The adolescent football mind: how age and playing position influence competitive state anxiety, self-confidence, and cognitive interference in Indian footballers

Introduction Elevated competitive state anxiety, performance-interfering thoughts, and low self-confidence can impair coping ability to stress, and deteriorate athletic performance. Exaggerated competitive state anxiety is the manifestation of an athlete's negative appraisal of their own performance and fear of failure. Very little is known about the susceptibility to these psychological factors in adolescent athletes at grassroots football. The present study aimed to examine differences in competitive state anxiety, self-confidence, and cognitive interference scores between mid- and late adolescent Indian players and those with different playing positions. The inter-relationship between the age, playing experience [PE], cognitive state anxiety [CA], somatic state anxiety [SA], cognitive interference [CI], and self-confidence [SC] was also examined. Methods Out of the ninety-one young (age range: 14–20 years), male footballers recruited from an elite football academy through convenience sampling, eighty-three (age: 17.08 ± 1.56 years; positions: goalkeepers = 12, defenders = 17, midfielders = 44, strikers = 10) completed the study. The original Revised Competitive State Anxiety Inventory (CSAI-2R) questionnaire and the Thought Occurrence Questionnaire for Sport (TOQS) were self-administered during intramural competition in mid-adolescent (MA, n = 50) and late-adolescent (LA, n = 33) players. Non-parametric correlation, Mann–Whitney U , and Kruskal–Wallis statistical tests were conducted. Results Age was positively associated with PE ( τ = +0.3, p < 0.001) and SC ( τ = +0.16, p < 0.05); and negatively associated with CA ( τ = −0.2, p < 0.05), SA ( τ = −0.2, p < 0.05), thoughts of escape [ToE ( τ = −0.19, p < 0.05)], situation-irrelevant thoughts [SIT ( τ = −0.19, p < 0.05)], and performance worries [PW ( τ = −0.15, p < 0.05)], CI ( τ = −0.2, p < 0.001). The SA and CA were significantly higher in the MA than in LA ( p < 0.01), as well as CI ( p < 0.001). There was a significant effect of playing position only on CA scores ( p < 0.05). post-hoc analysis found a significantly higher level of CA in strikers than the goalkeepers ( p < 0.05) and midfielders ( p < 0.05). PE did not show any significant association with these CSAI-2R and TOQS parameters. Discussion Mid- adolescent players exhibited significantly lower SC and elevated SA, CA, and CI. The lower susceptibility to SA, CA, and CI was associated with increasing age and not with the PE. Adolescence in athletes is a critical phase for physiological, cognitive, and psychological maturation. Our findings emphasized the need for personalized psychological support in building mental resilience from a young age to cope with competitive pressure.