Gender Differences in Stress, Coping and Coping Effectiveness among Competitive Shooters: Exploring Gender Differences in Stress and Coping among Competitive Shooters

Abstract

Previous research on gender differences in stress and coping in sport has provided equivocal support for the notion that men and women appraise stress differently and exhibit different coping behaviours. The aim of this study was to examine gender differences in shooting-related sources of stress, stress appraisal, coping and coping effectiveness among competitive shooters. For this purpose, a sample of 200 national level competitive shooters (male n = 100, female n = 100) aged between 16 and 25 years (mean = 20.43, SD = 3.03) participated in the study. The results indicated that both male and female shooters cited “encountering distractive thoughts during performance” as the most stressful event during competitions. However, male and female shooters cited “technical error resulting in missing the target” and “high expectations of significant others” as the second most stressful event, respectively. Results revealed gender differences in the appraisal process indicating that females appraised the stressful situation with higher levels of stress intensity and lower levels of control as compared to male shooters. Also, significant gender differences emerged on coping sub-scales with female shooters reporting higher coping behaviour than males. Despite females reporting higher coping as compared to men, gender differences turned insignificant when the effectiveness of the same coping strategies being utilized was assessed.