Relationships among athletes’ challenge and threat perceptions, mindfulness, and anxiety

Introduction: The aim of this study was to examine the associations between athletes' challenge and threat perceptions and sport anxiety, and to evaluate the role of mindfulness in these relationships in terms of moderation and indirect effects (mediation).

Methods: A total of 291 athletes from different sport branches participated in the study. Data were collected using the Challenge and Threat in Sport Scale, the Athlete Mindfulness Scale, and the Sport Anxiety Scale. Descriptive statistics and correlations were computed; regression-based models corresponding to PROCESS Model 1 were used for moderation analyses, and PROCESS Model 4 for indirect-effect analyses, with indirect effects evaluated using 5,000 bootstrap samples.

Results: The findings indicated that mindfulness was negatively associated with sport anxiety, whereas threat perception was positively associated with sport anxiety. In the moderation models, the mindfulness × (challenge/threat) interaction terms were not significant, and the incremental contribution of the interaction to the models was negligible (ΔR² < .002). However, indirect-effect analyses showed significant indirect effects through mindfulness: for challenge → mindfulness → anxiety, the indirect effect was ab = -0.202 (95% CI [-0.300, -0.118]); and for threat → mindfulness → anxiety, the indirect effect was ab = 0.099 (95% CI [0.050, 0.160]).

Discussion: Overall, the results suggest that mindfulness may function as a mechanism linking athletes' cognitive appraisal processes to anxiety levels.