Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jan 8:8:561198.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.561198. eCollection 2020.

Personality, Coping Strategies, and Mental Health in High-Performance Athletes During Confinement Derived From the COVID-19 Pandemic

Affiliations

Personality, Coping Strategies, and Mental Health in High-Performance Athletes During Confinement Derived From the COVID-19 Pandemic

Federico Leguizamo et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak has affected the sports field unprecedentedly. The emergency alert has deprived athletes of training in a suitable environment, as they are faced with cancellations of relevant events in their sports careers. This situation can cause stress levels and other emotional disorders similar to those experienced by athletes during periods of injury. Since the relationship between psychological factors and sports injuries is well-studied, the Global Psychological Model of Sports Injury (MGPLD) is applied to this historical situation for athletes. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationships between perfectionism and trait anxiety with indicators of mental health (mood, depression, state anxiety, and stress) in high-performance athletes during confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to explore the coping strategies that athletes have applied and whether they are perceived as useful for managing negative emotional states. A cross-sectional study was conducted through online questionnaires during April 2020, adapting the Psychological Assessment Protocol of the High-Performance Sports Center of Murcia (Spain), to assess the psychological effects of confinement in a cross-cultural sample of 310 athletes (141 women and 169 men) from different countries in Europe, Asia, and America, and from diverse sports disciplines. The protocol comprised six instruments that test perfectionism, trait anxiety, mood states, stress, depression, coping strategies, and sleep. It was answered online via Google Forms. The results show that maladaptive perfectionism was related to all the indicators of athletes' mental health. However, athletes' levels of anxiety, stress, and depressive symptoms are relatively low, and the use of coping strategies such as cognitive restructuring and emotional calm was associated with lower levels of negative emotional states. Besides, the Iceberg Profile, a suitable fit for the mental health model, is observed in the mood of athletes, both in men and in women, although women showed higher levels of anxiety, stress, and depression than men. A strong relationship was observed between maladaptive perfectionism and martial arts sports discipline, superior to other sports. In short, it can be concluded that high-performance athletes in the studied sample showed negative emotional state values below the expected average. Finally, the proposals for practical applications of the results collected are discussed.

Keywords: COVID-19; confinement; coping; high-performance athletes; personality; sports psychology; stress.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Female and male profile in the POMS Scales.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Brooks S, Webster R, Smith LE, Woodland L, Wessely S, Greenberg N, et al. The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. Lancet. (2020) 395:912–20. 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wu P, Liu X, Fang Y, Fan B, Fuller CJ, Guan Z, et al. . Alcohol abuse/dependence symptoms among hospital employees exposed to a SARS outbreak. Alcohol Alcohol. (2008) 43:706–12. 10.1093/alcalc/agn073 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abenza L, Olmedilla A, Ortega E, Esparza F. Lesiones y factores psicológicos en futbolistas juveniles. Archivos de Medicina del Deporte. (2009) 132:280–8.
    1. Abenza L, Olmedilla A, Ortega E, Ato M, García-Mas A. Análisis de la relación entre el estado anímico y las conductas de adherencia en deportistas lesionados. Anales de Psicología (2010) 26:159–68.
    1. Brewer BW. Review and critique of models of psychological adjustment to athletic injury. J Appl Sport Psychol. (1994) 6:87–100. 10.1080/10413209408406467 - DOI

Publication types