Influence of resilient profile, dispositional optimism, coping strategies and training load on stress-recovery levels in swimmers

Abstract

The athlete’s ability to control perceived stress and to optimally recover of training loads may be mediated by a resilient profile and dispositional optimism, which influence the use of certain coping strategies before a particular sport event and performance. The sample consist of 51 swimmers (49% male and 51% female) aged between 14 and 20 years (Mean=14.67 ± 1.87). These athletes were assessed through two administrations, the first one at the beginning of the competitive period and the second one just after the most important competition of the season. Instruments used to perform the assessment were: RESTQ-Sport (Kellmann & Kallus, 2001; González-Boto, Salguero, Tuero, Márquez & Kellmann, 2008) to measure their stress-recovery levels; Resilience Scale (Wagnild & Young, 1998; Ruiz, De la Vega, Poveda, Rosado & Serpa, 2012) to determine the resilient profile; LOT-R (Scheier, Carver & Bridges, 1994; Otero-López, Luengo, Romero, Gómez & Castro, 1998) to observe dispositional optimism levels; ISCCS (Gaudreau & Blondin, 2002) for coping strategies and the Borg CR-10 scale (Borg, 1998). Results showed that medium-high resilient profile and a dispositional optimism, attached to task-oriented coping, would improve the balance of stress-recovery levels.