La ansiedad competitiva en el deporte de iniciación: Un enfoque desde la teoría de la autodeterminación

Abstract

This doctoral thesis, titled La Ansiedad Competitiva en el Deporte de Iniciación: Un Enfoque desde la Teoría de la Autodeterminación (Competitive anxiety in youth sport: A self-determination theory approach), has been developed by a compendium of publications. This thesis focuses on the competitive anxiety construct. Martens (1977) conceptualized it as a sport specific trait anxiety, that is, a kind of hyperactivation that would systematically appear before or during competition. It is considered not as a stable trait, inherent to the individual’s personality, or as an activation state associated to a specific situation. Under the structure of Vallerand’s hierarchical model of motivation (2007), it can be interpreted as a type of anxiety at the contextual level, thus different from trait anxiety (global level) and state anxiety (situational level). Moreover, the reason to focus on youth athletes is based on our intention to study the competitive anxiety phenomenon in a sample that participates in organized sports with a recreational or educational motivation, and not with a competitive drive. In this sample, anxiety forms should be considered as ill-being indicators, with a negative effect on enjoyment, as well as on athletes’ future intentions to enroll in sport activities (Scanlan & Lewthwaite, 1996), and it should be considered then, as an obstacle to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle. This thesis addresses three main objectives: the first is methodological, the second is theoretical, and the last one is applied. The methodological objective is oriented to design and develop a linguistic and culturally adapted tool to assess the competitive anxiety construct, as well as to test its cross-cultural invariance in different European countries. This objective is reflected in Works 1 and 4 respectively. The first was already published in the scientific journal Psicothema, and the other one is submitted for peer-review. Taking in consideration the applied nature of the sport psychology discipline, the second objective developed in Work 3, accepted in Revista de Psicología del Deporte, reviews the classic work of Simon & Martens (1979) describing anxiety levels in different sports, comparing individual and team sports, and closed and open skill sports, as well. In this work we discuss the importance of parents choosing adequate sports concerning their children personal characteristics, and we give recommendations for coaches to adapt their interpersonal style to the emotional load associated to their sports. In the same way, along the five works of the thesis, future research lines for sport psychologists, and recommendations for coaches and youth athletes’ significant others, are discussed. The theoretical objective is focused on the nomological network of self-determination. In Work 2, we assess the relative influence of social agents on the athletes’ behavioral regulation, to investigate then in Work 5, how the interpersonal style and behavioral regulation may affect anxiety forms. Work 2 is already accepted for publication in Anales de Psicología and studies the predictive capacity of parents, peers and coaches’ autonomy support on the athlete’s behavioral regulation, whereas Work 5 develops a structural model including coaches’ influence in terms of autonomy support and controlling style on behavioral regulation and anxiety.

Date of Award	23 Jul 2012
Original language	Spanish
Supervisor	Jaume Cruz Feliu (Director) & Miquel Torregrossa (Director)