Resilience and Precompetitive Anxiety in swimmers of school age. A descriptive study

Abstract

Anxiety and resilience in sports have been the subject of study in recent years, although they have rarely been addressed in child stages. The objective of this work was to explore the influence that gender, age, swimming years and resilience have on competitive anxiety in a sample of school swimmers (N = 74). Resilience was measured with a Spanish adaptation of the CD-RISC, while the Spanish version of the CSAI-2R was used to measure competitive anxiety. Sociodemographic data (age, sex, swimming years and competitive level) were also explored. For the analysis of data, non-parametric tests were performed (Kruskal-Wallis and Mann Whitney U), in addition to Pearson's correlation. The results showed that the gender, the age of the swimmers and the years swimming were not related to the levels of competitive anxiety of the swimmers of school age evaluated, while the degree of resilience showed a positive relationship with the levels of self-confidence, a negative relationship with levels of cognitive anxiety, and no relationship with somatic anxiety. These results show that resilience training of young swimmers can reduce their levels of anxiety and improve their sporting experience.