The design and delivery of stress management in professional sport

The professional arena in which sport performers operate can be a breeding ground for stress. Despite the limited investigation of professional sport performers and their experiences of stress, the research conducted to date suggests that these individuals encounter a range of competitive and organizational stressors that are an inherent aspect of the organization in which they are contracted to operate. These stressors can typically lead to a range of adverse outcomes for well-being and performance if they are not appropriately managed. It is therefore important for psychologists to obtain a stronger evidence-base for understanding these performers’ experiences of stress in this organizational setting. By understanding the ways in which these individuals interact and adapt to their professional environment, this can inform the design and evaluation of organizational stress management interventions aimed to optimise performers’ well-being and performance. In so far that the evidence base for effective organizational interventions is limited, evaluating the effectiveness of organizational stress management interventions in sport organizations will make a strong contribution to psychologists’ knowledge of the conditions by which such initiatives may be effective in this organizational context. To make a contribution to the evidence base in this area, the purpose of this thesis was to examine the management of stress as it is experienced in a professional sport organization. [Continues.]