Competitive anxiety or Coronavirus anxiety? The psychophysiological responses of professional football players after returning to competition during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

El objetivo fue examinar la relación entre ansiedad cognitiva y somática, miedo/ansiedad por COVID-19, y respuestas autonómicas y endocrinas al estrés en jugadores de fútbol profesional al volver a la competición tras la pandemia. Método: 90 futbolistas masculinos (26,33 ± 2,48 años) y un partido oficial. Se usó Escala de Miedo al COVID-19, Escala de Ansiedad por Coronavirus el CSAI-2 Rev. 30 min antes de la competición. Se tomaron muestras de alfa-amilasa (sAA) y cortisol salival (sCort): 8 am. y 15’ antes del partido. Resultados: Prueba de Pearson: Correlaciones positivas (+) significativas entre ansiedad ante la COVID y A. somática (p = 0,01); A. cognitiva (p = 0,01) y respuesta a la competición en sCort y sAA (p = 0,01). El miedo a COVID correlacionó (+) con ansiedad por COVID (p = 0,01). La respuesta de despertar de sCort y sAA no correlacionó con parámetros psicológicos (p > 0.05). Sin correlación entre autoconfianza y otras variables psicológicas y fisiológicas (p > 0,05). El análisis de regresión mostró que A. cognitiva era predictor relevante de respuestas de competición sCort y sAA (p < 0,05). La ansiedad por la COVID es predictor de la A. somática y cognitiva (p < 0,05). El estudio muestra la primera evidencia preliminar de que la ansiedad por COVID y la ansiedad competitiva pueden tener un impacto negativo en el rendimiento de futbolistas profesionales en competitición. Se necesita investigación para construir estrategias de reducción de estrés psicofisiológico relacionado con la COVID y respuesta a la competición. Objective: This study aimed to examine the relationship between competitive anxiety, fear/anxiety of COVID-19, and autonomic and endocrine stress responses in professional football players after returning to competition during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Ninety male professional football players (age: 26.33 ± 2.48 yr) volunteered to participate in this study, which included an official competition. Psychophysiological responses, including the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale, and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 Revised, were collected 30 min before the competition. In addition, salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) and salivary cortisol (sCort) were collected at 8 a.m. and 15 min before the competition.

Results: The main findings, based on the Pearson correlation, showed significant positive correlations between COVID-19 anxiety and somatic competitive anxiety (p = 0.01), cognitive competitive anxiety (p = 0.01), and competition response of sCort and sAA (p = 0.01). Moreover, fear of COVID-19 was positively correlated with COVID-19 anxiety (p = 0.01). On the contrary, the awakening response of sCort and sAA was not found to be correlated with psychological parameters (all p > 0.05). The analysis also indicated that there was no significant correlation between self-confidence with other psychological and physiological variables (all p > 0.05). The regression analysis showed that cognitive anxiety was a relevant predictor for the competition response of sCort and sAA (p < 0.05). Moreover, COVID-19 anxiety was the only predictor of somatic and cognitive anxiety (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: The present study provides the first preliminary evidence that COVID-19 anxiety and competitive anxiety might pose a negative impact on the athletic performance of professional football players during COVID-19 pandemic competitions. Thus, research is needed to build a strategy to reduce the psychophysiological stress related to COVID-19 and competition response.