Abstract
Aim: To validate thePsychological Skills Inventory for Sport – Youth(PSIS-Y) questionnaire on a sample of youth Croatian female volleyball players, and to determine psy- chological characteristics of players aged 12 to 15 years, as well as possible differences according to team (competitive) performance level in variables: motivation, self-confidence, anxiety control, mental preparation, team emphasis, and concentration. Methods: The sample included 328 participants from 28 clubs competing at the national volleyball championship. We used the PSIS-Y questionnaire consisting of 44 items in 6 dimensions. Data analysis included validation of the ques- tionnaire, descriptive parameters, and ANOVA to determine the differences in psychological dimensions between play- ers at different performance levels, with the significance level set atP≤0.05. To determine the common effect of all the measured variables in differentiating the performance level between the groups of players, a multivariate proce- dure of discriminant analysis was used. Results: The participants showed a high level of motivation, medium levels of concentration, self-confidence, anxiety control, and a low level of mental preparation. According to team performance level, significant differences were found in concentration (P=0.001), anxiety control (P=0.002), men- tal preparation (P=0.002), and motivation (P=0.034). The applied discriminant analysis yielded two statistically sig- nificant discriminant functions: the first function (χ2=27.54; P=0.002) differentiated the group of players with the highest index of team performance level from the groups with low- er indices, whereas the second function (χ2=10.39; P=0.034)differentiated the group of players with the lowest index from the three more successful groups due to higher levels of motivation and anxiety control. Conclusion: In comparison to previous findings, a decline in correlation between most psychological skills of youth female volleyball players and different levels of compet- itive team performance is noticed. This negative trend may be influenced by the increased importance of compe -tition and an increased pressure put on youth players by their environment.
Highlights
Volleyball is a team sports game available to everyone
It is a fact that athletes in team sports are forced to spend the majority of their time as part of the group, which does not necessarily mean that they like spending time with their colleagues, or are all compatible as persons
A new problem is imposed: will a repeated measurement by applying factor analysis after a certain time interval on a large sample confirm previous findings on reliability and sensitivity of the PSIS-Y, and what multiple effect will it have on the competitive success of youth Croatian volleyball players? The aim of this study was to determine psychological characteristics of youth female volleyball players aged 12 to 15 years, and the possible differences according to team performance level in variables motivation, self-confidence, anxiety control, mental preparation, team emphasis, and concentration, and to validate the PSIS-Y questionnaire on a sample of youth Croatian female volleyball players
Summary
Volleyball is a team sports game available to everyone. It is part of the curricular and extracurricular program of physical education for students of both elementary schools and high schools and it is gaining popularity as a student sport and recreational activity, especially among the female population (Milić, 2014). The objective of volleyball is to send the ball over the net with no more than three touches (between members of the same team) and ground it on the opponent’s field, or to take advantage of the opponent making a mistake, winning a point (Grgantov, 2005). This can be achieved only in a positive and stimulating team environment, defined by the harmony between team members and the coach, which is the main requirement for team functioning. A possible “negative” example is an athlete or a sports team with a high level of sports achievement and great success during training who cannot reproduce that level of success in a competition (Stanović, 2017). Orlick and Partington (1988) state that a crucial difference between successful and less successful athletes at the elite level is their difference in mental and psychological skills, emphasizing that by the acquisition of necessary skills and techniques, an athlete can achieve some of the sports goals more and achieve higher levels of personal success and joy of living
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