Relevancy of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory in sport environment.

Abstract The relevance of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory was determined by having all 12 women varsity basketball players at the University of Kentucky complete the instrument 16 different times. The players completed the inventory before and after two baseline practice sessions and before and after three easy and three crucial games. The team won all three easy games and lost all three crucial games. Coefficients of internal consistency were rather high, ranging from .74 to .94 for 15 test sessions, and coefficients of stability were rather low. Scores on the instrument were indicative of changes in anxiety states before and after competition: State anxiety was significantly reduced after all games that were won but remained high after all three games that were lost. The girls were significantly more anxious before the crucial games when compared to the easy games. It is concluded that the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory is quite suitable for repeated assessment of athletes in a competitive ...