Les strategies de coping utilisees par les athletes en situation de competition sportive: Developpement d'un modele multidimensionnel du coping, de ses antecedents et de ses consequences

This thesis presents four papers on athletes' utilization of sport-related coping strategies during competitive sport encounters. The first article aimed at expending the validation of the Coping Inventory for Competitive Sports (CICS, Gaudreau & Blondin, 2002a). Results of the first study have corroborated the first-order and hierarchical factorial structure of the CICS, and they showed that each superfactor correlated meaningfully with self-reported goal attainment indices. Results of the second study have provided evidence for the longitudinal factorial invariance of the CICS across the stages of a sport competition. Moreover, mean-level of coping utilization had changed across the stages of the competition whereas the inter-individual differences in intra-individual changes were moderately stable (i.e., rank-order consistency). These results demonstrate the importance of considering both situational and dispositional influences in coping research. The second article aimed at examining the mediating effect of coping in the relationship between dispositional optimism and post-competition affective states. Results of structural equation modeling with manifest variables have shown that (1) task-oriented coping mediated partially the relationship between optimism and positive affect, (2) disengagement-oriented coping mediated partially the relationship between pessimism and anger, (3) goal attainment indices mediated partially the relationships between superfactors of coping and post-competition affective states. These results indicate that each superfactor of coping has a differential role in mediating the effects of optimism and pessimism on emotional adjustment. The third article tested the goodness-of-fit of a model in which self-determination mediated the relationships between different styles of perfectionism and superfactors of coping measured in the CICS. Results of structural equation modeling with latent variables have shown that (1) self-determined motivation mediated partially the relationship between personal standard perfectionism (PSP) and task-oriented coping, (2) nonself-determined motivation mediated partially the relationship between evaluative concern perfectionism (ECP) and both disengagement- and distraction-oriented coping, (3) disengagement-oriented coping mediated partially the relationship between ECP and changes in subjective well-being, (4) goal attainment mediated the relationship between superfactors of coping and changes in well-being. These results provide support for an integrative model in which dispositional, motivational, and situational variables were conceived at different levels of analysis. The fourth article tested whether different individuals could use different multivariate profiles of coping strategies. Based on hierarchical cluster analysis, athletes were classified in four different groups: (I) low copers, (II) task-oriented copers, (III) disengagement-oriented copers, (IV) high copers. As expected, profile II was associated with positive consequences whereas profile In was associated with negative consequences. Moreover, profile IV was associated with greater negative consequences than profile II. This result suggests that utilization of disengagement-oriented coping may cancel the benefits of using task-oriented coping. For the most part, this study indicated that research should complement coping strategies with coping profiles to assess the additive and multiplicative effects of coping on athletes' goal attainment and emotional adjustment.