TY - JOUR AU - Röthlin, Philipp AU - Leiggener, Romaine PY - 2021/05/12 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Self-compassion to decrease performance anxiety in climbers: A randomized control trial JF - Current Issues in Sport Science (CISS) JA - CISS VL - 6 IS - SE - Psychology & Philosophy DO - 10.36950/2021ciss004 UR - https://ciss-journal.org/article/view/7748 SP - 004 AB - <p>In climbing, anxiety may impair performance. Using an evolutionary approach, we hypothesized that athletes who treat themselves with self-compassion activate their contentment and soothing system and thus reduce their performance anxiety. A two-week randomized control trial was used to investigate the effect of self-compassion on somatic and cognitive anxiety. We compared two groups (intervention and waiting list) on two dates. Sixty climbers (<em>M</em><sub>age</sub> = 27.95, <em>SD</em><sub>age</sub> = 8.57) completed the pre- and post-assessment. The intervention consisted of a psychoeducational leaflet and five self-compassionate writing tasks. In the posttest, the self-compassion intervention group showed increased self-compassion (F = 4.33, <em>p</em> = .04, η<sub>p</sub><sup>2</sup>&nbsp;= 0.07) and decreased somatic performance anxiety (F = 6.24, <em>p</em> = .02, η<sub>p</sub><sup>2</sup>&nbsp;= 0.10) compared to the waiting list control group. We found no changes in cognitive performance anxiety. The results suggest that self-compassion could be considered as a possible intervention to reduce physical symptoms of performance anxiety.</p> ER -