The Relationship Between the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 and Sport Performance: A Meta-Analysis

The multidimensional approach to the study of anxiety (Martens, Vealey, & Burton, 1990a) considers subcomponents of anxiety, specifically cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, and self-confidence. Much of the research based on this theory has utilized the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory (CSAI-2) (Martens, Burton, Vealey, Bump, & Smith, 1990b). Findings have been inconsistent, with some research suggesting that the three subcomponents have separate relationships with performance and other studies failing to find any relationship between the anxiety subcomponents and performance. This metaanalysis examined the effect of state anxiety as measured by the CSAI-2 (i.e., cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, and self-confidence) on athletic performance. Studies were coded for characteristics that could potentially moderate the effects of anxiety on performance (i.e., features of design, subjects, sport). Interdependency between the three subscales was examined using multivariate meta-analytic techniques (Becker & Schram, 1994). Relationships among cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, self-confidence, and performance appeared weak. Exploratory modeling showed that self-confidence displayed the strongest and most consistent relationship with performance.