Interrelationships among multidimensional competitive state anxiety components as a function of the proximity of competition.

This study examined whether the relationship between the cognitive anxiety and somatic anxiety subscales of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 changes as a function of the proximity of a competition. On five separate occasions during the period prior to an important competition 87 subjects responded to the inventory. Intercorrelations between subscale scores suggested a progressive increase in the magnitude of the relationship between cognitive and somatic anxiety as the event approached. Findings support in a sporting context the hypothesis of covariance at times of high stress.