Losing it: The importance of anxiety and mood stability in sport

Interest in anxiety, stress, and mood in sport has frequently focused on th e impact of these variables on performance in sport (Jones, 1995). This bod y of work has generally defined anxiety and stress in negative terms, and l ittle attention has been directed at the importance of the loss of mood and anxiety stability in sport. The broad purpose of this study was to highlig ht the importance of the meaning that participants in sport attach to anxie ty and other mood slates, in part by drawing on theoretical perspectives pr ovided by existential psychology More specifically, the greater focus on th e importance of loss in relation to both the emotional and behavior al live s of individuals in sport represents a departure from concern over levels o f mood and anxiety, which has dominated most research in this area. Analysi s of both qualitative and quantitative diary data provided over a 28-day pe riod by elite-level netball players and rugby referees revealed that losses in terms of mood stability correlated more strongly with important non-spo rt-related life events and that anxiety levels did not rise in the predicte d fashion prior to matches. These and other illustrative results ale discus sed in relation to the need to use methodological approaches that facilitat e the generation of individualized combined qualitative and qualitative lon gitudinal data