Association between competitive anxiety, hardiness, and coping strategies: a study of the national handball team

Abstract

Competitive anxiety can have a detrimental or positive impact on the athletes’ success during the competition. It varies significantly in its strength and depends on gender, ethnicity, role, and training experience. Due to the importance of the hardiness and coping strategies for the maintenance of health and productivity, it was hypothesized that competitive anxiety could be affectedby these traits as well as the anxiety trait. Relationships between competitive anxiety, hardiness, coping strategies, anxiety trait, and anxiety state are investigated within this research. Members of the national female handball team aged 22 to 35 were study participants. In total, 19 responses were included in the analysis. Russian versions of Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Sports Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT), and Personal Values Survey III-R (PVSIII-R) were used. While their hardiness scores were higher than the ones reported for non-athletes, no association between hardiness and competitive anxiety was revealed. Distancing and Escape-Avoidance coping strategies were positively correlated with anxiety traits. The negative association between Self-Controlling and Seeking Social Support was considered to be inherent for a sample on the female national handball team. It was concluded that the strength of competitive anxiety is not associated with coping strategies and hardiness. A connection between the direction of competitive anxiety with coping mechanisms and hardy attitudes can be assumed for further researches.