Psychological Profile and Competitive Performance in Group Aesthetic Gymnastics.

Keywords: sport 1, competitive anxiety 2, optimism 3, motivational climate 4, cohesion 5 The objective of this study was to evaluate gymnasts’ perceptions regarding the psychological variables cohesion and motivational climate in the context created by the coaches of their teams and to analyse the optimism and competitive anxiety they face in competitive situations. In an attempt to clarify the psychosocial training patterns in this sport and the influence they have on the well-being of its practitioners, competitive anxiety, motivational climate, team cohesion and level of optimism were taken as dependent variables. The sample was made up of 100 national and international junior and senior athletes in the aesthetic gymnastics group aged 13 to 27 (M = 17.1; SD = 2.8). The Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire for motivational climate, the Sport Anxiety Scale-2 for competitive anxiety, the Group Environment Questionnaire for cohesion and the Revised Life Orientation Test for optimism were used in the evaluation. The results obtained show a positive and statistically significant correlation between anxiety and ego involvement, while, for task involvement, high levels of cohesion are associated with high levels of optimism (p = .005). In conclusion, the data confirms that the older the gymnasts are and the more years they compete, the lower their competitive anxiety, the greater their group cohesion and the greater their optimism, possibly as a result of the security provided by training and gymnastic mastery.