Emotional Experiences in Jordanian School Sporting Culture: Perceived Coach Anxiety, Emotional Contagion, and Competitive Anxiety Among Adolescent Female Sprinters

The study aimed to identify the levels of perception of coach anxiety, emotional contagion, and dimensions of performance anxiety, and to reveal the relationships between them among 100-meter runners in the teams of the Jordanian directorates of education. The study used a descriptive-relational approach, and the sample included 200 female runners from the districts of Kasbah Amman, the University Brigade, and the Marka Brigade, aged between 12 and 17 years. The data were collected using three scales: the Trainer's Anxiety Perception Scale, the Emotional Infection Scale, and the Competitive Status Anxiety Scale (with its three dimensions: cognitive anxiety, physical anxiety, and self-confidence). The results showed that the perception of the trainer's anxiety was significant, with an arithmetic mean of 3.503, and verbal indicators topped the axes of perception of the trainer's anxiety. Perceived emotional contagion was moderate (M = 3.399), as were cognitive and physical anxiety and self-confidence (M = 3.278, 3.179, and 3.139, respectively). Perceived trainer anxiety was strongly positively correlated with perceived emotional contagion (r = .874). Perception of trainer's anxiety and emotional contagion were also positively associated with cognitive and physical anxiety, and negatively with self-confidence, all of which were statistically significant (p<.001). The study concluded that the runner's psychological state before the race is related to the anxiety she perceives in her coach's behavior and the emotional impact she reports, without proving the actual transmission of anxiety or a causal effect. It is recommended to develop coaches' communication skills, including exercises to regulate anxiety and build self-confidence, and to conduct longitudinal, empirical studies to examine these relationships.