Psychological intervention strategies in college physical education and their impact on students' athletic...

Psychological issues continue to pose a critical influence on athletic performance as well as the wellbeing of collegiate-level athletes, as data suggests that one-third of male varsity-level athletes and half of those at the female varsity level experience anxiety and depression. A lack of assessment of the long-term effects of psychological intervention in a collegiate athletic setting, despite the recent realization of its importance, continues to pose a significant issue.

This randomized comparative effectiveness study, consisting of a sample of 324 student-athletes from a total of 12 higher education institutions, measured the differences between four psychological intervention groups that focused on attention training, cognitive restructuring, goal setting, as well as the regulation of emotions.

Results of MANOVA analysis indicated that attention training (AT) had a greater enhancement in performance (d = 0.73) than cognitive restructuring (CR) (d = 0.56) and goal setting (GS) (d = 0.48). A large gender difference was observed, showing that female participants had greater improvement in emotional regulation (ER) (42.7% vs.31.4%) and psychological resilience (PR), and males had greater improvement in accuracy (36.2% vs.24.8%). Also, results of ANOVA analysis indicated a small regression in AT after 12 months ([3.2% in self-efficacy (SE), 4.3% in PR]), which was again affirmed by 12-month results ([Resilience:92% maintenance, anxiety reduction (AR):68%]). Moreover, AT results had a large positive transfer to academic performance (AP) (r = 0.43, p < 0.001), where self-regulation (SR) had the highest values as a mediator (β = 0.47).

Psychological integration in college-level PE lead to a large enhancement in athletic as well as academic performance. These results had a long-term positive persistence, which supports inclusion of systematic psychological skills training in athletic programs as a standard feature rather than a one-shot experience. Psychological intervention selection can be suggested according to target performance goals.