Publication: Personality, Coping Strategies, and Mental Health in High-Performance Athletes During Confinement Derived From the COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors
Leguizamo, Federico ; Olmedilla Zafra, Aurelio ; Nuñez, Antonio ; Ponseti Verdaguer, Francisco Javier ; Gómez Espejo, Verónica ; Ruiz Barquín, Roberto ; García Mas, Alexandre
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Publisher
Frontiers Media
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.561198
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
© 2021 Authors
This document is the published version of a published work that appeared in final form in Frontiers in Public Health
This document is made available under the CC-BY 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
To access the final edited and published work see:
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.561198
Abstract
The COVID-19 outbreak has affected the sports field unprecedentedly. The emergency
alert has deprived athletes of training in a suitable environment, as they are faced
with cancellations of relevant events in their sports careers. This situation can cause
stress levels and other emotional disorders similar to those experienced by athletes
during periods of injury. Since the relationship between psychological factors and
sports injuries is well-studied, the Global Psychological Model of Sports Injury (MGPLD)
is applied to this historical situation for athletes. The purpose of this study was to
analyze the relationships between perfectionism and trait anxiety with indicators of
mental health (mood, depression, state anxiety, and stress) in high-performance athletes
during confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to explore the coping
strategies that athletes have applied and whether they are perceived as useful for
managing negative emotional states. A cross-sectional study was conducted through
online questionnaires during April 2020, adapting the Psychological Assessment Protocol
of the High-Performance Sports Center of Murcia (Spain), to assess the psychological
effects of confinement in a cross-cultural sample of 310 athletes (141 women and 169
men) from different countries in Europe, Asia, and America, and from diverse sports
disciplines. The protocol comprised six instruments that test perfectionism, trait anxiety,
mood states, stress, depression, coping strategies, and sleep. It was answered online
via Google Forms. The results show that maladaptive perfectionism was related to all
the indicators of athletes’ mental health. However, athletes’ levels of anxiety, stress,
and depressive symptoms are relatively low, and the use of coping strategies such as
cognitive restructuring and emotional calm was associated with lower levels of negative
emotional states. Besides, the Iceberg Profile, a suitable fit for the mental health model, is
observed in the mood of athletes, both in men and in women, although women showed
higher levels of anxiety, stress, and depression than men. A strong relationship was
observed between maladaptive perfectionism and martial arts sports discipline, superior
to other sports. In short, it can be concluded that high-performance athletes in the
Leguizamo et al. High-Performance Athletes’ Psychological Impact of COVID-19
studied sample showed negative emotional state values below the expected average.
Finally, the proposals for practical applications of the results collected are discussed.
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Citation
Front. Public Health 8:561198.
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