An exploratory study on psychological stress, performance perception, and self-efficacy ın athletes with dual careers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71350/jsms.87Keywords:
Dual-career athletes, psychological strain, self-efficacy, shame, guilt.Abstract
This study aimed to examine the relationships among perceived self-efficacy, performance-related concerns, and psychological distress during competition periods in dual-career athletes and to determine the extent to which these variables predict one another. A total of 147 university student-athletes from various sports disciplines who participated in interuniversity competitions during 2024 and 2025 voluntarily took part in the study (32 women [21.8%] and 115 men [78.2%]; Mage = 22.78, SD = 4.08). Data were collected using the Athlete Psychological Strain Questionnaire (APSQ), Athlete Performance Perception Scale (APPS), and Athlete Self-Efficacy Scale. Participants’ demographic characteristics were summarized using descriptive statistics. Prior to regression analyses, assumptions concerning multivariate outliers (Mahalanobis distance and Cook’s distance), normality (skewness and kurtosis), multicollinearity (correlations, variance inflation factor [VIF], and condition index [CI]), and independence of errors (Durbin–Watson statistic) were assessed. Simple linear and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the hypothesized relationships, with the significance level set at p < .05. The findings indicated that psychological strain was negatively associated with self-efficacy and positively associated with performance-related concerns, whereas performance-related concerns positively predicted self-efficacy. Furthermore, self-efficacy negatively predicted psychological strain, while performance-related concerns showed a strong positive association with psychological strain. The regression models were statistically significant and explained between 8.7% and 26.8% of the variance in the dependent variables. Overall, the findings demonstrate a complex and dynamic interplay among psychological strain, performance-related concerns, and self-efficacy in dual-career athletes. These results highlight the importance of addressing both cognitive and emotional processes in interventions designed to enhance athletic performance and psychological well-being. By explaining the psychological strain–performance dilemma of dual-career athletes through self-efficacy and performance-related emotional and cognitive processes, this study contributes to the limited literature on the psychological mechanisms underlying dual-career experiences and provides a basis for developing targeted support strategies for student-athletes.
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