Depression And Anxiety Among University Football Players Before Competition: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Depression and anxiety are general terms that refer to the physical, emotional, behavioral and cognitive effects one experiences while undergoing a particular situation. Competitive anxiety is one of the factors to decrease athletes’ performance. Feelings of tension, thinking of upcoming events in their mind, nervousness, worry and involved physiological changes such as increased heart rate response are common responses for the athletes before the competition. Some athletes are so involved with things of fear, unhappiness, guilt, discouragement, and focus distraction. The present study aimed to examine the depression and competitive state anxiety among university male and female football players before the competition. For this purpose, a total no. of 100 players (ages 18-25 years, with a mean age of 21.06 years (±4.8) was selected and a survey method was conducted to know the opinion of players on depression and competitive state anxiety. The results showed that there was a significant difference (p<0.05) between the mean score of males’ depression and anxiety levels than female University Football Players before the competition.