Sources of acute stress and coping styles in competitive sport

Abstract The purposes of this study were: (a) to identify the sources of acute stress experienced by competitive basketball players occurring during a game, and (b) to assess the intensity of these stressful situations as perceived by basketball players. Inductive content analysis procedures from a structured interview with 20 male basketball players identified 25 sources of acute stress, placed into five categories: interpersonal conflicts, refereeing decisions, personal performance problems, opposition influences, and team behaviors. A second group of athletes (n = 69) rated the perceived intensity of each of the 25 acute stressors on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all stressful) to 5 (very stressful). Part 2 of this study examined the players' coping styles with four highly intense stressors which were commonly experienced during competition. A pool of coping strategies was compiled for each of the four stressors and administered to 360 male basketball players. Using the conceptual framework of approach and avoidance coping styles, separate principal-components analyses with varimax rotation revealed that the use of approach and avoidance coping styles were used as a function of the type of stressful event, supporting the transactional coping model. Implications of the results for providing individualized and effective stress management interventions are discussed.