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Abstract
The main aim of this study was to compare reactive stress tolerance of elite athletes according to gender, sport type, and competitive level. Performance under stress was evaluated in the case of 133 Singaporean national athletes, using the Determination Test in the Vienna Test System. A series of three-way analysis of variance revealed that in terms of speed and accuracy of responses under stress (1) female athletes performed better than male athletes, (2) open skill athletes performed better than closed skill athletes, and (3) athletes of higher competitive level performed better than their lower level counterparts. There were also no significant interaction effects between any of the factors. These findings help both applied sport psychology practitioners and coaches to achieve greater understanding of how different athletes might vary in terms of reactive stress tolerance.
Keywords: reactive stress tolerance, reaction time, Vienna Test System, elite athletes, sport.
Elite athletes face a tremendous amount of stress in their sporting lives (Hanton, Fletcher, & Coughlan, 2005; Kristiansen & Roberts, 2010; Mellalieu, Neil, Hanton, & Fletcher, 2009), and their ability to function and react under stressful conditions has a significant impact on their sporting performance (Anshel & Anderson, 2002; Craft, Magyar, Becker, & Feltz, 2003; Jones, Hanton, & Connaughton, 2007). In her book about sportsmen under stress, Patmore (1986) suggested that the most important factor in sporting success is not the athlete's skill, but rather his or her ability to perform the skill under stressful conditions. Hanton, Thomas, and Mellalieu (2009) added that stress places additional demands on athletes that can tax their resources to cope and respond during various competitive situations. Specific sport-related attributes that have shown to be affected by stress include attentional focus (Krohne & Hindel, 1988), motor coordination (Anshel, Kim, Kim, Chang, & Eom, 2001), and decision making ability (Anshel, 1990).
While the majority of literature on athlete stress has focused on investigating areas such as appraisal (Nicholls, Polman, & Levy, 2012), coping style (Anshel & Anderson, 2002), and arousal (Jones & Hardy, 1989), much less research has been conducted in the area of reactive stress tolerance. Reactive stress tolerance is defined as the ability of an individual to react quickly and accurately in a situation where he or she is overstretched (Neuwirth...