Evaluation of Agreeableness among Rugby Players

Abstract

Numerous studies have consistently underlined the significance of personality characteristics in rugby, emphasizing how these traits influence an athlete's performance, interactions within the team, and overall success in the sport. Rugby, being a physically demanding and mentally challenging team sport, requires a diverse set of personality characteristics to excel. The aim of this paper is to assess the agreeableness, the main factor of personality, and its facets, among rugby male and female players, junior and senior. Thus, we consider that between junior and senior rugby players there are some statistically significant differences, depending on their gender, in terms of agreeableness and its facets. In this regard, 99 rugby players were investigated, 51 senior players (male=28, female=23), with an average age of 24 and 22 years, competing in the National Rugby 7's Championship and 48 junior players (male=23, female=25) with an average age of 15 years. To assess agreeableness, the Big Five Questionnaire©plus_short was utilized. This tool investigates all personality factors, including extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness, and it was developed and validated for the Romanian population in accordance with the Big Five model. The individual results were generated and interpreted by the PsihoProfile platform, and the values of the five meta-factors and their facets were analyzed using the Anova statistical test. The study results revealed that, overall, there are similarities in the level of agreeableness and its facets among rugby players. Nonetheless, statistically significant differences were observed in the level of agreeableness and its facets based on the athletes' gender and age.