Interactions Between Gender, Age and Competitive Level on Elite Student-athletes’ Religious Coping Experiences in the Week Leading Up to Competition

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In recent times, religiosity and spirituality have been embraced by most athletes as alternative coping mechanism around the world. Although extensive scholarly works on different dimensions of coping exist in sport, only few studies have explored the use of other coping strategies like religious coping. The current study investigated elite student-athletes’ religious coping strategies as a function of gender, age and competitive level in the week leading up to competition. This cross-sectional study conveniently recruited a sample of 300 student-athletes competing at the 2018 West Africa University Games (WAUG) in Nigeria. Sociodemographic data (i.e., gender, age category and competitive level) and religious coping using the Brief RCOPE Scale were assessed. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to evaluate the possible effect of gender, age and competitive level on religious coping. Results indicate that no significant interaction effects were realized across all between-subject factors: gender-age-competitive level on religious coping. However, a significant main effect was noted for only participants’ competitive level on religious coping, with international students employing more religious coping strategies (both positive and negative) compared to their national and regional counterparts. Sport psychologists, coaches and managers working closely with these athletes could integrate positive religious coping strategies for athletes of different competitive levels as part of an adaptation framework that may independently influence important outcomes such as emotion and cognitive regulation, including their psychological wellbeing.