Competitive Stress

This article provides an overview of the study of competitive stress in sport, as well as definitions and descriptions of the constructs of emotional arousal, stress, and anxiety (including state and trait anxiety). Competitive stress, or sport performance anxiety, is defined and discussed in terms the factors that contribute to anxiety in pre-competition, during competition and post-competition. The impact of sport performance anxiety can be detrimental to the athlete's ability and desire to continue sport participation as well as contribute to their enjoyment of their sport involvement. Suggestions are provided for coaches and administrators to assist in reducing stress in student athletes.

Keywords Activation; Anxiety; Arousal; Competition; Process Model of Stress; Reversed-Dependency Phenomenon; Sport Performance Anxiety; State Anxiety (A-State); Stress Anxiety; Stress; Stressors; Trait Anxiety (A-Trait)

Competitive Stress

Physical Education > Competitive Stress

Overview

The study of competitive stress, or emotional arousal within the sport domain is part of exercise and sport science, more specifically, sport psychology. Scholars in the field of sport psychology began talking about emotional arousal when Coleman Griffith, when Father of North American Sport Psychology, wrote about how to mentally prepare teams for performance and competition as well as how to manage and create methods for dealing with those athletes that experience anxiety surrounding competition (Gould, Greenleaf, & Krane, 2002). In the1960's discussion began to emerge on the topic of the optimal level of arousal and what level of arousal is conducive to obtaining one's best performance (Gould, Greenleaf, & Krane, 2002). These discussions and ensuing research led to the development of the Inverted-U hypothesis; however, within the last 15 years criticism of this hypothesis has emerged as scholars came to believe anxiety is a multi-dimensional construct rather than a one-dimensional construct (Gould, Greenleaf, & Krane, 2002).

Arousal is defined as "an energizing function that is responsible for harnessing of the body's resources for intense and vigorous activity" (Landers & Boutcher, 1998, p. 198) and utilizes both psychological and physiological energy systems (Gould, Greenleaf, & Krane, 2002; Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). Arousal represents the intensity dimension of behavior, which can vary on a continuum from "deep sleep to peak excitement" (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002, p.502). Physiological arousal can be measured in a number of ways, including the heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, electromyography, levels of epinephrine, and galvanic skin response (Gould, Greenleaf, & Krane, 2002). Historically arousal has been viewed as a unitary construct that was an indication of how "activated a performer is at a given moment in time" (Gould, Greenleaf, & Krane, 2002, p.208); however, activation is no longer viewed as the same as arousal. Activation is known as the condition that reflects the anticipatory response to readiness, whereas arousal is defined as the response that happens in an instantaneous response or moment to a new stimulus (Gould, Greenleaf, & Krane, 2002). Keeping in mind this updated view of arousal, optimal or peak performance occurs when a performer is aptly activated and arousal does not hinder the activation level (Gould, Greenleaf, & Krane, 2002).

Within sport psychology, stress is defined as "a substantial imbalance between (environmental) demand and response capability, under conditions in which failure to meet the demand has important consequences" (McGrath, 1970, p. 20). Stress can also be defined as "a cognitive-affective response involving appraisal of threat and increased physiological arousal" (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002, p. 502). These environmental demands are called stressors. Stress is not always negative, as eustress (positive or "good" stress) and distress (negative or "bad" stress) have also been identified and defined (Gould, Greenleaf, & Krane, 2002). McGrath (1970) proposed a process model of stress that includes four stages. Stage 1 is the onset of the environmental demand (stressor), which leads to Stage 2 and involves the athlete's perception of the environmental demand. Stage 3 reflects the athlete's response to the demand (e.g., physiological arousal, anxiety) and Stage 4 is the resulting behavior or performance (Gould, Greenleaf, & Krane, 2002). Stress is often used inappropriately as being interchangeable with anxiety. It is important to clearly define and understand both terms separately.

Anxiety in Athletics

Gould, Greenleaf and Krane (2002) define anxiety as "feelings of nervousness and tension associated with activation or arousal of the organism" (p. 209). Anxiety is a complex construct in that it is one type of stress response that includes the emotional response and motivation to avoid the threatening environmental demand (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). In sport psychology, anxiety is typically measured with self-report anxiety inventories; however there is concern that this type of measure lends itself to susceptibility to social desirability. Therefore, it has been recommended that researchers administer a social desirability scale along with the anxiety measures (Gould, Greenleaf, Krane, 2002). There are four distinctions that have been made regarding the construct of anxiety, including: state-trait distinction, general versus situation specific anxiety, cognitive versus somatic anxiety, and debilitative versus facilitative anxiety (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002).

State anxiety (A-state) is defined as an emotional state that is "characterized by subjective, consciously perceived feelings of apprehension and tension, accompanied by or associated with activation or arousal of the autonomic nervous system" (Spielberger, 1966, p. 17) and varies over time or from moment to moment. State anxiety is considered a temporary emotional state (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). When an individual is experiencing no anxiety response, he or she will be both physiologically and psychologically calm. An individual who is experiencing a moderate level of anxiety will typically experience worry, tension, nervousness; whereas an individual experiencing very high level of anxiety will experience fear, high physiological arousal, and possibly have catastrophic cognitions. Conversely, trait anxiety (A-trait) is defined as "a motive or acquired behavioral disposition that predisposes an individual to perceive a wide range of objectively non-dangerous circumstances as threatening and to respond to these with state anxiety reactions disproportionate in intensity to the magnitude of the objective danger" (Spielberger, 1966, p. 17).

Trait anxiety is a personality trait and is fairly stable over time (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). To make the distinction between general and situation specific anxiety, state anxiety refers to anxiety that is experienced during specific situations and trait anxiety is measured as a global or general anxiety that is experienced across all situations or in a specific situation (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). Anxiety is multidimensional in that there are cognitive and physiological (somatic) components (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). The cognitive component of anxiety involves the individual making negative assessments about a particular environmental demand and the ability to meet that demand, which results in nervousness, worry, tension or negative mental imagery (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). On the other hand, the physiological or somatic component of anxiety is reflected in changes in the individual's respiratory rate, muscular tension, or heart rate (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). The final distinction to be made about the construct of anxiety is how debilitative anxiety differs from that of facilitative anxiety. Debilitative anxiety usually hinders performance while facilitative anxiety is when the anxiety actually serves to help enhance the performance (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). Englert and Bertrans (2012) found different effects of anxiety on sports performance, depending on an individual?s strength of self-control. These distinctions of anxiety are evidence of the multifaceted nature of anxiety as each distinction further defines and clarifies the construct of anxiety.

Sport Performance Anxiety

Sport performance anxiety is a term that specifically describes anxiety within the sport environment. Sport performance anxiety is a trait construct that is defined as the "predisposition to respond with cognitive and/or somatic state anxiety to competitive sport situations in which the adequacy of the athlete's performance can be evaluated" (Smith, Smoll, & Wiechman, 1998, p.107). Sport performance anxiety is affected by cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. The fear of failure and disapproval are the most common sources of anxiety in the sport situation (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). The state anxiety response is contingent upon the nature of the competitive situation, the threat of having a successful or unsuccessful performance, and the demands that are placed on the athlete (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). Arnold, Fletcher and Daniels (2013) describe organizational stress and its role in sports performance, and have devised an instrument to measure it.

The athlete's appraisal process is an important factor in the performer's level of anxiety. Smith and his colleagues (2002) identified four types of appraisal that are important to the anxiety cycle. These include the "appraisal of the situational demands, appraisal of the resources available to deal with them, appraisal of the nature and likelihood of potential consequences if the demands are not met, and the personal meaning that the consequences have for the individual" (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002, p. 506). The athlete's appraisal of the situation and their perception of readiness and capability to perform within that specific situation will affect the interpretation and physiological, cognitive (worry, nervous), and behavioral (avoidance, success) response to the situation.

Research has been done in the area of sport performance anxiety to better understand the determining factors that contribute to the situational and individual differences in developing performance anxiety (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). Research has indicated that situational factors contributing to pre-competition anxiety include the caliber of the opponent, whether the event is an individual or team activity, and whether or not the contest is critical (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). Individual factors that influence levels of pre-competition anxiety include performance trait anxiety (A-trait), low self-esteem, high state anxiety (A-state), concern about failing, social evaluation, and parental pressure to participate (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). Also, research has shown that gender, age, and amount of experience are not correlated with pre-competition anxiety in young athletes. Young athletes may also experience anxiety during the competition or performance based on the perceived importance of the event/competition or, in some cases, particular situations during a contest (e.g., at bat, when behind), and performance trait (A-trait) anxiety (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002).

Finally, anxiety that is experienced after the competition has been found to be related to two factors. Whether or not the individual athlete or the athlete's team was victorious is an important situational factor contributing to post-competition anxiety. Individually, the amount of anxiety experienced after the competition is related to how much fun was enjoyed during the game or event (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). With the variety of factors that may influence a young athlete's anxiety surrounding competition it is important to also review the impact competitive anxiety has on young players.

The sport context has the potential to be very stressful and anxiety provoking for youth and adolescent athletes due to the importance youth often place on their sport participation and how much the young athlete's identity is invested in their participation in sport. As a result, performance-related anxiety can adversely affect these athletes. Research has suggested that athletes who experience excessive stress may have an increased risk of injury and are prone to illness, experience sleep and eating disturbances, choose to avoid sports or drop out of sport participation, have lower levels of sport enjoyment, have a greater potential for burnout, and possibly performance impairment (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). Each of these effects of competitive anxiety may be experienced in tandem with other effects and some may lead to further problems. For example, a young athlete who has been injured may experience a prolonged recovery as well as depression, anger, or more anxiety. With these factors in mind, it is important for coaches, sport administrators and teachers to know what can be done to help reduce stress for youth and adolescent athletes.

Application

Stress Reduction Strategies

There are a variety of areas where sport administrators, coaches, parents, and teachers can intervene to make sport participation a more enjoyable and less stressful event for the youth and adolescent participants. Modifications or changes can be made at the situational, cognitive, physiological, and behavioral levels that may reduce sport-related stress (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). One of the easiest and most practical situational changes that can be made to reduce stress is for sport programs to offer a diverse range of programs that meet the needs of all developmental levels. This diverse set of programs offers programming for all levels of skill and competition (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002), thus allowing young athletes to find a team, league, or program that meets their developmental, social, and competitive/recreational needs.

Another situational factor that can be modified is to actually change the sport (e.g., size of playing space, equipment used, rule modifications). The goal of this method of stress reduction is to increase fun and decrease competitive and performance pressure and demands. Athletes may also be taught to combat competitive stress through modifications of the behavioral component of stress. Coaches may emphasize skill development and encourage athletes to improve their sport-related skills. This focus on skill development may contribute positively to skill improvement and also the decrease the imbalance between the demands of competition and the skill level (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002).

The nature of the relationship between the coach and the athletes may also have an impact on reducing stress in the youth athlete. Coaches set the tone for the entire sporting experience for young athletes, as they rely on the coach's feedback to make judgments about their ability to perform. The nature and direction of the coach's feedback influences the young athlete's feelings related to failure and success within that sport domain, which impacts the overall level of stress and anxiety an athlete experiences while participating in their sport(s). It is important for coaches to establish a positive learning environment in which the athletes will learn to thrive socially, emotionally, and physically. Coaches and sport administrators may attend educational workshops that focus on developing a team environment that fosters learning, putting forth effort (intrinsic motivation), providing positive feedback and reinforcement, and creating a supportive environment (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002).Supportive coaching has been demonstrated to encouraged sports achievement and task-oriented coping during competition, while unsupportive coaching encourages coping through disengagement (Nicolas, Gaudreau, & Franche, 2011).

Parents can create another form of stress for young athletes. Parents may take on a variety of roles in their child's sport involvement ranging from highly involved to minimal involvement. The highly involved parent may inadvertently induce stress in their young athlete through overly high expectations for performance, their definition of success, or an unhealthy identification with their child's sport involvement (reversed-dependency phenomenon) (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). Coaches and administrators may host workshops for parents that open discussion about what behaviors are appropriate and to identify positive interactions with their student athlete that will help to minimize and combat stress in the athletes.

Additionally, the cognitive and physiological components of stress can be addressed to help reduce stress levels. Mental skills training can be incorporated into the sport program or be offered to those athletes who need to develop coping mechanisms. Youth and adolescent athletes can be taught how to control their emotional responses to performance related anxiety. Mental skills that can be taught may include muscle relaxation techniques. These techniques combat the physiological arousal of stress as relaxation is unable to coexist alongside physiological arousal, therefore athletes can actually learn to control their stress response (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002).

Young athletes can also be taught cognitive coping skills to help reduce stress levels. Self-talk can be monitored through the identification of irrational thoughts and then cognitive restructuring (Goldfried & Davison, 1976 as cited by Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). Cognitive restructuring teaches athletes to identify the irrational thoughts related to the competitive situation or upcoming performance (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). The Stress Management Training program that was developed by Smith (1980) provides an example of a mental skills training program that focuses on reducing the aversive cognitive and physiological components of stress.

Youth and adolescent athletes experience excessive pressure to be successful in the sport domain. Parents, peers, coaches, and administrators may all have expectations of these athletes that they perceive they cannot meet. Young athletes may also have their own personal set of expectations for their own sport performance that may contribute to the development of stress and anxiety related to sport participation. If athletes perceive that the demands of the situation outweigh their ability to meet the demands they will experience stress. Excessive stress can affect athletes in negative ways, both physically and emotionally, and should therefore be reduced as much as possible. Coaches, administrators, and parents can engage in a number of coaching methods, interventions, types of interaction and supportive behaviors that can serve to help reduce stress in youth and adolescent athletes.

Terms & Concepts

Anxiety: "Feelings of nervousness and tension associated with activation or arousal of the organism" (Gould, Greenleaf, & Krane, 2002, p. 209).

Arousal: "An energizing function that is responsible for harnessing of the body's resources for intense and vigorous activity" (Landers & Boutcher, 1998, p. 198) and utilizes both psychological and physiological energy systems (Gould, Greenleaf, & Krane, 2002).

Process Model of Stress: Proposed by McGrath (1970) as a model to describe the process of stress. Includes four stages: environmental demand, perception of demand, response to demand, and behavior.

Reversed-Dependency Phenomenon: Parental identification with their athlete child "becomes excessive, and the child becomes and extension of the parents" (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002, p. 521).

Sport Performance Anxiety: A trait construct that is defined as the "predisposition to respond with cognitive and/or somatic state anxiety to competitive sport situations in which the adequacy of the athlete's performance can be evaluated" (Smith, Smoll, & Wiechman, 1998, p.107).

State Anxiety (A-state): An emotional state that is "characterized by subjective, consciously perceived feelings of apprehension and tension, accompanied by or associated with activation or arousal of the autonomic nervous system" (Spielberger, 1966, p. 17) and varies over time or from moment to moment.

Stress: "A substantial imbalance between (environmental) demand and response capability, under conditions where failure to meet the demand has important consequences" (McGrath, 1970, p.20).

Stressors: The environmental demands that are placed on an organism

Trait Anxiety (A-trait): "A motive or acquired behavioral disposition that predisposes an individual to perceive a wide range of objectively non-dangerous circumstances as threatening and to respond to these with state anxiety reactions disproportionate in intensity to the magnitude of the objective danger" (Spielberger, 1966, p. 17).

Bibliography

Arnold, R., Fletcher, D., and Daniels, K. (2013, April). Development and validation of the Organizational Stressor Indicator for sport performers (OSI-SP). Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology 35 , p. 180-196. Retrieved December 29, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=86649446&site=ehost-live

Brustad, R. J. (1993). Youth in sport: Psychological considerations. In R.N. Singer, M. Murphey, & L.K. Tennant (Eds.), Handbook of research on sport psychology (pp. 695-717). New York: Macmillan.

Englert, C., and Bertrams, A. (2012, Oct.). Anxiety, ego depletion, and sports performance. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology 34 , p. 580-599. Retrieved December 29, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=82030081&site=ehost-live

Gould, D., Greenleaf, C., & Krane, V. (2002). Arousal-anxiety and sport behavior. In T.S. Horn (Ed.), Advances in sport psychology (2nd ed., pp. 207-241). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Landers, D. M. & Boutcher, S. H. (1998). Arousal performance relationships. In J.M. Williams (Ed.), Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance (3rd ed., pp. 197-218). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.

McGrath, J. E. (1970). Major methodological issues. In J.E. McGrath (Ed.), Social and psychological factors in stress (pp. 19-49). New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.

Nicolas, M., Gaudreau, P., and Franche, V. (2011, June). Perception of coaching behaviors, coping, and achievement in sport competition. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology 33 , p. 460-468. Retrieved December 29, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=62639968&site=ehost-live

Scanlan, T. K. (1986). Competitive stress in children. In M.R. Weiss and D. Gould (Eds.), Sport for children and youths (pp. 113-118). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Smith, R.E., Smoll, F. L. & Passer, M. W. (2002). Sport performance anxiety in young athletes. In F.L. Smoll & R.E. Smith (Eds.), Children and youth in sport (2nd ed., pp. 501-536).

Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L. & Wiechman, S. A. (1998). Measurement of trait anxiety in sport. In J.L. Duda (Ed.), Advancements in sport and exercise psychology measurement (pp. 105-127). Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.

Spielberger, C. D. (1966). Theory and research on anxiety. In C.D. Spielberger (Ed.), Anxiety and behavior (pp. 3-22). New York: Academic Press.

Suggested Reading

Coakley, J. (1992). Burnout among adolescent athletes: A personal failure or social problem? Sociology of Sport Journal, 9, 271-285.

Gould, D. & Eklund, R. C. (1996). Emotional stress and anxiety in the child and adolescent athlete. In O. Bar-Or (Ed.), The child and adolescent athlete (pp. 383-398). Osney Mead, Oxford: Blackwell Science.

Smith, R. E. (1980). A cognitve-affective approach to stress management training for athletes. In C. H. Nadeau, W. R. Halliwell, K. M. Newell, & G. C. Roberts (Eds.), Psychology of motor behavior and sport-1979 (pp. 54-72). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Essay by Shelby L. Hinkle Smith, Ph.D.

Dr. Shelby L. Hinkle Smith holds a Doctorate in exercise science from the University of Northern Colorado, specializing in the area of social psychology of sport and exercise. She currently teaches as Adjunct Faculty at Clinton Community College in Plattsburgh, New York in the Department of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation. Hinkle Smith also serves as the Field house Manager at The Sports & Fitness Edge in Williston, Vermont where she is responsible for sport programming and overseeing the children's after school, summer, and vacation camp programs. Dr. Hinkle Smith's research and areas of interest focus on cognitive dissonance and hazing in sport as well as character and moral development and education through sport and physical education programs. Additionally, she is a certified high school field hockey official and a United States Field Hockey Futures Program Coach.