Mindfulness and Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy of Injured Athletes Returning to Sports: The Mediating Role of Competitive State Anxiety and Athlete Burnout
Yiwei Tang, Yang Liu, Longjun Jing, Huilin Wang, Jingyu Yang
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health September 1, 2022 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph191811702 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Cross-sectional survey Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 433 |
| Population | Injured athletes returning to sports from high-level sports teams in South China |
| Intervention | Mindfulness intervention |
| Topics | Anxiety Meditation |
| Key findings | Mindfulness significantly reduced competitive state anxiety and burnout in injured athletes returning to sports, and increased regulatory emotional self-efficacy. The study suggests that mindfulness improves emotional regulation by lowering anxiety and burnout. |
Abstract
Usually, both external environmental factors and internal psychological factors affect the self-efficacy of athletes returning to sports after an injury. Based upon COR theory, this study investigated mindfulness interventions’ effects on competitive state anxiety and burnout in injured athletes who are returning to sports. The study was conducted in South China from March to April 2022. The snowball and convenience sampling methods were used to select high-level sports teams’ injured athletes returning to sports, and a questionnaire survey was administered, from which 433 valid samples were obtained. Amos v. 26 was used to analyze the data. The results showed that mindfulness has a significant negative effect on competitive state anxiety and burnout, such that after strengthening the mindfulness intervention, athletes’ competitive state anxiety and burnout decreased and regulatory emotional self-efficacy increased. Further, this study indicated that athletes are prone to negative emotions after injury, and among athletes who returned to sports after injury, those with mindfulness interventions reported lower levels of competitive state anxiety and burnout. Hence, the study demonstrated that mindfulness can improve regulatory emotional self-efficacy in injured athletes who are returning to sports by reducing competitive state anxiety and burnout.