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The role of gender on the level of competitive state anxiety and sport performance among Swimmers
Authors: Vincent Parnabas1

Number of views: 307
Anxiety is recognized as one of the main factors that reduces athletes’ performance in sports. In
many research reviews, researchers have found that high levels of anxiety have the tendency to
deteriorate athletes’ performance. However, to date there has been very limited research
examining competitive anxiety on gender. The main aim of the study was to compare the level of
competitive anxiety and sport performance differences among gender. Data was collected from
69 swimmers during a sport event, using a 27 item Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 and
42-item of The Psychological Performance Inventory. The results showed that male athletes
obtained the lowest score on competitive state anxiety, t(20.355), p<.0.01. Furthermore, female
athletes exhibited the lowest level of sport performance, t(23.299), p<.0.01. Based on the current
results, it is recommended that sport psychologists, sport counselors and coaches in Malaysia use
the findings to design appropriate training programs to help athletes acquire suitable coping
strategies, to reduce their competitive state anxiety levels and enhance their performance.