Sources of Sport Confidence Model Reflections
Vealey's model of sport-confidence provides the following list, in no specific order, of forces or sources that impact an athlete's self-confidence:
Mastery
Demonstration of ability
Social support
Physical/mental preparation
Physical self-perception
Vicarious experience
Coach’s leadership
Environmental comfort
Situational favorableness
There is a bit more to this model than just the sources of sport-confidence, but today the focus is just on these to inspire thought.
I was once asked to rank these in order of most to least influence over an athlete’s self-confidence. At the time I was not able to meet that request, and I am still not able to because I believe that it would depend on different aspects like the athletes themselves, their beliefs, developmental age, identified gender, the culture in which they live, and where they are in their training/career. There is indeed research that supports this perspective. A couple of examples are offered below.
Wilson et al. (2004) employed 216 athletes from 50 to 96 years of age in track and field, tennis, and swimming in a study using the Sources of Sport Confidence Questionnaire (SSCQ; Vealey et al., 1998). While issues were noted with the instrument itself, there were a couple of conclusions that we may want to consider and reflect on. For master’s athletes, there was more emphasis on the confidence source of physical/mental preparation leading the authors to conclude that, in part, confidence was based on social comparisons with their peers. Interestingly, social support was found to not be a significant factor in confidence, suggesting that there is a potential difference in the importance between master athletes and younger athletes.
In another study, Kingston et al. (2010) utilized elite individual athletes who also completed the SSCQ (Vealey et al., 1998) to look at temporal changes in sources of sport-confidence during the build-up to what the athletes perceived as an important competition. This study provided some additional insights about the role of time and gender effects. Looking at the time dimensions, what they found was that in the window leading up to competition or what they called time-to-competition, the emphasis was on the sources of demonstration of ability, physical/mental preparation, physical self-presentation, and situational favorableness. However, each of these sources evolved during the different phases throughout the time leading up the competition. Looking at what was revealed about gender, they found that female athletes demonstrated a significantly greater focus on mastery, physical self-presentation, social support, environmental comfort, and coach’s leadership as sources of confidence when compared to male athletes. There are also other studies that have been conducted that have found gender and cultural differences within different countries and cultures such as the studies done by Adegbesan (2005, 2007).
Finally, Hays et al. (2009) looked at the role of confidence in relation to the cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses that arise, and identified some of the factors responsible for debilitating confidence. What they leave the reader with is that interventions meant to enhance sport-confidence need to reflect the athlete’s individual needs and may involve identifying their sources and types of confidence.
Reflecting on just the information above, there are potentially a couple other thoughts to consider. Confidence is multidimensional. There are many influences when it comes to confidence. This allows athletes to build their confidence so that if something happens in one source of their confidence, there are still other areas to help keep an athlete confident. Furthermore, sources of confidence can evolve and change over time. At one point in life an athlete may draw more confidence from mastery or from being able to demonstrate ability, but as life happens circumstances evolve and maybe social support becomes more important. We are not static beings, thus confidence has the ability to change and evolve as well.
Person on a bike shadowed against a sky at sunset.
take action today moment:
Now it is time for you to decide what are your sources of sport-confidence. Of the one’s listed above, which one’s stand out to you? Which one’s don’t stand out? Which one’s might you consider reflecting more on? Do you agree or disagree with these sources? Once you have answered these questions, consider how you can further leverage your sources of confidence and if there are others that you may want to consider integrating into your practice.