Positive and negative affect as predictors of competitive anxiety

Abstract

This study investigated relationships between the intensity (i.e. level) and direction (i.e. interpretation of anxiety as either debilitative or facilitative) dimensions of multidimensional competitive trait anxiety and the two mood structures of Positive (PA) and Negative Affect (NA). The Competitive Trait Anxiety Inventory—2, minus the self-confidence subscale and modified to include a directional subscale, and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule were administered to a sample of sports performers ( n = 309). Correlation analyses revealed that NA was more related to anxiety intensity than was PA. In contrast, levels of PA were more strongly related than NA to the directional interpretations that individuals tended to attach to their cognitive and somatic anxiety symptoms. PA and NA scores were then dichotomized as individual difference variables into high and low categories via the median split technique. Two two-way MANOVA's were carried out using the CTAI-2 intensity and direction subscales respectively as dependent variables. Both MANOVA's were significant ( P < 0.01) and follow-up means comparison tests showed the importance of NA alone in mediating the intensity of cognitive and somatic anxiety, whilst PA played a more significant role than NA in the interpretation of both cognitive and somatic anxiety. These results support the need to distinguish between the intensity and direction dimensions of competitive anxiety, whilst providing information on dispositional antecedents of these subscales.