Fear of failure and student athletes’ interpersonal antisocial behaviour in education and sport

Authors

Sagar, SS: Boardley, ID and Kavussanu, M

Date

2011

Keywords

Sport; anti-social behaviour; fear of failure.

Country of research

United Kingdom

Summary of findings

This UK-based study explores the nature of the relationships between fear of failure and sport experience and antisocial behaviour in sports and university contexts and the nature of any sex differences.  The authors provide a broad overview of research on fear of failure and its potentially adverse effects on behaviour and personal evaluations.  They outline five beliefs about the consequences of failure: (i) Experiencing shame and embarrassment; (ii) Having an uncertain future; (iii) Devaluation of self-estimate; (iv) Important others losing interest, leading to loss of social value and influence; (v) Upsetting important others.  Research indicates that a high fear of failure can lead to hostile and domineering behaviour and engagement in acts harmful to others.  The authors suggest that education and sport are achievement contexts in which fear of failure might predict antisocial behaviour because it is grounded in self- and social-evaluative aspects of competence.  Further, these contexts also provide an opportunity, within the same sample, to explore sex-role differences of fear of failure and its consequences as previous research indicates sex differences in attitudes to sport.

The sample was 176 male and 155 females from two English universities (average age: 22.11) who were competing in a variety of university teams in medium or high contact sports.  All completed a self-completion questionnaire.  The questionnaire collected data via a 25 item Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory, based on the five beliefs about the consequences of failure.  Anti-social behaviour in sport was explored via a self-report 13 item Pro-social and Anti-social Behaviour in Sport Scale (PABSS).  Antisocial behaviour in university was explored via an adapted version of  PABSS.

The results indicated that fear of failure moderately and positively predicted students’ antisocial behaviour in both sport and university, with the authors claiming that this illustrates that fear of failure is a motive which is deeply rooted in dispositions to self-evaluation and transfers across domains.  Sport experience positively predicted antisocial behaviour in both contexts and those who reported engaging more frequently in antisocial behaviour in one context were also more likely to report more frequent antisocial conduct in the other context.  Although there were few sex-related differences in the prediction of antisocial behaviour there were significant differences in the nature of the fear of failure.  Male students reported higher levels of fear of important others losing interest and a threat to their social standing.  Females were more concerned with a fear of devaluing one’s self-estimate, which the authors suggest is related to generally lower competence levels in females compared to males.  Further, males reported more frequent antisocial behaviour than females in both contexts (although the levels of such behaviour were low).

The authors point to several limitations of the research: it is cross-sectional and does not permit an investigation of direction of cause; it does not provide any indication of fluctuations in behaviour over time in academic year or sporting season; the findings are limited to the university student athletes and cannot be generalised.  However, the authors conclude that the data indicate the need to understand the differing nature of athlete’s fear of failure, its possible consequences and the need to manage for this.

Methodology

Cross-sectional; survey.

Source of reference

British Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 391–408

Web reference

http://www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=0007-0998&site=1