Gomes A Rui, Simães Clara, Morais Catarina, Cunha Ricardo
Psychology Research Centre, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
School of Nursing, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
Front Psychol. 2022 Aug 24;13:939840. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.939840. eCollection 2022.
This study analysed the adaptation of football athletes to competitive stressors regarding the upcoming match. For that, the study adopted a cross-sectional methodology using a critical incident approach. The participants were 352 young male football athletes, aged between 15 and 19 years ( = 16.91, SD = 0.99), who were competing in the national football championship. The results indicated that cognitive appraisal partially mediated the relationship between competitive stressors and emotions: athletes who perceived stressors as a challenge, tended to feel more control over the situation and more resourceful (coping perception), leading to a more positive emotional experience, while those perceiving the stressors as a threat were more prone to experience less control and more negative emotions. This mediation model was moderated by athletes' competitive level (U17 or U19), as the role of challenge perception was more pronounced in the U19 team, while the relationship between threat perception and less control was only observed for the U17 team. In sum, the data reveals the importance of cognitive appraisal in young football athletes' adaptation to competitive stressors, bolstering the theoretical models in this area and the importance of psychologists to consider these variables during intervention, particularly cognitive appraisal.
本研究分析了足球运动员对即将到来比赛的竞争压力源的适应情况。为此，该研究采用了一种使用关键事件法的横断面研究方法。参与者为352名年龄在15至19岁之间（平均年龄=16.91，标准差=0.99）的年轻男性足球运动员，他们正在参加全国足球锦标赛。结果表明，认知评估部分中介了竞争压力源与情绪之间的关系：将压力源视为挑战的运动员，往往会感觉对情况有更多的掌控力且更足智多谋（应对认知），从而产生更积极的情绪体验，而那些将压力源视为威胁的运动员则更容易体验到较少的掌控力和更多的负面情绪。这种中介模型受到运动员竞争水平（U17或U19）的调节，因为挑战认知的作用在U19球队中更为明显，而威胁认知与较少掌控力之间的关系仅在U17球队中观察到。总之，数据揭示了认知评估在年轻足球运动员适应竞争压力源方面的重要性，支持了该领域的理论模型以及心理学家在干预过程中考虑这些变量（尤其是认知评估）的重要性。
