Attentional Patterns Involved in Coping Strategies in a Sport Context

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We investigated the relationship between coping strategies and attentional bias after a sport competition. We administered the Ways of Coping Checklist (Paulhan, Nuissier, Quintard, Cousson, and Bourgeois, 1994) to 145 athletes immediately after they had participated in a sport competition. We also assessed attentional bias using a dot probe detection task. Results revealed that emotion-focused coping strategies led athletes to orient their attention away from threat, whereas athletes who adopted problem-focused coping strategies focused their attention toward threat. More precisely, problem-focused coping strategies are related to a facilitated detection of threat, not to disengagement difficulties. The vigilance attentional bias seems to be a compensatory strategy to cope with a stressful situation, such as sport competition.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)597-602
JournalResearch Quarterly for Exercise and Sport
Volume83
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 Feb 2013
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