TITLE:
Gender Differences in the Relationship between Competitiveness and Adjustment among Athletically Identified College Students
AUTHORS:
Michele M. Carter, Carol S. Weissbrod
KEYWORDS:
Gender Differences, Athletic Identification, Competitiveness, Adjustment
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.2 No.2,
March
29,
2011
ABSTRACT: This study explored the relationship between gender and enjoyment of competition and various indicators of mental health and adjustment in a sample of college students who report that they highly value athletics. One hundred and thirty-seven students completed the Sports Anxiety Scale, Multi-perfectionism Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Trait), Beck Depression Inventory, and Perception of Competition Scale. Results indicated that among women, enjoyment of competition was associated with decreased levels of athletic anxiety and a positive correlation between positive self-perception when winning and self-and socially oriented perfectionism, and between negative perception when losing and self-and socially oriented perfectionism. Among males, enjoyment of competition was related to decreased levels of general anxiety and depression, but not athletic anxiety. Furthermore, among men there was a positive correlation between enjoying competition and self-oriented perfectionism and between negative self-perception when losing and socially-oriented perfectionism. These data indicate gender differentially impacts the benefit of valuing athletics on measures of athletic anxiety and general measures of psychological well being.