The purpose of this study is to structurally search the concept of competitive state anxiety and to develope a questionnaire on the degree of anxiety by game conditions in male gymnastics tournament. Unlike preceding researches which reduced competitive state anxiety to 3 factors(cognitive state anxiety, somatic state anxiety, and confidence), this study brought environmental state anxiety in multidimensional construct, hence 4 factors. Although competitive state anxiety is conceptualized by considering competitive state as environmental stimuli, current study had been conducted based on preceding researches reporting that modern gymnasts are subject to effects of equipment, spectators, schedules of games, referees'' call, and so forth. Thus study I dealt with conceptual construct research on competitive state anxiety in male gymnastics tournament, using in-depth interview and open-ended questions. The results are as follows:
First, gymnasts experienced negative self-assessment of cognitive state anxiety, such as the cynical foreboding, burden, concern, and tension, in game conditions.
Second, gymnasts showed the emotional, behavioral, and physiological response, such as nervousness, trembling, rapid pulse, caused by tension in game conditions
Third, gymnasts had faith and confidence on acting ability in game conditions and made an effort for the best athletic performance such as transferring negative thinking to positive thinking by cognitive restructuring.
Fourth, gymnasts had the mental states triggered by the equipment, climate, spectators, and referees which are beyond control of leaders and themselves in game conditions.
Study Ⅱ dealt with development of a questionnaire on competitive state anxiety by game conditions in male gymnastics tournament and analyzed reliability and validity for the questionnaire. The results are as follows:
First, a questionnaire was developed and it consists of 4 questions about cognitive state anxiety, 4 questions about somatic state anxiety, 8 questions about confidence, and 4 questions about environmental state anxiety.
Second, each factor showed the relatively high reliability coefficient of α=.854, α=.785, α=.793, α=.710, respectively.
Third, the validity of factor structure was verified after exploratory factor analysis(KMO= .745, bartlett''s test of sphericity = 952.051 df = 171, sig = .000).
Fourth, fit indices were acceptable after confirmatory factor analysis(Q: 1.52, IFI: .91, TLI: .90, CFI: .91, RMSEA: .06, GFI: .86).
Fifth, external validity(convergent validity) was not acceptable and there was the significant difference in cognitive state anxiety and confidence among groups(athletic performance, affiliation, and career). Also, it showed that the more athletic performance or career gymnasts has, the higher their confidence is and the lower their anxiety level is.
Based on rather new facts and issues came out from the research process, a proposal was made as follows:
First, further studies needs to test external validity(concurrent, discriminant, and convergent validity) for the acceptable validity.
Second, the development of a more specific questionnaire, classified according to sex, career, performance level, is necessary for faster and more accurate evaluation.
Third, further various studies drawing more concrete questions and factors reflecting time period are necessary to be done.