Analysis of pre-competitive state anxiety levels in artistic gymnastics athletes

Anxiety can be assessed from the perspective of three dimensions: somatic anxiety refers to physiological changes, cognitive anxiety associated with the degree of worry or negative thoughts, and self-confidence is related to a belief in facing a challenge. The study aimed to identify pre-competitive state anxiety levels in artistic gymnastics athletes, to compare pre-competitive anxiety levels of these participants between age groups and their competitive experience levels. 115 female artistic gymnastics athletes were analyzed, with a mean age of 13.61 ± 2.12 years. The results demonstrate that in the analysis of the three dimensions, there was a statistically significant difference only in the dimension Self-confidence (p=0.012). In the pairwise comparison, Self-Confidence showed a statistically significant difference in the 16-19 years and 13-15 years groups and also in the 16-19 years and 9-12 years groups. In the variable competitive experience, we can also notice a statistically significant difference in national competitions between groups 9-12 and 16-19. It can be concluded that the athletes participating in the older age group have lower self-confidence levels compared to the other groups. These results indicate that the older the athletes, the greater their concern with their performance, fear of failure and expectation of performance, leading to low levels of self-confidence.