Agentic emotion regulation in high-risk sport: An in-depth analysis across climbing disciplines

Abstract

Research has now debunked the standpoint that high-risk sports participants are a homogenous group of sensation seekers (Barlow et al., 2013); the process of agentic emotion regulation is a primary motive for high-engagement high-risk sports (i.e., mountaineering). The evidence, however, remains cross-sectional, and there is currently no evidence to support the timeline of this process. We aimed to bridge that gap by investigating the process of agentic emotion regulation over three post-participation time points across different disciplines of climbing that vary in risk and objective danger. Emotion regulation is the process by which individuals alter the nature, intensity, and duration of their emotions (Gross, 2008). Agency refers to individuals' perceived control over their internal beliefs, desires, intentions, and actions (Bandura, 1997). The results from two retrospective (n = 161, n = 134) studies and one longitudinal (n = 45) study revealed that those who engage in high-risk forms of climbing (i.e., traditional climbing) experience a greater increase in agency and emotion regulation difficulty after participation than individuals who participate in lower-risk forms of climbing (i.e., sport climbers) and other relatively low-risk sports (i.e., swimming). This research supports the benefits of high-risk activities for regulating participants' agentic emotion regulation difficulties.