Participants

A total of 237 collegiate athletes (134 Males and 103 Females, age 18–25 years) who participated in the Thailand University Games, 2020 were recruited in this study. Among them, 114 athletes participated in the individual sports including track and field, board games, shooting, equestrian, jujitsu, swimming, fencing, golf, taekwondo, climbing, panchak silat, fit ball, karate-do, tennis, badminton, table tennis, and petanque. Another 123 athletes participated in the team sports involving electronic sport, football, futsal, volleyball, beach volleyball, sepak takraw, basketball, social dance, rowing, and rugby. All participants were the collegiate athletes and had participated in the Thailand University Games for almost 5 years (5.16 ± 3.15 years). Ethical approval was obtained prior to data collection from Ethics Review Sub-Committee for Research Involving Human Research Subjects of Thammasat University (number 094/2020).

Measurements

Prior to the assessment, all participants provided written informed consent. Then, they provided information concerning personality and sport anxiety by completing the NEO five-factor inventory (NEO-FFI) and the sport competitive anxiety test (SCAT) questionnaires. Filling answers were carried out on the spot by using pencil-and-paper versions. Overall, participants took approximately 20 min to complete these questionnaires.

Statistical analysis

To verify the research problem, statistical analyses were performed using Open-Source Software R version 4.1 and R Studio. Descriptive statistics were analyzed by using mean, standard deviation, frequency, and percentage. Normality of all data were checked by z-value of the skewness and kurtosis. For medium-sized samples (50 < n < 300), z-value ± 3.29 was considered as normally distributed [22]. To investigate differences in personality characteristics and sport competitive anxiety, independent t-tests was used to compare between types of sport (individual and team sports) and between gender (male and female). Magnitude of the difference was assessed by using Cohen’s d [23] which interpreted as small (0.0 < d < 0.2), medium (0.3 < d < 0.5), and large (d > 0.6). A multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the relative contributions of independent variables (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) on the competitive anxiety. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to verify which variable would be initially considered in these regression models. All variables met the criteria that r was less than 0.80 and variance inflation factor was less than 10 [24]. With magnitude of correlation, relationships between personality characteristics and competitive anxiety were interpreted as trivial (r ≤ 0.1), small (0.1 < r ≤ 0.3), moderate (0.3 < r ≤ 0.5), large (0.5 < r ≤ 0.7), very large (0.7 < r ≤ 0.9), and almost perfect (r > 0.9) [25]. Significant level was set as p-value less than 0.05.

Comparisons of personality and anxiety between the individual and the team athletes

Our study found that none of the personality characteristics showed differences between individual and team athletes. In contrast to previous studies, variations in personality characteristics existed between types of sport [15, 26, 27]. Laborde et al. [27] reported that the individual athletes showed higher score on the neuroticism and the openness to experience which indicated positive characteristic of personality. With responsibility that comes from performing alone, individual athlete needs to possess greater enduring personal dispositions to achieve successful results. Interestingly, our results showed that the team athletes tended to experience higher scores of agreeableness as compared with those in the individual group (p = 0.07). The agreeableness is one of the personality traits that is characterized by cooperative, generous, and flexible behavior. Thus, playing with a team requires the agreeable teammate to promote positive group processes such as cohesion, cooperation, and conflict resolution. Regarding effect of gender, the present study found that the male athletes had significantly higher score in the agreeableness than the female athletes. This was not in line with previous studies in other cultures and nationalities [17, 28]. The higher level of the agreeableness were shown in Australian women [28] and Canadian female athletes [17]. This discrepancy may be due to cultural differences. For the current study, it was likely that Thai men tend to be open-minded, not overthinking, good relationship, and high commitment, so that resulted in high level of agreeableness accordingly. Thus, culture of origin or social roles might be the potential factor affecting personality trait of the athletes.

Regarding the competitive anxiety, our results showed that the individual athletes had slightly higher score than those in the team athletes. Similar results were also reported in collegiate players [5]. Since the anxiety level was not too high (20–22 scores), this may have slightly less effect on athlete’s performance. As stated in the inverted U theory, the peak performance could be achieved when level of pressure or arousal is appropriate for the sport performance. For the present study, these could be that the individual athletes had proper levels of anxiety that they could control and thus help facilitating superior performance accordingly.

Concerning gender differences, the present study found significantly higher score of competitive anxiety in women as compared with men. Similarly, Walton et al. [29] revealed that female athlete exhibited higher rates of mental health symptoms which possibly caused mental well-being problems and adverse life events. Additionally, female athlete may be more susceptible to external factor such as stress, drama, and fear, which usually occur during competition [30]. It has been generally accepted that emotional focused technique is one of the mental skill practice that could help individuals become more aware of their emotions and thus lesson adverse effects of unstable emotion. Thus, it is suggested that women should perform emotional-focused technique to effectively deal with factors related to competitive anxiety.

Relationships between personality and competitive anxiety

In the present study, we found the significant relationships between four components of personality and competitive anxiety among all athletes. Among these personalities, the neuroticism was negatively associated with the competitive anxiety while the extraversion, the agreeableness, and the consciousness had positive correlations. Similarly, previous studies found the associations between these personalities and other psychological parameters such as self-efficacy, self-control [11, 14]. From our results, the openness to experience component of personality was not correlated with competitive anxiety. This was in line with Sabu and Thomas [31] in young adult. This may cause some negative effect since openness to experience could define the more willing to embrace new things, fresh ideas, and novel experiences.

From linear regression analyzes, our finding showed that the neuroticism could minimally effect on the competitive anxiety (β = -0.52). Similarly, a previous study in young taekwondo athletes found that the neuroticism could predict changes in psychophysiological parameters with percentage of prediction of 21% [32]. Neuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, or depression, which can be referred to as emotional stability. So, it might be associated with anxiety in athletes who normally exposed to tremendous psychological stress. Moreover, there may be some possible determinants of anxiety among athletes, and the degree to which they may or may not have been experienced in sport tournament. It was possible that athletes may have sport specific demands such as overwhelming demands of training and psychological pressure or failure, which were related to higher levels of anxiety in elite athlete [14].

According to theory of personality [33, 34], the neuroticism is interlinked with low tolerance for stress or stimuli. Athletes who had high score in the neuroticism may be emotionally reactive and vulnerable to stress. Also, they may be more likely to interpret ordinary situations as life threatening as well as perceive minor frustrations as hopelessly difficult. Consequently, their negative emotional reactions tend to persist for unusually long periods of time. According to Petito et al. [14], personality showed correlation with serotonin transporter polymorphisms which characterized the occurrence of anxiety and depressive symptoms in elite athletes. So, it was possible that the neuroticism could mediate cognitive anxiety and emotional arousal control, and thus help predicting adverse mental health outcomes in athletes.

Nevertheless, our study has some limitations regarding measurement of personality characteristics. With Thai version of NEO Five-Factor Inventory, when considering factor loaded on the other factors, we observed that the openness to experience was less constant than other factors. So, interpretation for Thai may be differed from the original version in American culture. For example, “a thoughtful and will lead to creativity” may be misinterpreted as an instable or lazy. From the analyzes, the internal consistency in this parameter was quite low (0.23–0.79). This was also in line with a previous study in Thailand [35].