Thesis Published - International Journal of Wrestling Sciences

#42
ANXIETY AND PERFECTIONISM IN HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLERS

Gene Zannetti

Master’s Thesis, Springfield College, MA, USA wrestlingmindset@gmail.com

Levels of anxiety can influence athletes in performance settings. Cognitive anxiety is the internal response of an individual to increased anxiety characterized by worry, negative self-evaluation, and negative expectations about performance. Cognitive anxiety has been shown to be related to the performance of an athlete. Perfectionism is a tendency characterized by perfectionistic personality traits and cognitive preoccupation with perfectionistic outcomes. Anxiety and perfectionism are positively correlated with one another and are associated with diminished performances. The study was designed to explore the relationship between perfectionism and anxiety, in high school wrestlers (N = 120). The subjects were 120 high school wrestlers participating in a summer wrestling tournament. Anxiety was measured by the CSAI-2R. (from: Cox, R. H., Martens, M. P., & Russell. (2003). Measuring anxiety in athletics: the revised competitive state anxiety inventory-2) Subscales of Anxiety on the CSAI-2R include State Cognitive Anxiety, State Somatic Anxiety, and State Self-Confidence. The Frost Multi-Dimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS; Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990) delineates perfectionism into six different subscales in which one can strive for perfection: Personal Standards, Organization, Concern Over Mistakes, Doubts About Actions, Parental Criticism, and Parental Expectations. Wrestlers completed the instruments one hour prior to competition in a tournament. Significant (p < .05) positive linear relationships were found between correlations of State Somatic Anxiety and Concern Over Mistakes (r = .32), Parental Criticism (r = .22), and Doubts About Actions (r = .29). State Cognitive Anxiety was positively related with Concern Over Mistakes, Doubt About Actions, Parental Criticism, Parental Expectations, and Personal Standards. State Self-Confidence was positively related with Personal Standards and Organization. The relationship between State Cognitive Anxiety and Concern Over Mistakes was particularly strong as over 25% of the variance was accounted for exclusively by the two variables.
Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficients for subscales on Anxiety with the subscales of Perfectionism.

Variables r r² p
State Somatic Anxiety
Concern Over Mistakes .32 .10 < .00
Personal Standards .13 .02 > .05
Parental Expectations .18 .03 > .05
Parental Criticism .22 .05 < .05
Doubts About Actions .29 .08 < .05
Organization .10 .01 >.05
State Cognitive Anxiety
Concern Over Mistakes .53 .28 < .05
Personal Standards .23 .05 < .05
Parental Expectations .34 .12 < .05
Parental Criticism .40 .16 <.05
Doubts About Actions .42 .18 < .05
Organization .05 .00 >.05
State Self-Confidence
Concern Over Mistakes -.06 .00 > .05
Personal Standards .33 .11 < .05
Parental Expectations .12 .01 > .05
Parental Criticism -.05 .00 > .05
Doubts About Actions -.05 .00 > .05
Organization .20 .04 < .05