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Published on: July 19, 2017
The relationship between mindfulness, competitive anxiety, and self-efficacy in Taekwondo athletes with/without
Jeffrey Yu1, Jui-Ti Nien2, Mu-Yen Chu3
1Department of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Objectives:
Combat sports athletes are exposed to higher rates of injury, often resulting in increased anxiety and decreased pre-event self-efficacy. Mindfulness may serve as a protective buffer against these psychological effects. This study aimed to examine the relationship between athletic mindfulness and pre-event self-efficacy through competitive anxiety, as well as the moderating role of injury status among Taekwondo athletes.
Methods:
Collegiate Taekwondo athletes (N = 105) completed measures of athletic mindfulness, competitive anxiety, pre-event self-efficacy, and injury status prior to a national competition. A moderated mediation model was tested using PROCESS Models 4 and 59.
Results:
Athletic mindfulness significantly predicted pre-event self-efficacy through cognitive anxiety. Although injury status did not moderate the overall mediation pathway, it moderated the relationship between athletic mindfulness and cognitive anxiety.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest a pathway through which mindfulness enhances pre-event self-efficacy by reducing cognitive anxiety among combat sports athletes. Regardless of its moderation of the mediation effect, injury status revealed that mindfulness exerted a stronger influence on reducing cognitive anxiety among injured athletes.
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