The Relationship between Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety on Performance of Student-Athletes of Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UNIMAP)

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that student-athletes may experience greater levels of stress or anxiety due to the dual demands of athletics and academics placed on them. In today’s MASUM (Sport between Universities) competitive sports, a lot of pressure is placed on collegiate athletes to perform the excellence level. Sports psychologists have long believed that high levels of anxiety during competition are harmful, worsening performance and even leading to dropout. Anxiety consists of two subcomponents, cognitive and somatic anxiety, which influence performance. The cognitive is the mental component, which is characterized by negative expectations about success or self-evaluation, negative self-talk, worries about performance, images of failure, inability to concentrate, and disrupted attention. While, the somatic is the physiological element, which is related to autonomic arousals. The main purpose of this study was to examine the levels of anxiety of somatic and cognitive, before and during competition among student-athletes. The participants of this study were recruited from Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UNIMAP). The instrument used for the study comprised of a 27-item Competitive State Anxiety Inventory–2, which had been distributed during MASUM (Sport between Universities) competition to the student-athletes. The participants of this study were recruited from Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UNIMAP). The sample consisted of 112 athletes, with national athletes (N=21), state athletes (N=33), district athletes (N=23), and university athletes (N= 35). The results showed that elite or national athletes exhibited lower levels of somatic and cognitive anxiety than non-elite athletes. The result also showed that the exits of negative correlation between cognitive anxiety and sport performance, and somatic anxiety and sport performance. Sport psychologists, sport counselors and coaches should use the present findings to recommend coping strategies to university and district level athletes that are appropriate for dealing with their athletes’ cognitive and somatic anxiety.