THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMPETITIVE ANXIETY AND SELF-PRESENTATIONAL CONCERNS

The purpose of this investigation was to examine Leary's (1992) conten tion that competitive anxiety revolves around the self-presentational implications of sport competition. Intercollegiate athletes (N = 199) completed inventories assessing competitive trait anxiety and self-pre sentational concerns. Principal-axis factor analysis with direct oblim rotation of self-presentational concern items produced an interpretab le four-factor solution accounting for 62% of the variance. These fact ors were interpreted to represent self-presentational concerns about P erformance/Composure Inadequacies, Appearing Fatigued/Lacking Energy, Physical Appearance, and Appearing Athletically Untalented. Correlatio nal and structural equation modeling analyses revealed that self-prese ntational concern was more strongly associated with cognitive rather t han somatic anxiety, and that substantial portions of variance in comp etitive anxiety could be accounted for by self-presentational concern variables. The results of this investigation provide support for Leary 's (1992) assertion regarding the relationship between self-presentati onal concern and competitive anxiety.