Attentional patterns involved in coping strategies in a sport context.
We investigated the relationship between coping strategies and attentional bias after a sport competition. We administered the Ways of Coping Checklist (Paulhan, Nuissier, Quintard, Cousson, & Bourgeois, 1994) to 145 athletes immediately after they had participated in a sport competition. We also assessed attentional bias using a dot probe detection task. Results revealed that emotion-focused coping strategies led athletes to orient their attention away from threat, whereas athletes who adopted problem-focused coping strategies focused their attention toward threat. More precisely, problem-focused coping strategies are related to a facilitated detection of threat, not to disengagement difficulties. The vigilance attentional bias seems to be a compensatory strategy to cope with a stressful situation, such as sport competition.
Institute of Environmental Medicine at Paris, France. bardel.marieheloise@neuf.fr
Marie-Héloïse
MH
Bardel
Tim
T
Woodman
Fabienne
F
Colombel
Christine
C
Le Scanff
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D056352:Athletes / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012916:Soccer; D013715:Tennis