Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020;16(4):609-618.
doi: 10.1007/s11332-020-00677-9. Epub 2020 Aug 31.

Athletes and adversities: athletic identity and emotional regulation in time of COVID-19

Sergio Costa  1 , Giampaolo Santi  2 , Selenia di Fronso  3 , Cristina Montesano  1 , Francesco Di Gruttola  4 , Edoardo Giorgio Ciofi  5 , Luana Morgilli  5 , Maurizio Bertollo  3
Affiliations

Athletes and adversities: athletic identity and emotional regulation in time of COVID-19

Sergio Costa et al. Sport Sci Health. 2020.

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted on the sporting field, with athletes constrained in home isolation without the possibility to train and compete in their usual environments. This situation has been investigated within the theoretical frameworks of athletic identity and cognitive emotion regulation.

Objectives: The objectives of our investigation were to: (a) validate the athletic identity measurement scale (AIMS) for use in Italian language; and (b) explore differences by gender, typology of sport (individual vs. team), and competitive level (elite vs. non-elite) in athletic identity and in cognitive emotion regulation during the Covid-19 lockdown period.

Methods: To achieve these objectives, the reliability and construct validity of the Italian version of the AIMS have been tested in Study 1. Multivariate and univariate analyses were run to evaluate differences between different groups of athletes in Study 2.

Results: Results from Study 1 suggest a 3-factor higher order model of athletic identity. Results from Study 2 highlight that, during this lockdown period, elite athletes and team sports athletes show higher athletic identity. Cognitive emotion regulation strategies are different for gender and for competitive level. Finally, athletes with higher athletic identity tend to ruminate and catastrophize more.

Conclusions: The present multi-study paper contributes to the theoretical field with a validated measure of athletic identity in Italian language. It also provides some practical implications that could apply in this situation of isolation and can be extended to cases such as those of injury or illness.

Keywords: Athlete isolation; Coping; Lockdown; Performance; Sport psychology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThere are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Higher order structural model of the Italian translation of the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale. Note. Standardized estimates are reported in the figure. Model fit: χ2 = 20.5(11), χ2/df = 1,87, p < 0.05; CFI = 0.99; NFI = 0.98; TLI = 0.98; RMSEA = 0.047 [90% CI = 0.011–0.078], pclose = 0.52
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Differences in “rumination” and “catastrophizing” between athletes with higher Athletic Identity and athletes with lower Athletic Identity. Note. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. WHO Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) [internet]. 2020 [Cited on March 26, 2020]. https://www.who.int/publications-detail/report-of-the-who-china-joint-mi...
    1. Schinke R, Papaioannou A, Henriksen K, Si G, Zhang L, Haberl P. Sport psychology services to high performance athletes during COVID-19. Int J Sport Exerc Psychol. 2020 doi: 10.1080/1612197X.2020.1754616. - DOI
    1. Jukic I, Calleja-González J, Cos F, Cuzzolin F, Olmo J, Terrados N, Njaradi N, Sassi R, Requena B, Milanovic L, Krakan I, Chatzichristos K, Alcaraz PE. Strategies and solutions for team sports athletes in isolation due to COVID-19. Sports. 2020;8:56. doi: 10.3390/sports8040056. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Di Fronso S, Costa S, Montesano C, Di Gruttola F, Ciofi EG, Morgilli L, Robazza C, Bertollo M. The effects of COVID-19 pandemic on perceived stress and psychobiosocial states in Italian athletes. Int J Sport Exerc Psychol. 2020 doi: 10.1080/1612197X.2020.1802612. - DOI
    1. Brewer BW, VanRaalte JL, Linder DE. Athletic identity: Hercules’ muscles or Achilles heel? Int J Sport Psychol. 1993;24:237–254.

LinkOut - more resources