ABSTRACT
By applying a diary study design, we investigated the role of self-compassion during sport-specific daily stress (SSDS) with regard to the negative self-conscious emotions of shame and guilt and training motivation. We hypothesised that self-compassion would protect athletes from certain self-conscious emotions, namely shame, after SSDS. We also predicted that self-compassion would either increase or decrease the relationship between stress and motivation. Ninety-six athletes (Mage = 22.14, SD = 5.92) reported their level of self-compassion and evaluated their trainings and/or competitions over three weeks in terms of experienced stress, guilt, shame and subsequent training motivation on their smartphones. Multilevel analyses showed that SSDS was associated with more negative self-conscious emotions and reduced training motivation. Moreover, self-compassion weakened the effect of SSDS on shame and was not correlated with training motivation. We discuss the results with regard to sport psychology practice and future research.
Data availability statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [PR], upon reasonable request.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).