The Effect of Using Goal Setting in Reducing the Pre-Competitive Anxiety of Division I College Female Lacrosse Athletes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether goal setting could reduce the pre-competitive anxiety of college female lacrosse athletes. This was a quasi-experimental study, which follows the pre-test, post-test design for a control and experimental group. The measurement tool was the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory Revised (CSAI-2R). The ten participants in this study were Division I female lacrosse players from Loyola University, ranging in age from eighteen to twenty two years old. Five players were conveniently chosen by the coach to receive goal setting as their treatment over four-weeks and five players were chosen to be in the control group receiving no treatment. At the conclusion of the four-week study, a two-tailed independent samples t-test was conducted to determine if the mean differences in somatic anxiety, cognitive anxiety and self-confidence between the control and experimental groups were statistically significant. Results indicated that the differences between those means were not statistically significant, but both groups' self-confidence levels did increase as a result of the study.