Collegiate Athletes’ Cognitive Beliefs Related to Setback Anxiety and Rumination in Sport

Abstract

ABSTRACT Setbacks are common occurrences in sport. Recently, setbacks such as injuries and deselection have been accompanied, and confounded, by setbacks related to COVID-19. How students manage a setback may depend on the interaction of two control beliefs: primary control (PC) to directly influence the setback and secondary control (SC) to adjust to it. Purpose: This study investigates the relationships between athletes’ PC and SC and two important sport setback-related outcomes—anxiety and rumination. Method: We employed a cross-sectional design examining collegiate athletes in the USA and Canada (N = 200; M age = 20.9 years, 143 women, 52 men, 3 non-binary, 2 did not disclose). Using regression tests controlling for setback severity, we examined the interaction effects of athletes’ PC and SC beliefs relative to setbacks, on the anxiety and rumination variables. Results: We found SC beliefs were beneficial to setback-related anxiety and rumination. A significant interaction indicated that particularly when PC was low, SC had negative associations with setback-related anxieties about letting others down (β = –.45, p < .001) and experiencing pain (β = –.37, p < .001). Conclusion: The findings suggest SC beliefs are important for managing setbacks—specifically for attenuating harmful rumination, and specific setback anxieties. We discuss the possibility of enhancing SC beliefs for combatting sport setbacks through control-enhancing interventions as a direction for future research.