Van Landeghem Chantal, Jakobson Lorna S
Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada.
Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada.
Psychol Sport Exerc. 2025 Jan;76:102773. doi: 10.1016/j.psychsport.2024.102773. Epub 2024 Oct 28.
The present study was designed to assess whether competitive athletes and non-athletes differ in terms of certain personality traits linked to atypicalities in emotion awareness and regulation, and whether being an athlete accounts for unique variance in symptoms of anxiety and depression when these traits and exposure to childhood emotional abuse are held constant. In order to address these questions, we had 483 undergraduates (M = 19.7 years; 75.8% female), including 228 athletes and 255 non-athletes, complete self-report measures of personality (alexithymia, sensory processing sensitivity or SPS, and anxiety sensitivity or AS), exposure to emotional abuse in childhood, pandemic-related stress, anxiety, and depression. Recreational and elite athletes scored lower on SPS and depression than non-athletes, and recreational athletes also scored lower than non-athletes on AS. However, involvement in competitive sport did not predict depression or anxiety when other variables were controlled for. Alexithymia, AS, and childhood emotional abuse predicted depression, and SPS, AS, and childhood emotional abuse predicted anxiety. The same pattern was seen in a subgroup of athletes (n = 91) who had recently been coached, except that in this subgroup exposure to emotionally abusive coaching was found to be an additional risk factor for anxiety. These findings help to disentangle general and sport-specific risk factors for anxiety and depression and may have important implications for preventing and treating these problems in athletes and non-athletes alike.
本研究旨在评估竞技运动员和非运动员在与情绪意识和调节异常相关的某些人格特质方面是否存在差异，以及当这些特质和童年期情感虐待暴露保持不变时，作为运动员是否能解释焦虑和抑郁症状的独特差异。为了解决这些问题，我们让483名本科生（平均年龄M = 19.7岁；75.8%为女性），包括228名运动员和255名非运动员，完成关于人格（述情障碍、感官加工敏感性或SPS、焦虑敏感性或AS）、童年期情感虐待暴露、大流行相关压力、焦虑和抑郁的自我报告测量。休闲运动员和精英运动员在SPS和抑郁方面的得分低于非运动员，休闲运动员在AS方面的得分也低于非运动员。然而，在控制其他变量后，参与竞技运动并不能预测抑郁或焦虑。述情障碍、AS和童年期情感虐待可预测抑郁，SPS、AS和童年期情感虐待可预测焦虑。在最近接受过教练指导的运动员亚组（n = 91）中也观察到了相同的模式，只是在这个亚组中，暴露于情感虐待性教练被发现是焦虑的一个额外风险因素。这些发现有助于厘清焦虑和抑郁的一般风险因素和特定于运动的风险因素，可能对预防和治疗运动员和非运动员的这些问题具有重要意义。
