The relationship of team cohesion to individual anxiety among recreational soccer players
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Eungwang Oh (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Diane Gill
Abstract: Cohesion is the most often studied group dynamics factor in sport and exercise psychology (Brawley, Carron, & Widmeyer, 1987; Carron, 1982; Carron, Widmeyer, & Brawley, 1985). The group dynamics research has focused on the relationship between cohesion and performance. Relatively little is known about how cohesion may be related to individual factors such as anxiety. Previous studies revealed that cohesiveness provides psychological benefits to participants (Eys, Hardy, Carron, & Beauchamp, 2003; Prapavessis & Carron, 1996). However, there is no research exploring the relationship between cohesion and competitive anxiety at the recreational sport level. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between multi-constructs of cohesiveness, assessed with the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ; Carron, Widmeyer, & Brawley, 1985), and multidimensions of competitive state anxiety, assessed with the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2; Martens et al., 1990) at the recreational sport level. In addition, the contribution of cohesion to the prediction of competitive state anxiety beyond the contribution of competitive trait anxiety assessed by the Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT; Martens, 1977) was examined. A hypothetical soccer competition scenario was used to measure competitive state anxiety in the present study. The results of Pearson's correlation analysis revealed a negative relationship between three dimensions of cohesion (individual attraction to the group-task; ATG-T, group integration-task; GI-T, and group integration-social; GI-S) and subdimensions of competitive A-state (cognitive and somatic state anxiety). The findings of stepwise and hierarchical multiple regression analyses also demonstrated the significant contribution of the individual attraction to the group-task (ATG-T) in predicting competitive state anxiety. It is suggested that recreational soccer participants with high scores on ATG-T are likely to have low competitive state anxiety. It is also suggested that future research examine if cohesion helps recreational athletes stick to sports through diminished competitive state anxiety.
The relationship of team cohesion to individual anxiety among recreational soccer players
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Created on 5/1/2014
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2014
- Keywords
- Anxiety, Cohesion, Competitive anxiety, Recreational, Soccer, Team
- Subjects
- Soccer $x Sociological aspects
- Soccer $x Psychological aspects
- Teamwork (Sports) $x Psychological aspects
- Anxiety