Abstract:

Sport competition anxiety is one of the primary detrimental effect for athletes’ performances. There is ample empirical evidence showing that chewing gum alleviates physiological and psychological anxious response to acute or chronic stressors. However, it is unknown whether chewing gum reduces athletes’ anxiety during competition. To clarify the relationship between chewing gum and sport competition anxiety in athletes, four hundred and fifty-seven athletes were recruited to complete Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT) and Chewing Gum and Sport Competition Anxiety Questionnaire (CGSCA). Competition anxiety was measured with 15 items from SCAT developed by Martens and Schwenkmezger (1979). The response scale for the items was 1 (rarely) to 3 (often). Six items measuring CGSCA were developed for this study. Item 1 measured the frequency of chewing gum; item 2 measured the subjective experience of chewing gum; item 3 measured the reason for chewing gum; item 4 measured the frequency of competition anxiety during 11 sports scenes, ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (always); item 5 measured whether athletes’ chewed gum during 11 sports scenes described in item 4; and item 6 measured the frequency of adopting the 16 ways to relieve anxiety, ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (always). The mean of SCAT was 18.3±3.3, which is beyond the lowest anxiety (10). Moreover, the scores of SCAT were correlated with the item 4 of CGSCA, r = .507, p < .001. The results confirmed that all of athletes were anxious and stressful in sporting events. The result of item 1 of CGSCA showed that almost half (44.4%) of athletes chewed gum more than once a month in daily life. Further correlation analysis among the last 3 items of CGSCA demonstrated two significant correlations, one was between sporting competition anxiety (item 4) and habits of chewing gum in sporting events (item 5), r = .142, p < .01, and the other was between sporting competition anxiety (item 4) and frequency of chewing gum to relieve stress (item 6), r = .195, p < .001. Consistently, independent sample t test of high and low competition anxiety groups confirmed that athletes who were anxious in sporting events were more likely to chew gum (t (187) = 3.766, p < .001), and more likely to use this way to help reduce stress t (186)= 3.482, p < .001. Consistent with previous studies examining the relationship between chewing gum and stress reduction, the results from this study demonstrated that more gum-chewing correlated with less experienced anxiety of athletes. The present study suggests that chewing gum is a simple way to help athletes reduce stress during sporting events. The limitation of this study is that due to the surveying nature of the method, the evidence for the relationship between chewing gum and stress reduction was correlational rather than causal. Therefore, future study should provide solid evidence of causal relationship by using experimental methods.

Key words: Sports psychology, Sport competition anxiety, Questionnaire study, Athletes, Chewing gum

摘要：

为考察运动员咀嚼口香糖行为与竞赛焦虑的关系，本研究采用自编《咀嚼口香糖与竞赛焦虑问卷CGSCA》与《运动竞赛焦虑测验SCAT》，调查了457名运动员。结果发现，SCAT表明，运动员在竞赛情景下普遍处于应激状态并容易体验到焦虑；CGSCA表明，竞赛咀嚼行为与竞赛焦虑存在显著正相关，竞赛焦虑高的个体拥有更多的竞赛咀嚼行为，并更多地采用咀嚼口香糖的方式来缓解竞赛焦虑。本研究表明，咀嚼口香糖可以缓解运动员的竞赛焦虑。

关键词: 运动心理学, 竞赛焦虑, 问卷研究, 运动员, 口香糖