Abstract:
This research investigated the influence of anxiety on sports performance among self selected Basic School athletes in the Central Region of Ghana. The study is a quasi experimental research of static group comparison design. This design involves a group
that has experienced treatment compared to another without treatment (control group).
The sample for the study was made up of sixty (60) self selected and purposively selected
male and female track athletes at the 31st Inter-Regional Basic School Sports Festival at
Ho. A simple random sampling technique was used to group the participants into two
groups of 30 experimental and 30 control groups respectively, of equal gender
representation (15 males and 15 females experimental group & 15 males and 15 females
control group). The research was conducted using 20 items questionnaires adapted from
the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) by Spielberger (1968). The instrument was
revalidated using test re-test method with a reliability coefficient of Cronbach alpha of
.78 (α = .78). Three research questions were answered and one hypothesis was tested.
Data collected was analysed using descriptive statistic of frequency counts and
percentage for demographic information and Pearson product moment correlation to test
the hypothesis at 0.05 significant level. The findings revealed that anxiety had a negative
impact on performance. The higher the STAI score in the controlled group, the more
poorly the athlete performed in an event as compared to those that obtained lower score
of STAI due to the treatment intervention. It is recommended that coaches from basic
school should be educated on the negative effects of anxiety on student athletes to ensure
that they provide various intervention support systems for the athletes for improved
performanc
Description:
A Thesis in the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation
and Sports (HPERS), Faculty of Science Education, submitted to the
School of Graduate Studies, University of Education, Winneba in
partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Master of
Philosophy (Physical Education) Degree.
OCTOBER, 2014