Stress, angst og selvtillit i toppfotball : Hvilken betydning har mental tøffhet for angst og selvtillit i forkant av kampsituasjon blant fotballspillere?

Abstract

Stress, anxiety and self-esteem are key concepts in sports psychology and performance. How these factors affect athletes in terms of achievement is an interesting area and the main background for this study. The purpose of this study was to investigate the meaning of mental toughness (MT) compared to cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and self-esteem ahead of soccer matches among high-level soccer players. The selection in this study was the first-team squad of Arendal fotball, consisting of 23 players from 18 to 37 years of age. During the project, Arendal fotball took part in the PostNord-league section four, which represents Level three in Norwegian male soccer. This study has a quantitative research design, where data collection is done by the use of questionnaire. Five different matches where investigated during the 2016 soccer season. MT was measured using SMTQ. Anxiety and self-esteem were measured using CSAI-2. Data analysis was performed in IBM SPSS Statistics v. 24. The results show high self-esteem and low degree of anxiety among the players in Arendal fotball ahead of soccer matches. The players with high MT had higher self-esteem and less cognitive anxiety than the players with low MT ahead of matches. The players with high MT on the other hand, showed a higher degree of somatic anxiety than the players with low MT ahead of matches. Keywords: self-esteem, anxiety, mental toughness, soccer, performance