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Patterns of change in psychological variables leading up to competition in superior versus inferior performers

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journal contribution
posted on 2016-03-22, 14:47 authored by Ruth Boat, Ian TaylorIan Taylor
The study explored patterns of change in a number of potentially performance-related variables (i.e., fatigue, social support, self-efficacy, autonomous motivation, mental skills) during the lead up to a competitive triathlon, and whether these patterns of change differed for relatively superior versus inferior performers. Forty-two triathletes completed an inventory measuring the study variables every other day during a two-week period leading up to competition. Performance was assessed using participants’ race time, and using a self-referenced relative score compared to personal best times. Multilevel growth curve analyses revealed significant differences in growth trajectories over the two week period in mental skills use, social support, and fatigue. The results provide novel insight into how athletes’ fluctuating psychological state in the two weeks prior to competition may be crucial in determining performance

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

JOURNAL OF SPORT & EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY

Volume

37

Issue

3

Pages

244 - 256 (13)

Citation

BOAT, R. and TAYLOR, I.M., 2015. Patterns of change in psychological variables leading up to competition in superior versus inferior performers. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 37(3), pp. 244-256.

Publisher

© Human Kinetics Publishing as accepted for publication

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2015

Notes

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology and the definitive published version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2014-0216

ISSN

0895-2779

Language

  • en