Sport Psychology: Self-Efficacy in Sport

Summary

Self-efficacy is a critical cognitive influence on sport training and performance. However, despite years of research, there are many under-researched self-efficacy topics such as whether low self-efficacy may, at times, be beneficial. Because athletes spend a lot of their time training it is important to understand training self-efficacy (e.g., the influence of training effort on efficacy). A component of training efficacy, tapering, is linked to self-efficacy and is influenced by an athlete’s nutritional efficacy. Tapering and dietary practices are also associated as athletes may under-consume calories during tapering to avoid weight gain, whereas in other sports athletes might over-consume calories to make a specific weight classification (e.g., wrestling). Eating practices can also influence sleep quality so it is important to consider sleep self-efficacy. Because individual athlete self-efficacy doesn’t occur in a vacuum, proxy and social efficacy are valuable topics for sport psychologists to understand. Proxy and social efficacy can influence how well athletes manage pain and injury, so the relationships among them is critical. Coaches have a strong influence on athletes’ experiences in sport, making coaching efficacy a valuable construct to consider. Coaches represent one source of interpersonal influence on athletes’ self-efficacy, so the role of interpersonal efficacy in sport is significant. Young researchers are often looking for future research ideas and providing specific suggestions linking the above areas together is helpful. For instance, athletes who perceive that nutritionists lack competence (e.g., present nutritional information in incomprehensible, complex terms) may feel low nutritional self-efficacy in being able to apply that information to their own eating practices. Other medical professionals (e.g., athletic trainers, physiotherapists) may influence injured athletes and their rehabilitation efficacy. Obtaining strong training, nutritional, sleep, proxy and social, pain and injury, coaching, and interpersonal self-efficacy is difficult, so understanding barriers to all these forms of efficacy is important. Finally, researchers should avoid conflating sport self-efficacy with self-confidence as they are two different constructs based on different models and theories, and operationalized distinctly.