Personal and situational predictors of Chinese college athletes' use of coping strategies as a function of gender and skill level /

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to determine the personal and situational factors that predict participants' coping styles in response to sport-related stressful events, to determine the relationships between the acute stressors, appraisal, and coping styles, and to determine the extent to which the coping process differs among athletes as a function of gender and skill level.

A total of 400 college athletes as participants were selected from China. Five stress factors were abstracted from 20 stressors by exploratory factor analysis. MANOVA and Chi-square results indicated that skill level significantly influenced the athletes' perceived intensity of the stress sources, appraisals, and coping style, while gender significantly affected participants' appraisals and coping styles. Three stress sources (Threats-from-Others, Coach-Dissatisfaction, and Environmental-Sources) and two appraisals (Control-by-Self and Control-by-Others) significantly predicted the athlete's coping style. Results of the study supported the transactional coping theory in which coping with stress is a function of both personal and situational factors. It was also concluded that athletes' coping styles is a function of gender and skill level. Implications of these findings for stress management training are discussed.