interpret competition settings differently than men, most notably with internal competition reportedly embraced by men but not women. As such, focused efforts to understand the stress process for women athletes is warranted. Women who have not developed effective coping skills to manage sport
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Amber D. Mosewich, Catherine M. Sabiston, Kent C. Kowalski, Patrick Gaudreau, and Peter R.E. Crocker
John Cairney, Brent E. Faught, John Hay, Terrance J. Wade, and Laurie M. Corna
Background:
Although physical activity (PA) has been demonstrated to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, research on the mental health benefits of PA in older adults is limited. Moreover, the psychosocial factors that might mediate or moderate the relationship between PA and depression in this population are largely unexplored.
Methods:
Using a sample of adults age 65 and older (N = 2736), we examined whether the major components of the stress process model (stress, social support, mastery, self-esteem) and physical health mediate or moderate the relationship between PA and depressive symptoms.
Results:
Physical health has the single largest effect, accounting for 45% of the effect of PA on depression. The stress process model, with physical health included, accounts for 70% of the relationship between PA and depression.
Conclusions:
Among older adults with above average levels of perceived mastery, greater physical activity is associated with higher levels of depression. Limitations and directions for further research are discussed.
Denise M. Hill, Nic Matthews, and Ruth Senior
This study used qualitative methods to explore the stressors, appraisal mechanism, emotional response, and effective/ineffective coping strategies experienced by elite rugby union referees during pressurized performances. Participants included seven male rugby union referees from the United Kingdom (Mage = 27.85, SD = 4.56) who had been officiating as full-time professionals for between 1 and 16 years (M = 4.85, SD = 5.42). Data revealed that the referees encountered a number of stressors, which were appraised initially as a ‘threat’, and elicited negatively-toned emotions. The referees were able to maintain performance standards under pressure by adopting proactive, problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies which managed effectively the stressors and their emotions. However, the use of avoidance-coping, reactive control, and informal impression management were perceived as ineffective coping strategies, and associated with poor performance and choking. Recommendations are offered to inform the psychological skills training of rugby union referees.
Lee Baldock, Brendan Cropley, Rich Neil, and Stephen D. Mellalieu
impact upon the individual’s performance and mental well-being (for a review, see Baldock et al., 2020 ). Researchers investigating coach stress have explored individual components of the stress process, including the nature and categorization of stressors experienced (e.g., Olusoga et al., 2009
Maja Gunhild Olsen, Jan Arvid Haugan, Maria Hrozanova, and Frode Moen
tomorrow’s elite-level coaches dealing with their high-demanding environment. Coping is often considered as part of a larger stress process. This perspective builds on the transactional conceptualization of stress and coping, originally argued for by Lazarus and Folkman ( 1984 ). According to Fletcher
Adam R. Nicholls, John L. Perry, and Luis Calmeiro
Grounded in Lazarus’s (1991, 1999, 2000) cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotions, we tested a model of achievement goals, stress appraisals, emotions, and coping. We predicted that precompetitive achievement goals would be associated with appraisals, appraisals with emotions, and emotions with coping in our model. The mediating effects of emotions among the overall sample of 827 athletes and two stratified random subsamples were also explored. The results of this study support our proposed model in the overall sample and the stratified subsamples. Further, emotion mediated the relationship between appraisal and coping. Mediation analyses revealed that there were indirect effects of pleasant and unpleasant emotions, which indicates the importance of examining multiple emotions to reveal a more accurate representation of the overall stress process. Our findings indicate that both appraisals and emotions are just as important in shaping coping.
Peter R.E. Crocker, Rikk B. Alderman, F. Murray, and R. Smith
Cognitive-Affective Stress Management Training (SMT) is a coping skills training program designed to help athletes control dysfunctional stress processes (Smith, 1980). The present quasi-experimental study investigated the effects of SMT on affect, cognition, and performance in high performance youth volleyball players. Members of Alberta's Canada Games men's and women's (under 19 years of age) volleyball teams were assigned to either an experimental treatment group or a waiting-list control group. The treatment program consisted of eight modules, approximately 1 week apart, that allowed subjects to learn and apply somatic and cognitive coping skills. The results indicated that the treatment group emitted fewer negative thoughts in response to videotaped stressors and had superior service reception performance in a controlled practice compared to the control group. There were no interpretable differences between groups for either state anxiety (CSAI-2) or trait anxiety (SCAT). The cognitive and performance measures provided converging support for Smith's program. The results are discussed in terms of coping skills training, theoretical issues regarding the measurement of anxiety, and possible affect-cognition system independence.
Chris Wagstaff, Rebecca Hings, Rebecca Larner, and David Fletcher
organizational-stress process in sport performers. Hence, it is important that researchers progress beyond investigating discrete aspects of the organizational-stress process (e.g.,stressors, appraisals, responses, coping) in performers alone and explore links between components of the process (e
Lee Baldock, Brendan Cropley, Stephen D. Mellalieu, and Rich Neil
( Lazarus, 1999 ). Existing explorations of elite coach stress experiences have either considered individual components of the transactional stress process in isolation or the interrelated nature of some of these components (e.g., stressors, appraisals, emotional responses, coping; Baldock et al., 2020
Johanna Belz, Jens Kleinert, and Moritz Anderten
fear involuntary career termination ( Blakelock, Chen, & Prescott, 2016 ). Although many athletes are able to deal with the various causes and consequences of the stress process, some of them struggle and suffer from negative stress-related outcomes like performance decline and premature career dropout
