Racial and Gender Differences on Sources of Acute Stress and Coping Style Among Competitive Athletes

Abstract

The authors examined racial and gender differences on sport-related sources of acute stress that competitive athletes perceived as highly intense and experienced during the competitive event. Athletes (N = 332, 176 men, 156 women; 59 African Americans: 27 men, 32 women; 232 Caucasians: 125 men, 107 women; and 41 Hispanics: 24 men, 17 women) who competed in sport on a high school or college team participated in this study. The sources of the acute stress and the coping style in sport scales, which M. H. Anshel and T. Sutarso (2007) developed, required the athletes to indicate their perceived stress intensity and their "typical" coping responses after experiencing the two stressors they perceived as most intense. A multivarite analysis of variance indicated that Caucasians experienced higher stress intensity more often than did African Americans on each of two sources of acute stress, and Caucasians tended to use an approach-behavior coping style. Women reported higher stress intensity for coach-related sources of acute stress and used approach-behavioral and avoidance-cognitive coping styles more often than did their male counterparts. Hispanic athletes did not differ from other groups on any measure. The authors conclude that race and gender influence the coping process in competitive sport.

Coping with time pressure in interfirm supply chain relationships

“…On the other hand, the imposition of time pressure can also lead a firm to pursue disengagement oriented strategies that deteriorate a supply chain relationship. The coping literature refers to this type of approach as avoidance-behavioral coping where the focus is on being removed from a threatening environment (Anshel, Sutarso, & Jubenville, 2009). Based on the qualitative data, it would appear that high levels of time pressure frequency and magnitude as well as very specific source attribution can potentially hinder the relational efforts of supply chain members.…”

Socially Positive Behaviors as Self-Handicapping

“…An emotionfocused coping style follows a similar behavioral pattern as the tend-and-befriend response to stress, focusing on the emotional components of the problem but, importantly, in a typically prosocial way. Additionally, women have also been found to be more likely than men to use techniques such as crying, seeking help, and/or dwelling on the source of their problem (rumination) (Ashel, Sutarso, & Jubenville, 2009;Garnefski et al, 2004;Howerton & Gundy, 2009). Males, on the other hand, have been found to externalize their responses to stress (e.g., substance abuse, aggression) more often and tend to be more problem-focused and individualistic than women (Rosenfield, 1999).…”

An Investigation of Work-Related Stress among High School Teachers in the Hhohho Region of Swaziland

“…Work place surveys (Cooper & Cartwright, 1994;Nhundu, 1999;Worral & Cooper, 2001;Zindi, 2002) consistently report that employees consider that stress at work is a significant factor, which affects their health and well-being. There are two types of stress; eustress, which is good stress and distress, which is bad stress (Brehm, Kassin & Fein, 2002;Anshel, Sutarso & Jubenville, 2009). If a person perceives something as a danger, then the person will feel at harm.…”

“…Studies conducted in South Africa show that stress is a menace to various groups of people in a diversity of professions including health professionals (Strumpfer & Bands, 1996;Eagle, 2002), prisoners (Vogelman, Lewis & Segal, 1994;Strumpfer & Bands, 1996), sports (Anshel & Kaissidis, 1997), teachers (Nhundu, 1999;Zindi, 2002), police (Gulle, Tredoux & Foster, 1998), clergymen (Strumpfer & Bands, 1996, tertiary students (Hoffmann, 2002) and competitive athletes (Anshel, Sutarso & Jubenville, 2009;Puente-Diaz & Anshel, 2005) including women undergoing first trimester abortion (Faure & Loxton, 2003Kaur, 2011. Nhundu (1999) carried out a study on occupational stress among teachers and head teachers in Zimbabwe.…”

“…Antonious and Cooper (2005) define stress as a form of emotion, an automatized response to the perception of threat. Researchers have noted that people's psychological reactions to the world around them can create wear and tear on their bodies that may eventually manifest themselves in physiological conditions such as high blood pressure, ulcers, headaches, and other health problems (Borg, 1990;Benbow & Jolley, 2002;Anshel, Sutarso & Jubenville, 2009). The conditions may also create, among others, psychological conditions of nervous tension and feelings of depression which affect an individual's well being (Sakharov & Farber, 1983;McCormick & Ilgen, 1985;Stumpfer & Banks, 1996, Child, 2007.…”