Abstract
Competitive anxiety (CA) is an emotional reaction manifested at a somatic and/or cognitive level that regularly appears before or during sports competitions and can significantly impact an athlete’s performance. Given the scarcity of validated instruments available for evaluating the competitive-anxiety trait in the Brazilian context, this study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Sport Anxiety Scale-2 (SAS-2). The study sample was composed of 238 professional and amateur athletes aged 13 years or older who practice different sports modalities. The results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed adequate fit indices of the original three-factor theoretical model of the SAS-2 after including a correlation between the errors for items 6 and 12 of the somatic anxiety subscale (CFI = 0.97, TLI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.08, WRMR = 1.04). For convergent and divergent validity, the SAS-2 subscales exhibited a positive and strong correlations with the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2R (CSAI-2R; r = 0.52–0.82), weak to moderate correlations with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory – only the trait scale (STAI-T; r = 0.49–0.59), weak correlations with the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN; r = 0.29–0.41) and weak to moderate correlations with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9; r = 0.49–0.56). The SAS-2 was also able to discriminate among participants with and without social anxiety, general trait anxiety and depressive symptoms, thus confirming its discriminant validity. According to ROC curve analysis, the cutoff point at a score of 29 indicated the optimal balance of sensitivity (0.74) and specificity (0.82). The internal consistency (α = 0.73–0.86) and the test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.73–0.80) were satisfactory. These results indicated that the Brazilian version of the SAS-2 exhibited satisfactory psychometric performance and could be used in the Brazilian context.
Highlights
Anxiety has been considered an emotional response necessary for performing certain tasks; depending on its intensity and duration and its negative impact and psychological suffering for an individual, it can be considered pathological (Steimer, 2002; Brandão, 2005; Marques et al, 2016; Khan et al, 2017)
The sample of 238 Brazilian athletes was predominantly composed of male (♂ = 169; ♀ = 69), adult (13–18 years = 77; 19– 53 years = 161; X = 22.9 ± 7.9), and single subjects who had achieved a higher level of education and who were engaged in other occupational activities in addition to their sport
The present study investigated the psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of the SAS-2, and its validity and reliability indicators were analyzed using different techniques
Summary
Anxiety has been considered an emotional response necessary for performing certain tasks; depending on its intensity and duration and its negative impact and psychological suffering for an individual, it can be considered pathological (Steimer, 2002; Brandão, 2005; Marques et al, 2016; Khan et al, 2017). The impact of anxiety on athletes’ lives has been studied for many years, and the results indicate that high levels of anxiety are inversely associated with sports performance (Milavicet al., 2013; Mottaghi et al, 2013; Judge et al, 2016), since anxiety can cause physiological (energy expenditure and cardiovascular changes), motor (impaired coordination), cognitive (reduced attention, concentration, and decision-making capacity) and relational (increased conflict among team members) changes (Guzmán et al, 1995; Mesquita and Todt, 2000). Considering the particularities of performance anxiety in sports, the term competitive anxiety (CA) was coined to refer to the emotional reaction expressed at the somatic and/or cognitive level that appears regularly before or during sports competitions (Martens et al, 1990). The cognitive dimension includes the content of thoughts, such as self-preoccupation, poor performance, negative evaluation, social comparison, expectations, and demands from the coaching staff, team, family, and crowd (Guzmán et al, 1995; De Rose Júnior et al, 2004; Wallhead and Ntoumanis, 2004; Vieira et al, 2011)
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