The effect of stress‐related factors on post‐performance affects in competitive adolescent swimmers

Abstract

The present study investigated the influence of perceived stress, goal discrepancy, goal importance, self‐efficacy, and coping on performance‐related affect in adolescent elite swimmers using Lazarus’ Cognitive‐Motivational Relational framework. The participants were 125 adolescent swimmers (14–18 yrs) from four Canadian provinces. Hierarchical regression found that the model accounted for 22% of positive affect, but only performance goal discrepancy and emotion‐focused coping were significant independent predictors. For negative affect, coping and performance goal discrepancy did not make significant additional contributions; only pre‐race factors of self‐efficacy, perceived stress, and goal importance explained 19% of the variance. Furthermore, neither self‐efficacy or goal importance was correlated to the coping functions. Findings are discussed in light of Lazarus's coping framework as well as the consequences of stress appraisals, coping, and performance on affective states.

Keywords:

• swimming performance
• coping
• self‐efficacy
• goal importance
• emotion