Mood States and Performance in Elite Canoe Polo Players: The Mediating Role of Stress

Donatella Di Corrado, Andrea Buscemi, Paola Magnano, Nelson Mauro Maldonato, Matej Tusak and Marinella Coco
Additional contact information
Donatella Di Corrado: Department of Sport Sciences, Kore University, Cittadella Universitaria, 94100 Enna, Italy
Andrea Buscemi: Study Center of Italian Osteopathy and Horus Social Cooperative, 95100 Catania, Italy
Paola Magnano: Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Kore University, 94100 Enna, Italy
Nelson Mauro Maldonato: Department of Neuroscience and Reproductive and Odontostomatological Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, 80138 Naples, Italy
Matej Tusak: Department of Social and Humanistic Sciences in Sport, Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Marinella Coco: Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 9, 1-12

Abstract: Sport performance is characterized by competitive stressful conditions that elicit emotional states. The purpose of the study was to examine whether stress mediated the relationship between mood states and performance. Thirty-two elite canoe polo players from four different Italian teams (16 senior males and 16 senior females), aged between 29 and 38 years old (M = 32.3, SD = 2.71), participated in the study. Measures included level of psychological stress, six mood dimensions, and performance outcome. We also detected the digit ratio—the lower second-to-fourth digit length (2D:4D) ratio—as it was demonstrated to be correlated to high sports performance. The assessment took place one day before the first game of the national competition “ITALY CUP”. Male athletes reported lower scores on dysfunctional emotion-related states and on 2D:4D ratio than female athletes. The results of the mediation analysis showed that psychological stress plays a mediating role between moods and performance. Overall, given the limited literature, the findings supported an integrative approach to the study of the linkage between emotion and action in canoe polo.

Keywords: team sport; psychological states; stressors; elite athletes; competition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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