Coping Skills and Dispositional Resilience/Hardiness of Big Sky Conference Track and Field Athletes

Abstract

PURPOSE: To quantify the coping skills and hardiness of Big Sky Conference track and field athletes. METHODS: Following written informed consent, 224 collegiate athletes (93 male, 131 female; mean age 20.1 1.6) completed the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI; Smith et al., 1995): coping with adversity (COPE), peaking under pressure (PEAK), goal setting/mental preparation (GOAL), concentration (CONC), freedom from worry (FREE), confidence and achievement motivation (CONF), coachability (COAC), and personal coping resources (PCR); the Sports Inventory for Pain (SIP; Meyers et al., 1992): direct coping (COP), cognitive (COG), catastrophizing (CAT), avoidance (AVD), body awareness (BOD), and total coping resources (TCR); and the Dispositional Resilience/Hardiness scale (Bartone et al., 1989): commitment (CM), control (CO), challenge (CH), and psychological hardiness (PH). Data were grouped by skill level (conference qualifiers, non-qualifiers), event (track, field), class [lowerclassmen (freshmen, sophomores), upperclassmen (juniors, seniors)], and gender. RESULTS: MANOVAs (Wilks’ Lambda) indicated significant main effects across skill level [F(17,167) = 1.990; P = 0.014], class [F(34,410) = 2.325; P < 0.0001], and gender [F(17,206 = 3.323); P < 0.0001]; but no significant effect across event [F(17,206) = 1.148; P = 0.311]. Univariate analyses (mean SEM) indicated a trend for conference qualifiers to respond higher in CONF (9.1 0.2 vs 8.1 0.2) and PCR (54.6 1.1 vs 51.6 1.0), and lower in CAT (10.0 0.3 vs 11.3 0.3) than non-qualifiers, respectively. Lowerclassmen responded higher in COP (28.6 1.5 vs 27.4 2.1) and COG (16.4 0.3 vs 15.2 0.4) than upperclassmen, respectively. Males responded higher in COPE (7.4 0.2 vs 6.3 0.2), PEAK (8.1 0.3 vs 6.1 0.2), CONC (7.9 0.2 vs 6.9 0.2), FREE (6.6 0.3 vs 5.8 0.2), CONF (9.1 0.2 vs 8.1 0.2), and PCR (56.7 1.0 vs 50.7 0.8) than females, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Conference qualifiers, lowerclassmen, and males possess stronger coping and hardiness abilities than their respective peers. It is recommended that the coaches incorporate time within their workout routines to conduct coping skills training involving sport psychologists familiar with track and field.