ACTive to the peak: Psychological flexibility and the relationship with flow and clutch states

IF 3.3 2区心理学 Q2 HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM

Psychology of Sport and Exercise Pub Date : 2025-09-01 DOI:10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102989

Luca Ziegler, Lindsey Leatherman, Ashley Coker-Cranney

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Current research on psychological flexibility (PF) in sport has largely relied on cross-sectional assessments or limited follow-up, which overlooks the inherently dynamic nature of the competitive athletic season. Furthermore, the relationship between PF and optimal mental states associated with enhanced athletic performance, primarily flow and clutch states, remain relatively unexplored. Therefore, this study aimed to longitudinally assess the six processes of psychological flexibility and flow and clutch states across a competitive season. Collegiate soccer players (n = 173) completed online pre-game psychological flexibility and post-game optimal mental states assessments for pre-season, non-conference, conference, and post-season games. Aside from values, the remaining five processes remained stable across the season, providing further support that processes should be specifically targeted via psychological interventions to see improvement. Furthermore, values were a significant predictor of flow states in non-conference games (R²_Adj. = .30), while cognitive defusion significantly predicted clutch states in conference games (R²_Adj. = .67). The remaining processes did not account for a significant amount of variance in flow or clutch states, suggesting that unidimensional psychological flexibility may not be directly related to improving optimal mental states. Practical implications relate to the importance of multidimensional assessment of psychological flexibility, consideration of the relative stability in psychological flexibility, and the finding that psychological flexibility did not directly relate to optimal mental states in the present study.

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积极到顶点：心理灵活性及其与心流状态和离合状态的关系

目前对体育运动中心理灵活性（PF）的研究在很大程度上依赖于横断面评估或有限的随访，忽视了竞技运动季节内在的动态性。此外，PF与提高运动表现的最佳心理状态（主要是心流状态和关键时刻状态）之间的关系仍然相对未被探索。因此，本研究旨在纵向评估跨赛季的心理灵活性、流动状态和离合状态的六个过程。大学足球运动员（n = 173）完成了季前赛、非季前赛、季前赛和季后赛的赛前心理灵活性和赛后最佳心理状态在线评估。除了价值之外，其余五个过程在整个季节保持稳定，这进一步支持了应该通过心理干预来明确目标的过程，以看到改善。此外，数值也是非会议游戏中心流状态的重要预测因子。= 0.30)，而认知融合显著预测了联盟比赛的关键状态(R2Adj。=正)。其余的过程并不能解释流动状态或离合状态的显著差异，这表明单维心理灵活性可能与改善最佳心理状态没有直接关系。本研究的实际意义涉及心理灵活性多维度评估的重要性、对心理灵活性相对稳定性的考虑以及心理灵活性与最佳心理状态没有直接关系的发现。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Psychology of Sport and Exercise 医学-心理学

CiteScore

6.40

自引率

5.90%

发文量

172

审稿时长

69 days

期刊介绍： Psychology of Sport and Exercise is an international forum for scholarly reports in the psychology of sport and exercise, broadly defined. The journal is open to the use of diverse methodological approaches. Manuscripts that will be considered for publication will present results from high quality empirical research, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, commentaries concerning already published PSE papers or topics of general interest for PSE readers, protocol papers for trials, and reports of professional practice (which will need to demonstrate academic rigour and go beyond mere description). The CONSORT guidelines consort-statement need to be followed for protocol papers for trials; authors should present a flow diagramme and attach with their cover letter the CONSORT checklist. For meta-analysis, the PRISMA prisma-statement guidelines should be followed; authors should present a flow diagramme and attach with their cover letter the PRISMA checklist. For systematic reviews it is recommended that the PRISMA guidelines are followed, although it is not compulsory. Authors interested in submitting replications of published studies need to contact the Editors-in-Chief before they start their replication. We are not interested in manuscripts that aim to test the psychometric properties of an existing scale from English to another language, unless new validation methods are used which address previously unanswered research questions.