Rumination in the Context of Individual Goal Achievement

Abstract

Goals are ubiquitous in sports and often determine the success of an athlete’s career. This questionnaire study aimed to investigate the relationship between rumination and individual goal achievement in competitive athletes. Overall, 119 athletes from various sports participated. Athletes were assigned to two groups depending on whether they indicated they had achieved their goals at the end of the competitive year. The results of a MANOVA with different rumination measures confirmed group differences that were also reported in a previous study ( Kröhler & Berti, 2017 ). Athletes who did not achieve their goals ( n = 47) reported significantly higher scores for sport-specific, general, and clinically relevant rumination compared with athletes who achieved their goals ( n = 72). The results partially confirm the hypothesized relationship and extend it to a more general athlete population. In particular, the association with sport-specific rumination shows that rumination is a relevant phenomenon in competitive sport.