Situational and intrapersonal moderators of sport competition state anxiety.

Martin, Kathleen A. ; Hall, Craig R.

In recent years, sport researchers have examined a variety of individual difference and situational variables that may moderate levels of sport competition anxiety (Smith & Smoll, 1990; Vealey, 1990). For example, several researchers have suggested that the social context of the sport competition (i.e., team or individual event) moderates anxiety levels, with individual sports evoking greater anxiety than team sports (Martens, Burton, Vealey, Bump, & Smith, 1990; Passers, 1982; Scanlan, 1984; Smith & Smoll, 1990). However, research comparing pre-competition state anxiety levels between individual and team athletes has produced equivocal findings. One possible explanation for these conflicting results may stem from the use of between-sport designs which do not control for sport factors and individual differences which may influence the relationship between the team/individual sport situation and sport competition anxiety.

Specifically, some studies have reported that individual sport participants manifest greater state anxiety than team sport participants (Furst & Tenenbaum, 1986; Simon & Martens, 1979), while other researchers have reported no significant differences in state anxiety between team and individual sport athletes (Colley, Roberts, & Chipps, 1985; Tenenbaum & Milgram, 1978). All of these studies compared anxiety levels between athletes from team sports such as basketball and volleyball versus different athletes from different individual sports such as gymnastics, swimming, and track and field. Research suggests that sport factors such as physical contact, threat of physical harm, and subjective versus objective scoring procedures may moderate competitive state anxiety levels (Martens et al., 1990; Simon & Martens, 1979). We are unaware of any studies that have controlled for all of these sport factors simultaneously when comparing athletes' anxiety levels across team and individual sport situations. Thus, any anxiety differences observed between individual and team athletes in previous studies may have been partly due to differences in sport factors other than the individual/team nature of the sport.

Another problem with between-sport comparisons of team versus individual sport anxiety, is that this approach falls to control for the possibility that different sports attract individuals with differential tendencies to experience sport competition anxiety. For example, research suggests that an individual's birth order (i.e., whether one is an only child, first born, second born, youngest, etc.) may affect both the type and degree of involvement in sport (cf. McPherson, Guppy, & McKay, 1976). First born individuals are more likely to avoid sports in which the threat and severity of physical injury is perceived to be high (e.g., diving, hurdling, skiing, gymnastics, and wrestling; Casher, 1977) and the opportunity to affiliate under stress tends to be low (Casher, 1977; Nisbett 1968; Yiannakis, 1976). Research also suggests that first borns experience stronger anxiety responses than later born individuals under a variety of anxiety-arousing situations (Kushnir, 1978). Thus, studies comparing team and individual sport participants' anxiety levels should control for individual difference factors such as birth order which may moderate the composition of sport groups as well as anxiety levels.

While a few studies have looked at birth order and anxiety related to potential physical harm in motor contexts (Alberts & Landers, 1977; Landers, 1979), the relationship between birth order and sport competition anxiety has received virtually no attention. As first born children are socialized into sport differently (Ebihara, Ikeda, & Myiashita, 1983; Landers, 1979), identification of birth order differences in state anxiety levels may shed some light on socialization factors that are responsible for individual differences in competitive anxiety. For example, parents have higher expectations of their first born children (e.g., Alberts & Landers, 1977), and play a greater role in the sport socialization of first borns than later borns (Ebihara et al., 1983). If birth order differences exist for sport competition anxiety, researchers may turn to these child-rearing factors to examine possible developmental antecedents of competitive anxiety. In support of this position, Vealey (1990) has suggested that more research is needed to examine what socialization factors elicit the development of anxiety.

Thus, the primary purpose of the present study was to eliminate previous methodological limitations and compare anxiety levels between team and individual sport athletes while controlling for sport factors and individual differences. If differences in anxiety exist when intrapersonal variables and sport factors are controlled, then it can be concluded that the social situation (i.e., competing alone or with teammates) moderates anxiety levels in team and individual sports. The secondary purpose was to examine birth order as a moderator (Baron & Kenny, 1986) of competitive state anxiety.

In line with current conceptualizations that individual sports involve greater social evaluation and responsibility than team sports (e.g., Passers, 1982; Scanlan, 1984), it was predicted that female figure skaters would have higher cognitive and somatic state anxiety prior to a singles freeskating event than before a team precision event. It was also predicted that given first born females' tendency to experience greater state anxiety in anxiety-arousing situations (Kushnir, 1978), first born athletes would experience greater sport competition anxiety than later born athletes prior to both team and individual competitive sport events.

Method

Participants

Thirty-one female figure skaters who competed in both singles freeskating and precision team events served as volunteer participants in the study. Nineteen of these skaters were members of four different Varsity figure skating clubs, and the remainder were drawn from a local figure skating club. Participants had a mean age of 17.89 years, (SD = 3.41), were all of intermediate skill level or higher (i.e., had passed their Preliminary Free Skate test), and had an average of 7.03 (SD = 4.63) years of competitive skating experience.

Materials

The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2; Martens eta!., 1990) was used to measure skaters' cognitive and somatic state anxiety levels. The CSAI-2 has demonstrated a high degree of internal consistency (alphas ranged from .79 to .90) and construct validity (Martens et al., 1990). It has been widely used by researchers as a measure of athlete's pre-competitive state anxiety levels (e.g., Gould, Petlichkoff, & Weinberg, 1984; Jones, Swain, & Cale, 1991).

A demographics sheet was used to covertly identify skaters' birth order (First or Later Born) by asking participants to provide the names, ages, and genders of their siblings and whether these family members were also figure skaters. Ostensibly, this information was requested to provide data on "familial patterns of sport participation." In reality, participants' responses were used to categorize them as First Born or Later Born. The demographics sheet was also used to gather information regarding the skaters' age, competitive level, and number of years experience in singles freeskating and team precision competition.

Procedure

Coaches from the five skating clubs were contacted by the experimenter. The experimenter explained that she was conducting a study on feelings before a competition, and was interested in studying skaters who compete in both singles freeskate and team precision events. Coaches were asked to help recruit skaters who would be participating at upcoming competitions in both of these events.

One week prior to the competition, the researcher met with all skaters who would be competing in both the individual and the team events. The researcher explained that she was conducting a study on feelings before a competition, and she described the study's procedure. All skaters agreed to participate in the study. They were then asked to complete a consent form and a demographics questionnaire before leaving the information session. Minors were permitted to take the forms home to obtain parental signatures, and to return the forms on the day of the competition.

All skaters competed in their individual event prior to the team event. At the competition site (in a change room or lobby), participants were administered the CSAI-2 approximately one hour before competing in their individual freeskating event, and again one hour prior to the precision team event. This is consistent with Martens et al.'s (1990) instructions for administering the questionnaire. Although other researchers have administered the CSAI-2 closer to competition time, several of the coaches and athletes in the present study requested that the questionnaire be administered before athletes began their pre-competition routine of getting dressed, stretching, putting on skates, etc., so as not to disrupt their preparation and focus. This tends to be a common request when conducting research among skaters (cf. Moritz, Hall, Martin, & Vadocz, 1996). To accommodate this need, it was agreed that all skaters would complete the CSAI-2 approximately 60 minutes before competing.

Following the data collection, participants were given a debriefing letter which explained the true purpose and experimental hypotheses of the study. Participants were given the opportunity to ask questions of the experimenter and were thanked for their participation.

Results

From the demographics sheet, 18 first born and 13 later born skaters were identified. The level of significance for all statistical tests was set at .05. There was no difference between first born and later born skaters on the variables of age or number of years of competitive experience (p [greater than] .05). In addition, chi-square analyses indicated that there wits no relationship between birth order and figure skating club/precision skating team or birth order and performance success/failure (i.e., finishing in the top five/not finishing in the top five) on the individual freeskating event (p [greater than] .05). Taken together, these observations suggest that despite non-random assignment of participants to birth order groups, there were no systematic differences between first born and later born skaters on several variables which could influence state anxiety (e.g., experience, coaching style, prior success/failure).(1)

The mean scores for cognitive and somatic anxiety as a function of event and birth order are presented in Table 1. A 2 x 2 (Birth Order x Event) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) for an unbalanced design, with repeated measures on the second factor, was conducted on the cognitive and somatic anxiety scale scores. Because the design was unbalanced, the QR (orthogonal) procedure was used to take into account the contamination that occurs between factors when the cell sizes in a design are unequal. The QR procedure generally results in extremely accurate estimates of parameters, a very important consideration widen examining unbalanced designs (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, 1988).

Table 1

Means and Standard Deviations for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety
Scores as a Function of Event and Birth Order

 Cognitive Anxiety Somatic Anxiety
 First Born Later Born First Born Later Born

Individual 19.00 18.77 20.00 18.46
 (5.67) (5.80) (6.19) (4.01)

Team 17.56 13.08 18.22 13.00
 (5.58) (3.09) (6.07) (5.58)

Note: Standard deviations are presented in parentheses. Anxiety
scores can range from 9 to 36.

Individual-Team Event Comparison

As predicted, a significant multivariate main effect for event was obtained, F (1, 29) = 19.3, p [less than] .001. Post hoc univariate ANOVAs indicated that when athletes competed in the individual freeskate event, they experienced significantly higher cognitive anxiety, F (1, 29) = 12.11, p [less than] .005, and somatic anxiety, F (1, 29) = 14.59, p [less than] .001 than when they competed in the team precision event.

Birth Order Comparison

Contrary to prediction, there was no difference between first horns' and later bores' state anxiety levels, F (1, 29) = 3.79, p [greater than] .05.

Event by Birth Order Interaction

There was a significant multivariate interaction, F (1, 29) = 4.41, p [less than] .05. Post hoc univariate ANOVAs showed a significant event by birth order interaction on the dimension of cognitive anxiety, F (1, 29) = 4.44, p [less than] .05. Prior to the team event, later born skaters experienced significantly less cognitive anxiety than they did before the individual event [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED].

Although the interaction for somatic anxiety was not significant, F (1, 29) = 3.78, p = .06, the means were in the expected direction. As indicated in Figure I, prior to the team event, later born skaters tended to experience less somatic anxiety than they did before the individual freeskating event.

Discussion

The main hypothesis of this study was confirmed. That is, skaters experienced greater cognitive and somatic anxiety prior to an individual competitive event than prior to a team competitive event. As these results were obtained using both a within-sport and a within-subjects experimental design, it appears that the social context of sport competition (i.e., competing as an individual versus competing with a team) influences both cognitive and somatic competitive anxiety.

However, this finding must be qualified. The significant event by birth order interaction revealed that only later born skaters experienced less anxiety before the team event than before the individual event. This difference in anxiety levels was statistically significant for the cognitive dimension of the CSAI-2, and nonsignificant, but in the predicted direction for the somatic dimension. Conversely, first born skaters manifested similar levels of cognitive and somatic anxiety before both the individual and team events. These results suggest that birth order moderates the team/individual sport - competitive anxiety relationship. Specifically, only later born athletes perceive team sports to be less anxiety-arousing than individual sports.

What could account for these different responses to the team sport situation? A combination of social-cognitive and sport socialization factors may be implicated. For example, researchers have suggested that team sports afford the athlete an opportunity to diffuse responsibility among teammates (e.g., Scanlan, 1984). The team/group situation may also minimize the identifiability of an individual's performance contributions (Carton, 1988; Widmeyer, Brawley, & Carron, 1992). Lessened responsibility and identifiability may alleviate anxiety among team sport athletes (Scanlan, 1984). However, the results of the present study suggest that only later born athletes may perceive that they are less accountable and less identifiable in a team sport context. As first born children are more likely to be entrusted as sport role models for their younger siblings (Ebihara et al., 1983), they may be socialized to take on greater responsibility and to adopt leadership roles within their own sport teams. (Indirect support for this idea is garnered from studies demonstrating that first born individuals are over-represented in leadership roles such as American presidents and university faculty members (cf. Adams & Phillips, 1972). It would be interesting to determine whether the same pattern exists for leadership roles in sport.) Hence, first borns' sense of responsibility and identifiability - and consequently, their level of anxiety - may be just as great in the team sport situation as in the individual sport situation. Future research is needed to examine the relationship between perceived responsibility, identifiability, and anxiety among team athletes.

Secondly, in a similar vein, first borns may not perceive the decrease in social evaluation which has been suggested to occur in team sports (Scanlan, 1984). Fear of negative social evaluation and concerns about significant others' expectations have been identified as significant predictors of cognitive anxiety among young athletes (e.g., Lewthwaite & Scanlan, 1989; Martin, Bray, & Widmeyer, 1995). Parents have higher expectations of their first borns (Alberts & Landers, 1977), and this may lead to a higher generalized need for achievement and approval in the first born (Landers, 1979). While the later born team athlete may be content to be just as good as his/her teammates, the first born team athlete may be socialized to feel pressure to be better than his/her teammates. Thus, the first born athlete would be just as likely to be concerned about social evaluation in a team sport context (i.e., concerned about evaluations made in comparison to teammates) as in an individual sport context (i.e., concerned about evaluations made in comparison to other competitors). This explanation could account for our observation that first born skaters' cognitive anxiety levels did not vary across the sport contexts. Further research is needed to examine both state variables (e.g., number of teammates, presence of significant others) and trait variables (self-presentation concerns, fear of negative evaluation) that may influence the perception of social evaluation in sport contexts.

Although the present findings are interesting, we were concerned that effects based on such a small sample size might not merit the value we have assigned to them. In order to reduce the concern over effect sizes, post hoc power was calculated using a formula by Keppel (1982). Based on this post hoc check and Cohen's (1992) conventions for statistical power, the observed effect sizes were reasonable (i.e., a large effect size for the main effect of event, and a small effect size for the Event x Birth Order interaction). Thus the size of the sample in the present study did not diminish the power to detect effects of substantive interest.

There are some limitations to the present study, to which the cautious researcher should attend. First, due to the nature of figure skating competition, randomization of the order of the individual and team events was not possible. This permits the alternative explanation that the observed differences in team/individual sport anxiety were due to changes in anxiety over time, rather than changes in the sport context. However, it is unlikely that time alone would have produced a significant decrease in anxiety only among Later Born athletes (Schachter, 1959). Second, the generalizability of the findings may be limited to female figure skaters. It is recommended that the present study be replicated using both males and females competing in other sports that have both a team and an individual event (e.g., individual races and relay races in swimming, track and field, etc.) occurring in random order.

By demonstrating that birth order moderates anxiety levels in team/individual sport situations, indirect support is provided for Vealey's (1990) position that child-rearing factors - in this case, those associated with parents' differential treatment of first born and later born children (cf. Hoopes & Harper, 1987; Rosenberg, 1989) - may influence cognitive and somatic state anxiety. The challenge for future researchers is to identify these factors and the impact they have on an individual's tendency to experience competitive anxiety. In addition, the results of this study demonstrate that it cannot be assumed that all athletes will experience less anxiety in team sports than individual sports. Intrapersonal variables such as birth order, may play a significant role in predicting an athlete's emotional response to certain sports (e.g., high risk sports) and sports contexts (e.g., team versus individual sports). Knowledge of how these intrapersonal variables may affect a participant's anxiety may be useful for parents and coaches as they attempt to steer youngsters towards sports that will provide maximal pleasure and minimal stress and anxiety.

Notes

We gratefully acknowledge Dr. Larry Brawley and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments on a previous draft of this manuscript, and Diane Mack for her assistance with the data collection. The manuscript was written with the support of a Social Sciences and Humanities Doctoral Fellowship to the first author.

1 We acknowledge and thank an anonymous reviewer for suggesting the potential influence of these variables.

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