciousness is not conflicted due to the transformation of the image of a football player from traditionally masculine semantics to more feminine ones. TFFPs with an undifferentiated gender personality type are characterized by contradictions at the explicit and implicit levels of self-consciousness.

Conclusion. The results confirm the concept of self-consciousness as a process of dialogical interaction between the self-image and images of the socio-cultural environment, as well as the possibility of its diagnosis as individual variants of psychosemantic structures.

Background. The study of competitive anxiety and its relationship with mood states in high-performance athletes is relevant for predicting performance and enabling timely interventions to ensure successful outcomes in competitions. Due to the complex psychological demands arising from dual careers, the study of competitive anxiety and mood states contributes valuable insights into the emotional well-being of these student athletes.

Objective. To examine and describe competitive anxiety and mood states in a sample of high-performance Cuban university athletes across different sports and genders. 

Design. A descriptive, correlational, and cross-sectional study was conducted involving 46 Cuban student athletes from national teams across 16 sports and included both male and female athletes, with an average chronological age of 20.70 years and 6.98 years of experience in a high-performance sport. The Competitive Sport Anxiety Inventory and Brunel Mood Scale were administered in their Spanish versions. The data were examined using descriptive statistics analysis including the Mann-Whitney U test, and Spearman's correlation coefficient.

Results. Although no statistically significant differences were found in competitive anxiety and mood states in relation to gender and type of sport, female athletes tend to present higher mean scores in competitive anxiety and negative mood states. Additionally, female athletes in team sports experienced slightly more intense emotions. Anxiety shows positive correlations with tension, depression, and vigour, suggesting its influence on certain mood states.

Conclusion. The results indicate that, in general, the intensity of certain moods in Cuban university student athletes is influenced by levels of competitive anxiety. An increase in anxiety during competition can lead to heightened tension, depression, and vigour, with no significant differences observed between female and male athletes or based on the type of sport practiced.

Background. The study of eye-movement strategies of athletes of various disciplines and skill levels is highly significant for sports psychology, since the results can be used in training to improve performance. Such studies are extremely scarce for ice hockey.

Objective. To determine successful eye-movement strategies for ice hockey players compared to wrestlers and controls (non-athletes) during puck-hitting tasks of various degrees of difficulty, using virtual reality.

Design. The study involved 31 participants (male), including 13 ice hockey players (age 20 ± 2.5), 9 wrestlers (age 19 ± 1.9), and 9 controls (age 19 ± 1.3). We used a pre-developed VR-PACE technology that simulates an ice rink in virtual reality (VR). The task was to hit pucks. VR was presented via the HTC Vive Pro Eye with a built-in eye tracker (100 Hz). We analyzed the parameter that reflected the share of puck presence in one of selected retina areas (0–5°, 5–10°, 10–15°, 15–25°, 25–35°) of the left and right eyes and the head.

Results. Ice hockey players exhibited longer puck-tracking using both the near periphery (5–15°) and central retinal area (0–5°). Puck speed had minimal impact on eye-movement strategies, and the visual focus on these areas remained consistent regardless of task type. For both wrestlers and controls, visual fixations in the central retinal area increased when tracking the puck without a motor response, likely leading to higher energy consumption and sensory fatigue.

Conclusion. The optimal eye-movement strategy involves parafoveal tracking in the near periphery (5–15°) and partial foveal tracking (0–5°), allowing for better object information retention and efficient puck trajectory tracking with reduced energy expenditure.

Background. In the present study, an attempt was made to address self-regulation at the agentic (higher) level, which contributes a person's success not only in sports, but also in the organization of their own life. A group of capoeiristas was chosen as the sample.

Objective. To identify the features of agentic self-regulation in athletes engaged in capoeira with different levels of sports qualification.

Design. 202 capoeira athletes, aged M= 29.6 years, SD=6.6, were interviewed. The sample was divided into three subgroups based on different sport types and comparisons were made on the scales of the following techniques: style of self-regulation of behavior, strategies for coping with stressful situations, action control, personality protest activity, psychosocial maturity, personality harmony. ANOVA analysis in IBM SPSS Statistics 26 program was used for these comparisons.

Results. The Masters subgroup outperformed the lower grade subgroups on the parameters: action control in planning, assertiveness, personal self-regulation, and psychological defense (p ≤ .05). The Master Candidates group had a significantly lower level of escapism (p ≤ .05), an indicator of destructive agentic activity, compared to the rated athletes group. Master Candidates outperformed Masters in the coping strategy of caution (p ≤ .05) and outperformed rated athletes on personality harmony scales, including satisfaction with life, relationships with people, life self-determination, and life self-actualization (p ≤ .05). On the scales of conscious self-regulation, no significant differences were found between the three subgroups (p > .1).

Conclusion. As capoeiristas advance in sportsmanship they enrich their regulatory experience through the development of agentic qualities such as constructive coping strategies, personal maturity and personal harmony, while reducing the manifestation of destructive activity, such as escapism. 

Background. Coping, within Lazarus transactional theoretical framework, is conceptualized as a dynamic set of cognitive and behavioral processes that adapt continually to manage specific demands, whether internal or external, perceived as exceeding an individual’s available resources. This framework supports understanding healthy coping behaviors, especially regarding adherence to treatment in cardiovascular disease management.

Objective. Develop and validate coping scales designed to assess adherence to pharmacological treatment, heart-healthy eating, and cardiovascular physical exercise in mexican patients diagnosed with ischemic heart disease.

Design. The research employed both qualitative (focus groups) and quantitative (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis) methodologies to ensure robustness. The coping scales underwent rigorous testing, including exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), which revealed a two-factor solution for medication adherence coping, a three factors solution for physical exercise adherence coping, and a three factors solution for healthy eating adherence coping.

Results. The findings suggest that coping strategies, although universal in nature, are sensitive to cultural nuances among patients with ischemic heart disease. By capturing the complexities of coping behaviors within a specific cultural context, these scales provide valuable insights into the multifaceted nature of adherence to primary prevention measures.

Conclusion. This study contributes to the understanding of how coping mechanisms intersect with cultural factors in the management of chronic conditions such as ischemic heart disease, highlighting the importance of tailored interventions that consider patients cultural backgrounds and individual coping styles.

Article is devoted to the issues of symbolic mediation and diagnostic of time perception in sport. Distinction between iconic and symbolic mediation is discussed. Evidences of effective implementation of symbolic mediation in sport are examined. Means of optimization of sportsmen and sportswomen training by the instrumentality of symbol are considered. The results of time perception diagnostic of Russian synchronized swimmers are described. It was shown that sportswomen are greatly varied in accuracy and stability of reproduction of long (2–5 sec) and estimation of short (less than 250 ms) time intervals, which were filled with different contents – ticks of metronome, persistent sound, pressuring the button and etc. The improvement of individual characteristics of time perception is an important psychological resource of sports achievements increase.

The article is devoted to the problem of using a new experimental technology of “virtual reality” (VR) in psychological research. Methods of virtual reality actively become embedded in tooling of up-to-date experimental psychology. Next in turn there is a task of embedding of VR technologies in various areas of applied psychology like sport psychology. Application of modern computer methods discovers new perspectives for sport psychology.

This article describes the connection between the use of types of mental imagery by athletes and the level of their imagination. Taking the model of imagery use suggested by K. Martin, S. Moritz and C. Hall, the authors used a Russian version of “The Sport Imagery Questionnaire” (SIQ) with soccer players 8, 10 and 14 years old. The data shows that subjects with a higher level of imagination are more inclined to use mental imagery in their practice. Age differences in types of imagery usage are shown. The results indicated that mental-imagery training can result in enhanced performance among junior athletes.

This article analyzes the use of iconic and symbolic tools by young athletes in the development of concrete motor skills. The study involved 22 young athletes, aged 5–6 years, attending a soccer school in Moscow, Russia. The methodological procedure included using specifi cally designed mini-movies, which were short video clips employing different sign and symbolic tools for mastering alternate dribbling using the inner and outer side of the foot and the subsequent kick of the ball toward the net. The results showed the eff ectiveness of these tools when working with young soccer players. Those athletes who used metaphors as one of the tools for mastering motor skills exhibited better movement development than did the athletes who used sign tools.

This article describes the temporal characteristics of silent counting as used during a competition by the Russian youth team of synchronized swimmers. The athletes listened to the music that accompanied their performance at the competition. Diff erent indices of silent counting were defi ned, such as the beginning and cessation of diff erent periods of counting, counting frequency, the stability of the temporal structure of silent counting, the degree of synchronization of silent counting at diff erent moments during the sports program. We studied the relationship of these characteristics of counting with expert estimates of the athletes’ sense of tempo, coordination of movements, and choreographic abilities.

In this article, we briefl y survey studies of the nature of expertise, and we present the results of research directed at evidence of the complicated nature of expertise, which is most eff ectively seen in experts’ use of a transfer mechanism. The phenomenon of the transfer of verbalized operational senses (VOS) is analyzed and is investigated on the basis of the sense theory of thinking, as proposed by Tikhomirov (1969, 1984).

It is shown that VOS transfer manifests itself in diverse forms. It seems to be dependent on the factors of chess position and the age and skill level of the player. Diverse forms of transferring are associated with a change in separate indices of VOS volume, structure, depth, and degree of consciousness in a connected position. VOS transfer is found more in skilled than in unskilled chess players; skilled players demonstrate selectivity of search in a connected position. VOS transfer is associated not simply with the repetition and copying of some forecasts, which give the direction of search, but also with using and transforming the results of previous verbal searches.