ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2021
Competitive anxiety or Coronavirus anxiety? The psychophysiological responses of professional football players after returning to competition during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological aspects and mental health of elite soccer athletes: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Pooled it
- Psychological and Mental Sequelae in Elite Athletes with Previous SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Returning to Work after the COVID-19 Pandemic Earthquake: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Psychological hardiness and social support as protective factors against burnout in high-performance athletes.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Article
- Return to play of young and adult professional athletes after COVID-19: A scoping review.Journal of exercise science and fitness · 2024Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on football attacking players' match technical performance: a longitudinal study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Assessment of Female Hormonal Influence on COVID-19 Vaccine Response: A Prospective Cohort Study.Cureus · 2024Article
- Article
- Data Analysis of Psychological Approaches to Soccer Research: Using LDA Topic Modeling.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Effects of home confinement on physical activity, nutrition, and sleep quality during the COVID-19 outbreak in amateur and elite athletes.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Article
- Tennis vs padel: Precompetitive anxiety as a function of gender and competitive level.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- The association between COVID-19 anxiety levels and tobacco use among patients within a smoking cessation polyclinic.Tobacco induced diseases · 2022Article
- Influence of Supervisors' Fairness on Work Climate, Job Satisfaction, Task Performance, and Helping Behavior of Health Workers During COVID-19 Outbreak.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
objectiveThis 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.
methodsNinety 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.
resultsThe 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).
conclusionsThe 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.
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