Factorial and predictive validity of the Assessment Instrument of Coping Resources in Endurance Sports (AICRES): A exploratory study

Research which attempts to relate precompetitive factors like anxiety or mood state with performance in endurance sports is very extensive. However, precompetitive measurements have showed important incongruence in their results because they don’t bear in mind the changes in the emotional response of the athlete when the competition has begun (Hammersmeister y Burton, 1995). In this research the CADER (Cuestionario de Afrontamiento en Deportes de Resitencia; Assessment Instrument of Coping Resources in Endurance Sports) is presented. This is an evaluation instrument of the coping resources of endurance athletes which attempts to measure how they cope with successive competitive threats which arise when the competition has begun. With the application of a ‘principal components analysis’ we have obtained six factors which distinguish among different kinds of coping resources that show a strong predictive power over performance: dissociation, self-blame, social support, positive reappraisal, diminution / increase of effort and association.