Chapter 13 - Elite Athletes’ Experiences of Coping with Stress

Author(s):  
Remco Polman
2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam S. Sagar ◽  
David Lavallee ◽  
Christopher M. Spray

Coping with stress is an important element in effective functioning at the elite level in sports, and fear of failure (FF) is an example of a stressor that athletes experience. Three issues underpin the present preliminary study. First, the prevalence of problems attributed to FF in achievement settings. Second, sport is a popular and significant achievement domain for children and adolescents. Third, there is a lack of research on FF in sport among this population. Therefore, the objectives of the study were to examine the effects of FF on young athletes and to find out their coping responses to the effects of FF. Interviews were conducted individually with nine young elite athletes (5 males, 4 females; ages 14–17 years). It was inferred from the data that FF affected the athletes’ well-being, interpersonal behavior, sport performance, and schoolwork. The athletes employed a combination of problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidance-focused coping strategies, with avoidance strategies being the most frequently reported.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 3009-3016
Author(s):  
Murat Turan ◽  
Muhammet Uras ◽  
Muhammet Mavibaş

Aim: The study aimed to investigate the effects of the self-talk of the athletes of all ages in the Curling National Team during competition on their perception of coping with stress.. Methods: In the first part, questions for demographic characteristics were used for the participants. In the second part, the self-talk scale developed by Zervas, Stavrou, and Psychountaki (2007) consisting of 11 items, 2 sub-dimensions, and a 5-point Likert was used. The scale was adapted to Turkish by Engür in 2011. In the third part, the scale of coping with stress developed by Moos (1993), which consists of 24 items, 5 sub-dimensions, and a 5-point Likert type was used. It was adapted to Turkish by Ballı and Kılıç (2016). While the study population was composed of the athletes in the Curling National Team, the sample group consisted of 106 athletes, of which 46 were women and 60 men. Results: The linear regression analysis reveals that the self-talk predicted 27% of the perceptions of coping with stress. The results also show that self-talk (p=,896) and the perceptions of coping with stress (p=,377) did not show any difference by the variable of gender. The findings by the variable of age indicate that the self-talk (p=,053) and the attitudes to cope with stress (p=,005) were statistically significant. Conclusion: According to the results of the correlation analysis, a low level and a positive significant relationship were observed between self-talk and coping with stress (r=302). Keywords: Curling, Elite Athletes, Self-Talk, Coping With Stress


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Szczypińska ◽  
Aleksandra Samełko ◽  
Monika Guszkowska

The aim of the study was to compare the strategies of coping with stress during the COVID-19 epidemic in athletes involved in Olympic preparations (57 potential Olympians) and students of physical education (54 extramural students), and to determine their depending on the variable gender. The research was conducted in the form of an on-line survey in the period of April 7–28 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Four standard psychological questionnaires were used. Elite athletes and physical education students practicing sports most often dealt with the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic using cognitive and behavioral coping strategies. The sports level depended on the strategies of coping with the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic more strongly than gender. The relationship between the sense of coherence (mainly comprehensibility) and the hope for success treated as a generalized immune resource with coping strategies in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic postulated by Antonovsky was confirmed.


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