Assessment of Hearing-Impaired Athletes' Anxiety and Self-Perceptions

Abstract

70 hearing-impaired basketball players participating in a national basketball tournament completed Neeman and Harter's Self-perception Profile examining their feelings of social acceptance, athletic competence, and global self-worth. In addition, players completed the Sport Competition Anxiety Test for trait anxiety and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory evaluating their cognitive and somatic anxiety as well as their feelings of self-confidence. Correlations indicated an inverse relationship for subjects' ratings of athletic competence with their scores on trait anxiety and rated cognitive and somatic state anxiety. The correlation between rated self-worth and the subjects' feelings of confidence was low and positive. Results are discussed in relation to achievement-motivation theory.