Association of 24-hour movement guideline adherence with inhibitory control in older adults: the mediating role of general self-efficacy.

Competitive anxiety refers to an athlete's negative emotional reactions to stressful sport situations (). Competitive anxiety has been conceptualized as a multidimensional construct that includes physiological components like somatic symptoms, and cognitive aspects like negative thoughts about performance (). Cognitive anxiety has been further divided into the subcategories of worry and concentration disruption (). The Sport Anxiety Scale 2 (SAS-2) () is one of the most frequently used measures of competitive anxiety. Studies show that competitive anxiety negatively affects performance. For example, anxiety is reported as the most important contributor to inadequate performance in soccer () and is associated with increased injury risk (, ). This highlights the need to identify factors that contribute to the development and maintenance of competitive anxiety. Studies comparing competitive anxiety among elite athletes and recreational athletes have yielded mixed results. Some studies show equal levels of competitive anxiety across competitive levels (), while other studies found higher competitive anxiety among less experienced athletes (, ). In addition, females and younger athletes tend to report higher competitive anxiety (–). The mixed results in previous studies may be due to differences in how experience levels have been operationalized, the measures used, and the types of sports studied. Age-related differences in competitive anxiety may reflect varying exposure to competitive stressors, where younger individuals are likely to have less experience in managing high-pressure situations. Some research suggests that elite athletes are more likely to perceive anxiety symptoms as beneficial for performance, indicating that they use more effective strategies for coping with pressure (, ). Further, amateur athletes with better coping strategies have been found to have an increased chance of progressing to higher levels (). The self-regulatory executive functioning (S-REF) model, often called the metacognitive model (, ) of psychological disorders, may offer a useful conceptual framework for understanding competitive anxiety. The model describes a cognitive attentional syndrome (CAS) characterized by maladaptive processing styles including worry and rumination, which maintain psychological symptoms like anxiety or depression. According to the model, the CAS is regulated by underlying metacognitive beliefs. These include positive beliefs about the perceived usefulness of worry (“Worrying helps me cope”), negative beliefs about the uncontrollability (“When I start worrying, I cannot stop”) or danger of worry (“Worrying will make me lose my mind”), and cognitive self-consciousness, which refers to monitoring one's thoughts and feelings (“I pay close attention to the way my mind works”) ().