Relationships between sources of acute stress and athletes’ coping style in competitive sport as a function of gender

ObjectivesThe objectives of this study were to determine athletes’ sources of acute stress (SAS) perceived as highly intense and experienced during the competitive event, their respective coping styles (CS) for two different (highly intense) stress sources (SAS), the relationship between the acute stressors and their CS (approach and avoidance coping in cognitive and behavioral forms), and the generalizability of the SAS and the CS scales as a function of gender.MethodAthletes (N=332N=332, 176 males and 156 females, M age=21.6 years) who were former or current sports competitors for their high school or college team completed a two-part inventory generated for this study. The athletes were asked to indicate their perceived stress intensity for common SAS's (part 1) and the manner in which they typically coped with two of the stressors perceived as the most intense (part 2). Theory-driven categories of acute stress sources were labelled “performance-related” and “coach-related,” and CS's were grouped as “approach-behavioral,” “approach-cognitive,” and “avoidance-cognitive.” Intra-reliability (Cronbach alphas) for the stressor and coping style items were .81 and .82, respectively.ResultsGeneral CS was significantly related to general sources of acute stress (p<.0001p<.0001). Structural equation models indicated that the athletes’ coping styles were positively related to their respective acute stressors category. The coping stress style three-factor model showed a good fit with the data. The results of the analyses indicated valid and reliable relationships between CS and SAS among the athletes. The results indicated that athletes who experienced intense coach-related acute stress was more likely to use primarily an approach-behavior CS followed by the other CS. Finally, the athlete's gender was a mediating variable in determining CS in response to selected sources of stress.ConclusionsStructural equation model techniques showed that athletes who experienced acute stress used their respective CS consistently. The CS three-factor model showed a good fit with the data. In addition, gender mediates the relationship between source of stress and subsequent use of CS. Future studies in this area are needed to determine whether situational characteristics within sports contests influence the athletes’ coping responses, an additional test of trait and contextual coping theory.