Adverse competition-related cognitions and it’s relation to satisfaction and subjective performance: a validation study in a sample of English-speaking athletes

This study aimed at examining the reliability and validity of the Adverse Competition-related Cognitions Questionnaire (ACCQ) in an English-speaking sample of athletes. The ACCQ is a performance-focused measure that captures six different areas of adverse competition-related cognitions– athletic comparison, coach devaluation, devaluation of one’s own performance, appreciation by coach and family, inner resistance against competitions, and general exhaustion. Data from 278 athletes ( M age = 27.64, age range = 16–68 years) from different sports were collected and subjected to confirmatory factor analysis, which confirmed the 6-factor solution of the translated ACCQ (CFI = 0.915; RMSEA = 0.056). In addition, the different subscales of the ACCQ showed sufficient internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.60). Furthermore, we examined the relationships with cognitive interference, satisfaction in three different domains (i.e., general in life, sporting development, and athletic performance) and athletes’ subjective performance evaluations (i.e., performance and peak performance in the previous season and confidence in achieving their goals in the upcoming season). Results indicated positive correlations with athletes’ cognitive interference (i.e., construct validity in terms of a nomological network), low negative relations with athletes’ satisfaction in the three different domains and with the three parameters of subjective performance evaluation (i.e., concurrent validity). Implications of these findings and perspectives for future research are discussed.