ORIGINAL ARTICLES  PSYCHOLOGY 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2015 July-August;55(7-8):835-44

Copyright © 2015 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Sources of sport confidence, imagery type and performance among competitive athletes: the mediating role of sports confidence

Levy A. R. ¹, Perry J. ², Nicholls A. R. ³, Larkin D. ¹, Davies J. ¹ ✉

¹ Department of Psychology, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, UK; ² Department of Sport Health & Nutrition, Leeds Trinity University College, Leeds, UK; ³ Department of Psychology, University of Hull, Hull, UK

AIM: This study explored the mediating role of sport confidence upon (1) sources of sport confidence-performance relationship and (2) imagery-performance relationship.
METHODS: Participants were 157 competitive athletes who completed state measures of confidence level/sources, imagery type and performance within one hour after competition.
RESULTS: Among the current sample, confirmatory factor analysis revealed appropriate support for the nine-factor SSCQ and the five-factor SIQ. Mediational analysis revealed that sport confidence had a mediating influence upon the achievement source of confidence-performance relationship. In addition, both cognitive and motivational imagery types were found to be important sources of confidence, as sport confidence mediated imagery type- performance relationship.
CONCLUSION: Findings indicated that athletes who construed confidence from their own achievements and report multiple images on a more frequent basis are likely to benefit from enhanced levels of state sport confidence and subsequent performance.