Different athletes cope differently during a sport competition: a cluster analysis of coping

This study aimed at examining the ways in which different athletes may combine the use of several coping strategies and at testing whether perceived goal attainment, affective states, and experience of control would differ across distinctive profiles of coping. A sample of 151 French-Canadian athletes out of 200 who were approached by a research assistant completed l’Inventaire des Stratgies de Coping en Comptition Sportive (Gaudreau & Blondin, 2002a), the PANAS ( Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), and a series of items measuring experience of control and perceived goal attainment. Results of a cluster analysis indicated that athletes could be classified in four groups according to their in-competition use of coping strategies. After controlling for athletes’ self-referenced goal attainment, their experience of control, positive affective state, and anger-dejection state differed significantly (p<0.008) across the four profiles of coping. Athletes who have used high level of task-oriented coping in combination with low level of disengagement-oriented coping reported better goal and psychological adjustment than athletes who have used high level of disengagement-oriented coping in combination with low level of task-oriented coping. Overall, these findings suggested that research should move from coping strategies to coping profiles in order to provide a deeper understanding of how different individuals cope with stress.