Ansiedade-estado competitiva em atletas profissionais e amadoras de Futebol feminino

The aim of the study was to compare the competitive state anxiety levels in professional and amateur female soccer athletes. This is a cross-sectional study, in which a total of 41 athletes completed the reduced Brazilian version of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory 2 (CSAI-2R), which were allocated into two groups: professional and amateur. The professional group consisted of 19 athletes (age = 22.7 ± 4.27; years of training = 8.53 ± 3.40) from a club that participated in the main national league of the sport, where the athletes had no psychological support, had five training sessions a week, including weight training sessions. The amateur group had 22 athletes (age = 19.6 ± 3.23; years of training = 5.04 ± 3.23), also without psychological support, with these having a weekly frequency of three training sessions, without weight training sessions. Results showed that professional athletes had higher values than amateur athletes for intensity (p = 0.012), frequency (p = 0.016) and direction response dimensions (p = 0.021) for self-confidence; more positive results in the direction response dimension, for total (p = 0.009) and cognitive anxiety (p = 0.005); in addition to lower values for the frequency response dimension of cognitive anxiety (p = 0.003). Also, higher values were also found for age (0.011) for the professional group. The results lead to the conclusion that professional athletes have greater self-confidence, a more positive interpretation of anxiety stimuli and less frequency of thoughts regarding the signs of competitive anxiety.