Validating a self-report measure of student athletes’ perceived 2 stress reactivity: Associations with heart-rate variability and 3 stress appraisals.

Abstract

Student athletes experience multiple stressors relating to both their sporting and academic 25 commitments. Individual differences play a significant role in how well student athletes cope 26 with the demands they face. When assessing individual differences in stress reactivity, there 27 are a lack of valid alternatives to costly and time-consuming lab-based physiological methods 28 (e.g. cortisol sampling, cardiac variables). This paper aims to further validate a self-report 29 measure of adolescent athletes’ individual differences in perceived stress reactivity, by 30 comparing to a psycho-physiological measure of emotion regulation (heart-rate variability) 31 assessed during a socially evaluated cold pressor test. 30 student athletes and 31 student non-32 athletes completed a measure of perceived stress reactivity and took part in the socially 33 evaluated cold pressor test while their heart-rate variability was assessed, along with their 34 self-reported appraisals of stress, pain, and unpleasantness experienced during the procedure. 35 Controlling for gender and athleticism, individual differences in perceived stress reactivity 36 showed no associations with tonic or phasic levels of heart-rate variability. However, 37 perceived stress reactivity was associated with levels of self-reported stress, pain, and 38 unpleasantness experienced during the socially evaluated cold pressor test. These findings 39 therefore suggest that perceived stress reactivity is associated with cognitive responses to 40 stress (i.e. stress appraisals). However, further research is needed to confirm its relationship 41 with physiological measures and responses. This further adds to the understanding of 42 perceived stress reactivity, and validity of the perceived stress reactivity scale for adolescent 43 athletes.