Relationship of achievement -related dispositions, cognitions and the motivational climate to cognitive appraisals, coping strategies and their effectiveness
Abstract
The purpose of the study was fourfold. The first was to develop a sport-specific questionnaire to measure approaches to coping used by the athletes. The second purpose of the study was to test a proposed model of the coping process in sport based on Lazarus' transactional theory of psychological stress and coping and the goal perspective theory. The third purpose was to examine coping effectiveness using the outcome model (i.e., immediate and long-term) and the goodness-of-fit model. The last purpose of the study was to explore potential cross-cultural variation in coping processes. Four hundred and four Korean and 318 U.S. intercollegiate athletes (Mage = 20.28 ± 1.27) participated in the study. The Approach to Coping in Sport Questionnaire (ACSQ) exhibited factorial and construct validities, internal reliability, and cross-cultural applicability. The ACSQ consists of six subscales of coping strategies; i.e., Active Planning/Cognitive Restructuring, Emotional Calming, Seeking Social Support, Turning to Religion, Mental Withdrawal, and Avoid Weaknesses/Go with Strengths. Recursive path analyses revealed that interrelationships between personal and situational factors significantly predicted athletes' experience of psychological difficulties, appraisal of such stress and corresponding coping strategies in both cultures (i.e., Korea and U.S.). Especially, perceptions of the motivational climate created by coaches emerged as strong predictors of athletes' perceived controllability over stress experienced and ways of coping with psychological difficulties. Cognitive appraisal (i.e., perceived controllability) positively predicted the use of active/problem-focused coping strategies while the use of withdrawal/avoidance coping strategies were predicted by the level of stress experienced, partially supporting the goodness-of-fit model of coping effectiveness. The use of active/problem-focused coping strategies was positively related with long-term outcomes such as satisfaction, enjoyment, and desire to persistency in their sport. In contrast, those long-term outcome variables were negatively associated with the use of avoidance/withdrawal coping strategies. These findings provide evidence for importance of personal and situational factors to understand the coping process in sport. In addition, the findings broaden our scope of understanding of the athletes' coping process by demonstrating conceptually coherent links among an individual's goal orientation, perceived ability, beliefs, and perceived motivational climate.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Smith, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Cognitive psychology|Educational psychology|Cultural anthropology|Recreation
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