The Relation Between Performance Anxiety, Perceived Family Support and Mental Toughness.
Lois Page
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Catherine Massey
Department of Psychology

Introduction
• Anxiety can affect any athlete, ranging from amateurs
to professionals, and can negatively influence
performance (Woodman & Hardy, 2003).
• Athletes reported that parents were perceived as the
most important figures and supporters of their career
(Fitriana & Xin, 2019).
• ‘However, parents can also have a negative impact on
the nature and quality of young athletes’ sport
experiences depending on the goal priorities they set,
the attitudes and values they transmit, and the nature of
their interactions’ (Smoll et al., 2007).
• There is a negative correlation between mental
toughness and anxiety, higher mental toughness is
related to lower anxiety (Jannah et al., 2018).
• Athletes who compete in individual sports experience
less anxiety compared to athletes who compete in team
sports, due to a stronger sense of control and
accomplishment (Van de Pol, 2012).

Research Questions

Method

Discussion

•
No
significant
correlation
was
found
between
performance
Sample
anxiety in athletes and perceived family support.
Participants were 82 varsity student athletes from
• The more mental toughness reported, the lower the
Slippery Rock University that were recruited via an
performance anxiety.
email sent to all SRU varsity athletes.
• The more perceived praise and understanding from parents, the
Demographics:
stronger the mental toughness reported from athletes.
• No significant correlation was found between team or
Gender
individual
sports
with
performance
anxiety
or
mental
• Men: 16
• Average age: 20.02 yrs
toughness.
•Women: 66
• College level:
• Directive behavior and perceived family support in men may be
Sr: 22
significantly correlated in a larger sample size of men.
•Individual sport: 16
Jr: 19
• In addition, using a larger sample size, future research could
•Team sport: 66
Soph: 21
examine whether mental toughness is a mediating factor
between perceived parental support and performance anxiety.
Fresh: 20
Especially relating to praise and understanding.

Results

1. Is there a relationship between performance anxiety
in athletes and perceived family support?

2. Is mental toughness related to performance anxiety?
3. Is there a difference between team vs individual
sports regarding performance anxiety?

Data Collection Instruments
• Background information form
•Sport Anxiety Scale 2 (SAS-2; Smith et al., 2006)
The three subscales of the SAS-2 (somatic anxiety, worry
and concentration disruption) were combined to create a
Performance Anxiety score.
•Parental Involvement in Sport Questionnaire (PISQ; Lee
& MacLean, 1997)
The PISQ included 3 subscales; Directive Behavior, Praise
and Understanding, and Active Involvement.
•Mental Toughness Scale (MTS; Madrigal et al., 2013)
Total scale score was used to assess mental toughness.
• Team vs individual sport variables were coded based on
the participant's answer to the question ‘how would you
classify the sport?’
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr Massey for supervising this project.
In addition, I would like to thank the coaches who helped with recruiting their athletes to take part in the research.
Finally, I would like to thank the Student Athletes who took the time to complete the survey.