The influence of athletes’ personality traits on competition performance: the multiple mediating effects of competitive anxiety, perfectionism, and stressors

TL;DR

This study explores how athletes' personality traits affect competition performance through factors like anxiety, perfectionism, and stressors.

Contribution

The paper identifies multiple mediating effects of competitive anxiety, perfectionism, and stressors linking personality traits to performance.

Findings

Openness, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness positively influence competitive anxiety and perfectionism.

Neuroticism negatively affects both competitive anxiety and perfectionism.

Perfectionism and stressors fully mediate the relationship between personality traits and competition performance.

Abstract

To examine the impact of personality traits on athletes’ competition performance, verifying the dual-chain mediating roles of competitive anxiety, perfectionism, and stressors.

Using a questionnaire survey, personality traits, competitive anxiety, perfectionism, stressors, and competition performance were measured for 456 competitive aerobics athletes. The results were analyzed using mathematical statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM).

(1) Personality traits of openness, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness had a significant positive impact on athletes’ competitive anxiety, while neuroticism had a significant negative effect. (2) Traits of openness, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness also significantly positively influenced athletes’ perfectionism, whereas neuroticism significantly negatively impacted perfectionism. (3) Perfectionism had a significant positive effect on athletes’ competitive anxiety. (4) Competitive anxiety, perfectionism, and stressors played complete mediating roles between personality traits and athletes’ competition performance. Personality traits significantly impacted athletes’ competition performance not only through competitive anxiety and stressors as chain mediators but also through perfectionism and stressors as chain mediators. This study provides valuable theoretical insights and, more importantly, practical guidance for coaches and sports psychologists. The findings suggest that by assessing athletes’ personality traits, practitioners can develop tailored interventions to manage competitive anxiety, channel perfectionism adaptively, and help athletes reframe stressors as challenges rather than hindrances, ultimately optimizing their competition performance.

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