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Identification of Precompetitive Anxiety among Professional Footballers: A Cross-Sectional Study in Pakistan’s Context

Background: Precompetitive anxiety refers to an indistinct but unrelenting feeling of uneasiness and dread in hours prior to the competition. Precompetitive anxiety has been shown to affect an athlete at various levels including match performance, sporting injuries, rehabilitation of sports injuries, return to activity and risk or re-injury. It has become a common practice to differentiate between the two common forms of anxiety. Therefore, the purpose of current study was to assess precompetitive anxiety in footballers of Pakistan.

Methods: A descriptive cross section survey was conducted on 58 male footballers aged between 18-26 years. The data was collected from Pakistan football federation club and Fame football club. Total 34 footballers were assessed at the Pakistan football federation club and 24 at the Fame football club. The sampling strategy utilized was non-probability convenience sampling. The study was conducted over a period of 6 months from July 2018 to January 2019. Competitive state anxiety inventory was used to assess precompetitive anxiety 1 hour preceding the competition. Data analysis was carried out using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21and results were presented in the form of frequency and percentages.

Results: Out of 58 participating footballers, 44.8% (n=26) reported moderate levels of somatic state anxiety, 72.4% (n=42) reported moderate levels of cognitive state anxiety and 48.3% (n=28) reported moderate levels of self-confidence.

Conclusion: The study concluded that moderate to low levels of somatic state anxiety, moderate levels of cognitive state anxiety and moderate to high levels of self-confidence were present in majority of participating footballers.