Introduction Psychological stressors have become a natural part of the process of developing skills in talent development environments of youth athletes. However, there is little research on psychological stressors among talented female athletes and how this is impacted by an athletes’ perfectionism. This study investigated how female national team players in football, handball, and ice-hockey in Norway (controlled for age, sport, overload injury and playing time) experienced perceived psychological stressors (PPS) and how the two perfectionism dimensions - evaluative concerns (EC) and personal strivings (PS) impact on PPS. Methods The sample in this study was 145 female (Handball 27%, Ice-Hockey 43% and Football 30%) players selected to an age-specific national team of U16-U19 ( M = 16.01, SD = 1.19). Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to test the scale reliability of the factors; PPS ( α = 0.88), EC ( α = 0.84), PS ( α = 0.78). A linear regression analysis was conducted with PPS as the dependent variable. Results The linear regression analysis with PPS as the dependent variable, with the independent variables EC, PS, self-reported playing time, OI and age, explained 25% of the variance in PPS and was statistically significant ( p 0.001). EC ( p 0.01) and OI ( p 0.05) had a significant positive association with PPS. Handball players scored significantly lower on PPS compared with ice-hockey players ( p 0.01) and football players ( p 0.05). There was however no significant difference in PS, age, and playing time on PPS. Discussion The current study highlights the importance of key stakeholders being aware that athletes who score high on EC are more vulnerable to everyday stress, and that athletes are particularly vulnerable to stress when they are injured.
Sæther et al. (Wed,) studied this question.