The influence of competition location on athletes' psychological states.

Bray, Steven R. ; Jones, Marc V. ; Owen, Stephanie 等

The home advantage has been examined in sport contests for over 20 years. Results have consistently demonstrated that there tends to be a performance advantage associated with competing at home among major professional and collegiate leagues (Courneya & Carron, 1992), individual teams (Bray, 1999), and even individual sport athletes (e.g., Bray & Carron, 1993).

Courneya and Carron's (1992) conceptual model identifies several factors that could influence the home advantage including characteristics associated with game location and the psychological and behavioral states of athletes, coaches, and officials. Although a considerable body of research has examined the crowd, travel, familiarity, and rule factors that might favour the home team (Courneya & Carron, 1992), comparatively less research attention has focused on the critical psychological states (e.g., confidence and anxiety) components of Courneya and Carron's (1992) model. For example, Bray and Widmeyer (2000) and Jurkovac (1985) found collegiate basketball players retrospectively reported greater collective efficacy and self-confidence when competing at home compared to away. In a prospective study, Duffy and Hinwood (1997) found no differences in the amount of pre-performance anxiety reported by athletes playing at home versus away. However, these null findings for anxiety are a sharp contrast to the result s of a study by Terry, Walrond, and Carron (1998) who found rugby players reported more positive moods, lower state anxiety, and higher self-confidence prior to a home game versus an away game.

Although Terry et al.'s (1998) study is to be commended for its comprehensiveness, the results of both the Duffy and Hinwood (1997) and Terry et al. studies are limited in that competitor's psychological states were examined prior to a single home game and a single away game. In the case of Terry et al., players also faced equally-matched, yet different opponents on each home and away occasion. Thus, while Terry et al. tried to control for team opponent quality in the two games that were assessed, the possibility that players may have reported more positive psychological ratings when playing at home compared to away for reasons other than game location can not be overlooked (e.g., they may have had a winning record against one opponent and not another). Recently, this limitation to the research was addressed by Thuot, Kavouras and Kenefick (1998) who recorded repeated measures of state anxiety and self-confidence before athletes competed against the weakest, moderate, and toughest teams in their league. Contr ary to their hypotheses, no differences in precompetition anxiety were reported at home compared to away by high school basketball players, but players did report greater self-confidence before their home games.

Thuot et al.'s (1998) findings contributed to the home advantage literature by examining players' pre-game perceptions on numerous occasions as well as against opponents of varying abilities. However, as Silva and Andrew (1987) and Terry et al. (1998) pointed out, the home advantage should be maximized when teams are relatively evenly-matched. Consequently, it is difficult to interpret the effects associated with team quality from those associated with game location in Thuot et al.'s findings given that two-thirds of the games analyzed were played against teams that were either far better or far worse than the focal teams. Our knowledge of the role of psychological factors and the home advantage would be further enhanced if athletes' psychological states could be assessed at home and away against several evenly-matched opponents on numerous occasions throughout their playing calendar. Moreover, a comprehensive assessment of players' psychological states prior to playing the same evenly-matched opponents at ho me and away on repeated occasions would allow for analyses of both the pattern of psychological states experienced by players over time as well as a generalized association between psychological states and game location controlling for the potentially contaminating effects of opponent quality.

The purpose of the present study was to examine athletes' precompetition psychological states prior to playing evenly-matched opponents over a balanced series of regular-season home and away competitions. Given the equivocality of previous findings, no hypotheses regarding precompetition state anxiety were advanced.

In addition to state anxiety, we assessed players' precompetition perceptions of both self-confidence and self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997). Self-confidence refers to "... the belief or degree of certainty individuals possess about their ability to be successful in sport (Vealey, 1986, p. 222), while self-efficacy refers to "beliefs in one's capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to produce given attainments" (Bandura, 1997, p. 3). Thus, as Feltz (1988) points out, self-efficacy may be considered a situation-specific form of self-confidence. We assessed self-confidence in order to compare our results to previous findings, however, it was also reasoned that self-efficacy may be an important variable to examine in relation. to the home advantage because of the strong empirical link between self-efficacy and athletic performance (cf. Bandura, 1997). The fact that higher levels of self-efficacy have consistently been found to be associated with higher levels of performance is consistent with a hypothetical self-efficacy - home advantage relationship. That is, the home advantage literature shows that performance is better at home therefore it is reasonable to propose that higher levels of self-efficacy should be associated with playing at home. Furthermore, self-efficacy is determined by factors such as past experience, verbal persuasion, and vicarious experiences. These factors may also be associated with variations in game location. For example, the presence of a vociferous crowd is identified as a critical game location factor (Coumeya & Carron, 1992) and is also likely to provide the type of verbal persuasion (e.g., cheering) that should bolster self-efficacy. Thus, in line with previous findings and self-efficacy theory, it was hypothesized that athletes would report higher levels of self-confidence and self-efficacy prior to playing at home compared to away.

Method

Participants and Design

The participants were 11 members of a female club-level field hockey team (Mage = 30.2 years, range 19 - 42) who volunteered to take part in a general research project aimed at monitoring psychological perceptions over time. Participants had an average of 16.36 years (SD = 8.24) playing experience in field hockey, ranging from club to county levels, indicating a high degree of skill. The team participated in a league that involved travelling distances of approximately 30-50 miles for away competitions. Although competition was of a high standard, games attracted small crowds of between 20-50 spectators. Measures of precompetition state anxiety, self-confidence, and self-efficacy were obtained 30-minutes prior to each of four home and four away games during the second half of the team's regular competitive season. During the previous season the focal team was ranked in the middle tier among all teams in the league standings. Data were gathered prior to games in which the team faced opponents with whom they wer e relatively evenly-matched (i.e., teams that were also in the middle tier according to league standings in the previous season). In a balanced design, participants played away against team 1 and team 3 before playing them at home, while they played against team 2 and team 4 at home before playing them away.

Measures

Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2. The CSAI-2 (Martens, Burton, Vealey, Bump & Smith, 1990) was used to measure players' cognitive and somatic state anxiety and state self-confidence 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 athletes' precompetitive state anxiety and state self-confidence levels (e.g., Jones, Swain & Cale, 1991; Martin & Hall, 1997).

Self-efficacy. The Field Hockey Self-efficacy Inventory was based on a measure developed by Lee (1988). However, with the input from a qualified coach, an experienced umpire, and three experienced players, certain modifications were made to the original measure in order to capture a comprehensive representation of efficacy for individual skills performed at the level of play under investigation. In contrast to Lee's measure which assessed both strength and magnitude of self-efficacy, only self-efficacy strength was measured. Consistent with Bandura's (1997) recommendations for assessing strength of self-efficacy, the inventory consisted of multiple items that were rated on a scale anchored by 0% (not at all confident) and 100% (completely confident). Questionnaire items represented players' perceived capabilities regarding four general field hockey skills (executing a successful short pass, taking a free hit successfully, winning the ball from a tackle, dribbling past a player and keeping the ball). In additi on to the four general items, those players with defensive responsibilities responded to three items specific to their defensive role within the team (giving a penalty corner away, saving a shot on goal, marking your opponent). Players with attacking responsibilities responded to a different additional set of items (winning a penalty corner, scoring a goal, losing your marker). Thus, each player responded to a total of 7 items representing skills relevant to individual field hockey performance.

Results

The pattern of mean scores for precompetition cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, and self-confidence are presented in Figure 1, while the pattern of mean scores for precompetition self-efficacy are shown in Figure 2. In general, the mean scores show higher scores on measures of self-efficacy and self-confidence and lower scores of cognitive and somatic anxiety prior to home games compared to away.

The data were analysed using 4 separate two-factor within-subjects repeated measures ANOVAs with game location (home and away) as the first factor and team (1-4) as the second factor. Because violation of the assumption of sphericity was a concern, Greenhouse-Geisser corrected tests are reported for the team factor and interactions. Consistent with our hypotheses, in each analysis, a significant main effect for game location was observed: self-efficacy, F(1,10) = l2.55,p<.01 ([[eta].sup.2]=.65, self-confidence, F(l, 10) = 5.8l, p<.05, ([[eta].sup.2]=.37, cognitive anxiety, F(1, 10)=60.11,p<.01, ([[eta].sup.2]=.86, and somatic anxiety, F(1,10)=14.31,p<01,([[eta].sup.2]=.59. Although not relevant to our hypotheses, main effects for team were significant in the analyses of self-efficacy, F(2.64, 26.42) = 9.41,p <.01, ([[eta].sup.2]=.49, and self-confidence, F(2.52, 25.15) = 4.01, p <.05, ([[eta].sup.2]=.29, indicating greater efficacy and confidence against some opponents (e.g., Team 1) compared to others. Signi ficant game location by team interactions were also observed for the analyses of somatic anxiety, F(2.02, 20.23) = 5.8,p <.05, ([[eta].sup.2]=.37 and self-confidence, F(2.24, 22.37)=4.67,p <.05, ([[eta].sup.2]=.32, demonstrating fluctuations in these perceptions as a function of both game location and team.

Discussion

The purpose of the present study was to examine athletes' precompetition psychological states prior to playing evenly-matched opponents over an eight-game balanced series of home and away competitions. Comparable to past research, we examined state cognitive and somatic anxiety as well as self-confidence. However, we also introduced a measure of self-efficacy in order to extend the existing research on athletes' psychological states prior to playing at home and away. Although analyses yielded a number of significant main effects and interactions, only results pertaining to the hypotheses regarding game location are discussed.

The lower levels of cognitive and somatic anxiety reported by athletes before their home games compared to away games in the present study support the findings of Terry et al. (1998) but not those of Thuot et al. (1998). However, the inconsistent findings across these studies could be an indication that moderator variables are influencing results. Athletes in the present study and those in Terry et al.'s sample competed at a high standard of play and, on average, had extensive playing experience. In contrast, athletes in Thuot et al.'s sample were high school athletes whose standard of play and experience of precompetitive anxiety may have been lower or highly variable in comparison. Thus, competitive level should be considered in future game location research as a possible moderator of state anxiety. For example, future studies could examine the effect of game location on state anxiety across leagues of higher and lower ability levels and control for the effects of competition level.

The inconsistencies observed in the literature may also be evidence that the magnitude of state anxiety provides little in the way of comparative information when it is examined at a few discrete points in time (e.g., Terry et al., 1998). That is to say, slight variations in state anxiety might be related to small differences in opponent quality as well as game location. For example, if we had compared only two games in our data, cognitive anxiety differed very little at home versus away against Team 1 compared to the differences observed at home and away against all other teams. Thus, by examining athletes' psychological states over a greater number of competitions, the general effect of game location stands out and demonstrates the clear advantage of repeated observations over single contrasts.

One finding that should also be highlighted is that of the higher levels of self-confidence and self-efficacy that were reported by athletes prior to their home games compared to away games. The self-confidence findings are consistent with those of Terry et al. (1998) and Thuot et al. (1998) as well as the retrospective accounts of athletes reported by Bray and Widmeyer (2000) and Jurkovac (1985), which indicate an overall pattern of higher self-confidence among athletes before they compete at home across studies. Although the self-efficacy findings are a novel addition to the game location literature they also reflected a consistent pattern that was more positive prior to home games compared to away games. Interestingly, the pattern of self-efficacy scores did not mirror those of self-confidence which, despite the conceptual similarity between the constructs, suggests athletes' beliefs about their capabilities to perform specific skills and their generalized feelings about performing confidently provide comp limentary information about their precompetitive psychological states.

Taken together, results of the prospective and retrospective studies carried out thus far indicate a consistent pattern of more positive self-confidence and efficacy when playing at home compared to away. Self-efficacy theory purports that higher self-efficacy is associated with increased effort and persistence in the face of difficulties and obstacles. Thus, it is possible that the phenomenon of the home advantage can be accounted for, in part, by self-efficacy. For example, athletes' greater self-efficacy when playing at home should help them to muster that extra effort needed to maintain a lead or fight back from a deficit-something they might not have when they play on the road. Future research should examine this theory-based explanation of the home advantage.

The present results showed athletes reported lower levels of cognitive and somatic state anxiety prior to competing at home compared to away. According to Multidimensional Anxiety Theory (Martens, et al., 1990), cognitive anxiety should be negatively related to performance while the somatic anxiety-performance relationship should be curvilinear (i.e., inverted-U). Nevertheless, previous research has been inconsistent in determining the effect of precompetition anxiety on performance (see Jones, 1995, for a review). Indeed, according to the Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning model (Hanin, 2000), there are individual differences in the levels of anxiety preferred for optimal performance. That is, although an individual may report higher levels of anxiety under some circumstances, those thoughts and sensations could be considered conducive to a more optimal state of preparation, readiness, or performance. Conversely, lower levels of anxiety may be perceived as non-optimal. However, we did not consider indiv idual levels of anxiety preference in our assessment of state anxiety. While the results of the present study indicate that in general a lower level of state anxiety was reported prior to playing games at home, performance levels may not necessarily have risen for all players. Accordingly, future research should extend beyond the present findings to investigate anxiety, arousal and other emotions relative to game location from an Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning perspective.

The significant game location by team interactions raise an issue with regards to the consistency of the game location effects observed. Closer examination of the somatic anxiety and self-confidence scores in Figure 1 show somatic anxiety was higher when playing at home against team 1 and self-confidence was lower when playing at home against team 3, indicating opposite effects to those observed for these variables against all other teams and for cognitive anxiety and self-efficacy in general. We suggest that while these findings demonstrate some inconsistency of the game location effect, the majority of the data support the hypothesized association between playing at home and more positive psychological states. Indeed, a number of factors other than game location such as changes in team strategies and tactics, condition of the pitch, and game temporality (e.g., whether the game is the first of a new season) are also likely to influence players' psychological states from time to time. Furthermore, the team's prior experience with its opponent could play an important role influencing psychological states. That is, if a team suffers a resounding defeat to an opponent in its first meeting with them on the road, the carry-over effect of the defeat on players' psychological states might overshadow their generally more positive thoughts and feelings prior to playing at home for their second meeting. Consequently, game location effects may be more clearly observed when home and away teams are evenly-matched and when game outcome was close in previous games.

Although the present results showed evidence of higher confidence and self-efficacy and lower levels of state anxiety among athletes prior to competing at home compared to away they are limited in terms of how they build directly upon our current understanding of what Courneya and Carron (1992) referred to as the "why" of the home advantage. On the one hand there is currently no clear link between variations observed in athletes' psychological states and variations in performance as a function of game location. On the other hand, however, most athletes, coaches and sport psychology consultants would agree that it is preferable for athletes to be more confident, efficacious, and relaxed going into a game. Thus, in the absence of direct evidence, the more positive psychological states reported by athletes prior to playing at home compared to away should only be viewed as effects in and of themselves. Studies examining the effect of athletes' psychological states on their behavioral states during competition and eventual game outcomes in the contexts of varying game locations (i.e., home and away) are a necessary step in future home advantage research.

In conclusion, the present results provide complimentary evidence supportive of previous research (e.g., Terry et al., 1998) and Courneya and Carron's (1992) home advantage model. Playing at home was associated with generally more favourable (i.e., lower state anxiety and higher self-efficacy and confidence) psychological states compared to playing away over a balanced series of games against evenly-matched opponents. Although the small number of participants in the study limits generalizability, the findings are strengthened by the fact that they are based on multiple observations over time. Future research should look to examine greater numbers of athletes from multiple teams over multiple home and away contests.

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Address Correspondence to: Steven R. Bray, Department of Kinesiology, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, TIK 3M4. E-mail may be sent to steven.bray@uleth.ca