Perceived Esteem Support Predicts Competition Appraisals and Performance Satisfaction Among Varsity Athletes: A Test of Organizational Stressors as Moderators

Organizational stressors may be important factors influencing athletes' sport experiences. In this study, we examined organizational stressors as “background variables” (Gump &amp; Matthews, 1999) that may impact athletes' perceptions of support and appraisals of competitive stressors. Perceptions of available esteem support, organizational stressors, competitive appraisals, and performance satisfaction were prospectively examined among varsity team sport athletes (<i>N</i> = 84). Esteem support was positively related to athletes' perceptions of satisfaction with performance, and the indirect effect through secondary appraisal was significant. Two types of organizational stressors moderated the association between esteem support and secondary appraisal: More frequent coaching stressors weakened the association between esteem support and secondary appraisal, whereas more frequent team and culture stressors strengthened the association between esteem support and appraisal. These results support previous research (cf. Freeman &amp; Rees, 2009), indicating that perceived available esteem support was positively associated with athletes' assessments that they had the necessary resources to cope with competitive stressors, which positively predicted performance satisfaction after a competition. Furthermore, these findings suggest that higher levels of coaching stressors were associated with poorer perceptions of having the necessary resources to cope with competition stressors, whereas conversely, higher team and culture stressors were not necessarily detrimental to athletes' perceptions of their resources to cope with competitive demands. These results suggest that different types of organizational stressors may have differential impacts on athletes' sport experiences.

组织应激源(Organizational stressors)或许是影响运动员运动体验的关键因素。本研究将组织应激源视作“背景变量”（Gump与Matthews，1999），探究其对运动员的支持感知与竞技应激源评估可能产生的影响。本研究以84名校队项目运动员为被试，前瞻性考察了可获得性自尊支持(Esteem support)、组织应激源、竞争性评估(Competitive appraisals)以及运动表现满意度(Performance satisfaction)。研究结果显示，自尊支持与运动员的运动表现满意度感知呈显著正相关，且通过次级评估(Secondary appraisal)产生的间接效应具有统计学意义。两类组织应激源对自尊支持与次级评估之间的关联存在调节作用：教练应激源(Coaching stressors)出现频率越高，越会削弱自尊支持与次级评估之间的关联；而团队与文化应激源(Team and culture stressors)出现频率越高，则越会强化二者之间的关联。本研究结果支持既往研究成果（参见Freeman与Rees，2009），表明感知到的可获得性自尊支持与运动员对自身具备应对竞技应激源所需资源的评估呈正相关，而该评估可正向预测赛后运动表现满意度。此外，本研究发现，教练应激源水平越高，运动员对自身具备应对竞技应激源所需资源的感知越差；与之相对，团队与文化应激源水平较高并不一定会损害运动员对自身应对竞技需求所需资源的感知。上述结果表明，不同类型的组织应激源可能对运动员的运动体验产生差异化影响。