Stress, coping, coping effectiveness and emotions in Malaysian Elite tenpin bowlers: Role of context and importance

Abstract

Professional tenpin bowlers were examined for their stressors experienced, coping, coping effectiveness and emotional reactions prior to and during minor and major competitions. Fifteen tenpin bowlers (male n = 6; female n = 9) completed a diary pack on three separate periods: one minor competition period and two major competitions periods. Tenpin bowlers completed a diary to report their stressor encounters, coping strategies, coping effectiveness, resulting emotions and their intensity on a daily basis. Results showed that the tenpin bowlers experienced a limited (n = 5) number of stressors over time which accounted for 95% of the stressors reported, almost similar to those observed in Caucasian athletes. However, unlike Caucasian athletes our sample reported a similar number of positive and negative emotions. Context (training vs. competitions) and the importance of the competition were found to influence stress and coping process especially at the level of individual stressors. Findings suggest a need to further examine cultural similarities and differences in the stress, coping and emotion process among athletes to prevent misunderstanding and miscommunication. This will allow the development interventions which are not only situation and context specific but also culturally sensitive.

Adaptation to stress in football athletes: The importance of cognitive appraisal

“…Taking a closer look at the results and explicitly analyzing the stressors, we verified that that performance and errors were the highest sources of stress in sports, which is consistent with previous research (e.g., Noblet and Gifford, 2002;Sagar et al, 2010;Wong et al, 2015). Athletes' fear of not performing according to the expectations and making errors may suggest some pressure felt by young athletes to be successful, which illustrates the least positive side of youth sport due to potential adverse effects (e.g., stress, anxiety, depression, burnout;Sagar et al, 2007Sagar et al, , 2010Gustafsson et al, 2017).…”

“…In sum, filling an important gap in the literature (Nicholls et al, 2012;Wong et al, 2015;Gomes, 2017) by pursuing a comprehensively investigating of the process of adaptation to competitive stressors, this study sought to analyze (1) the mediating role of cognitive appraisal in the relationship between competitive stressors and emotional experience; and (2) the moderating role of competitive level in the relationship between competitive stressors, cognitive appraisal, and emotions (cf. Figure 1).…”

“…Some research that analyzed the relationship between emotions and performance in athletes (e.g., Lane et al, 2009 , 2010 ; González-García and Martinent, 2020 ) suggested that positive emotional and psychological states, such as happiness, calm, and confidence, were associated with optimal performance (achievement of an important goal), whereas negative emotional and psychological states (e.g., anger and confusion) were associated with a dysfunctional performance and failure to achieve an important goal. These studies allow an understanding of the factors involved in the process of adaptation to stress; however, it is difficult to capture the whole experience of stress just by analyzing parts of the adaptation process, which reinforces the importance of capturing this process in an integrated way ( Nicholls et al, 2012 ; Wong et al, 2015 ; Gomes, 2017 ). Thus, this study aims to provide an integrative framework to understand adaptation to stressors on young athletes by taking an integrative analysis of competitive stressors, cognitive appraisal of a stressful situation, and the arising emotions of the stressful situation, considering, at the same time, the athletes’ characteristics (i.e., competitive level) that can influence the cognitive processing of stressful situations and, consequently, the adaptation process.…”