A Brief Writing Intervention Assists Athletes to Cope With Performance Failures

Area of Science:

• Sports Psychology
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Performance failures in athletes can lead to significant psychological distress, including performance anxiety and maladaptive coping strategies.
• Self-critical rumination following setbacks is a common issue impacting athletes' mental well-being and subsequent performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the efficacy of a brief expressive writing intervention in mitigating the negative psychological effects of recalled performance failures among competitive athletes.
• To compare the impact of cognitive restructuring-based expressive writing versus a neutral writing task on athletes' rumination and affect.

Main Methods:

• Participants recalled a significant performance failure.
• An intervention group engaged in expressive writing focused on cognitive restructuring and reframing.
• A control group completed a neutral writing task.

Main Results:

• Both groups demonstrated improvements in outcome measures from pre-test to post-test.
• The intervention group exhibited significantly greater reductions in self-critical rumination and negative affect.
• The intervention group also showed a significantly greater increase in positive affect compared to the control group.

Conclusions:

• A brief expressive writing intervention, utilizing cognitive restructuring and reframing, is effective in combating negative rumination and affective distress following performance failures in athletes.
• This intervention offers a practical tool for athletes to manage psychological responses to setbacks during or immediately after competition.
• Expressive writing can be a valuable, accessible strategy for enhancing athletes' psychological resilience and performance outcomes.