The Effects of Self-Compassion and Mindfulness on Performance Anxiety and Flow in Elite Athletes
Keywords:
Self-compassion, Flow, Elite Athletes, Mindfulness, PerformanceAbstract
Elite athletes represent a unique population who are at an increased risk for perfectionism, negative cognitions, and emotional and behavioral difficulties. Although previous research has established a clear inverse relationship between mindfulness and performance anxiety, little is known about the potential influence of self-compassion on performance anxiety and flow among elite athletes. The present study explored the predictive value of self-compassion among 48 elite female swimmers, hypothesizing that higher levels of self-compassion would predict increased levels of flow and decreased levels of performance anxiety. This study replicated past research on mindfulness and performance anxiety. The unique contribution of this study is the finding specifically for the outcome of flow, highlighting that self-compassion explains an additional 18% of the variance in elite female swimmers’ experience of flow, above and beyond the influence of mindfulness, which accounted for 9% of the variance explained in flow. Implications of the findings suggest the value of incorporating self-compassion training for elite athletes.
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