Stress management in sport: A comparison of unimodal and multimodal interventions

The aim of this field based study was to examine the efficacy of three different interventions on participants matched by degree of debilitative cognitive anxiety. Participants completed a composite version of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) which assessed both intensity and direction (debilitative-facilitative) of state anxiety, within one hour of a competitive Invasion Game. Four matched groups were established and given the following different treatments; Cognitive-Affective Stress Management (multimodal) (n = 10), Positive Thought Control (unimodal compatible)(n = 10), Applied Relaxation (unimodal non-compatible) (n = 10) and placebo tasks were given to the Control Group (n = 11). Following the six-week interventions the participants were again assessed before a second competitive Invasion Game. A series of two-way analyses of variance (group and event) with repeated measures on the second factor, indicated some treatments to be more effective than others. The multimodal intervention was most effective overall. However, the unimodal compatible treatment was as effective as the multimodal treatment, on the targeted composite CSAI-2 subscale, and took approximately half the time to deliver to the participants.