Competitive Anxiety in Young Basketball Players from the Real Madrid Foundation

Reviewer 1’s comments and suggestions for authors

Details of the revisions and responses

Pag. 1 paragraph 1. It would be necessary to start the introduction with the reasons why the object of this study is of interest. Specifically, to expose the possible problems that competition in early ages can cause in the well-being of the participants and what their causes could be (risk factors). Thereupon authors should explain the concept of competitive anxiety and explanatory mechanisms leading to it and avoid explanations little adjusted to the objectives of the study as this paragraph

The recommendations of the reviewer are followed: In the introduction, the reasons why the research presented is of interest are explained. In addition, the possible problems that competition at an early age entails on a psychosocial level are explained, and the concept of anxiety is also explained and a distinction is made between state anxiety and trait anxiety

Pag. 2 paragraph 1. The instruments, their characteristic and evolution should not be in this section. In any case, if it is considered necessary, this information should be in the instruments section within the method

We have moved the text on the characteristics and evolution of the instrument to Method section

Pag. 2 line 54-57. It is important to note that the authors highlight the negative influence of participating in sports competition on the anxiety and as a consequence, on psychological health, even though there is sufficient scientific evidence in the opposite direction. Participation in sport has been shown to be beneficial for the psychosocial health of the child (Serve as an example: Eime, RM, Young, JA, Harvey, JT, Charity , MJ, & Payne , WR (2013). A systematic review of the psychological and social benefits of participation in sport for children and adolescents: informing development of a conceptual model of health through sport. International journal of behavioral nutrition and physical acti vity, 10 (1), 98. It would be interesting to make a clear distinction between state anxiety and trait anxiety. The object of study is related to trait anxiety, however authors justify their hypothesis based on antecedents that analyse state anxiety. On the other hand, references have been used with the objective of relating performance to anxiety state, but the authors did not find that competition was a predictor of anxiety

The recommendation is followed and the importance of sport on psychological health is specified, including, among others, the references recommended by the reviewer

A distinction is made between state anxiety and trait anxiety and references referring to state anxiety are removed, focusing on those of trait anxiety

Pag. 2 line 56. It is necessary to better connect the previous arguments with this statement. Also, the relationship between the characteristics or “approaches of the competition” at an early age and the well-being or mental health of the participants is not at all obvious. None of the three references supports this relationship. Two of them analyse the effects of mental training on anxiety and the third one analyses the influence of anxiety on the suffocation feeling of the participants. In addition authors specify in the discussion that there are no antecedents about this possible relationship

This part has been removed from the introduction, as well as the references to these documents

In addition, the previous arguments have been better connected with this part of the introduction

Pag. 2 line65 Again it has been used a reference that does not support the argument captured in the text: (Harwood, Cumming, & Fletcher 2004)

The reference mentioned by the reviewer has been removed from the manuscript

Pag. 2 line 71. Authors have used again a work, which alludes to state anxiety, to justify their hypothesis. Only documents that have analysed the trait anxiety should be used (Rodríguez, et al., 2017)

The reference mentioned by the reviewer (Rodríguez, et al., 2017) has been removed from the manuscript

Pag. 2 line 76 Contextual variables are analysed but authors do not use them. You should look at the background that focuses on the type of competition and its relationship to anxiety

In this part of the manuscript, text and references have been introduced concerning the use of different types of competition and their relationship with anxiety (e.g., some studies affirm that a competitive model in accordance with the characteristics of the formative sports context will be an instrument that generates motivation, satisfaction, commitment and adherence to sport, as well as favouring the personal and social development of the individual [9,10])

Pag. 2 line 85. Again we find a reference that does not support the statement in the text. In addition, this statement is too strong and not very accurate

The recommendation is taken into account and the quotation is deleted

Pag. 2 line 86-87. This relationship must be developed with greater depth and accuracy. The independent variable is the sports model. You must expose the antecedents that use different models with the direct or indirect objective of reducing anxiety. The only article cited does not have that objective. It is also interpreted that it is the promotion of values that could influence competitive anxiety. 11)

Pag. 2 line 86-87. His relationship is not established at any time in the text, and it is difficult to achieve because it is based on two theoretical constructs that are very far from each other. Most analysis of the consequences of state-anxiety in formative stages is linked to the psychological welfare as for example to the development of basic psychological needs. The other most studied relationship is how negative affective states such as anxiety have an impact on future sports abandonment, mediated by the absence of these basic psychological needs or by motivational states. Authors should try to find out how their competition proposal could be favouring any of these relationships

Pag. 2 line 91 (Idem 11)

The introduction has been completely restructured in another way, taking into account the reviewer's considerations, so these issues have been taken up throughout the manuscript

Pag. 3. Methods. The criterion to consider the different groups of the sample is the category to which participants belong to according to their age. The problem is that these groups differ only in age, and in the type of instruction they have received, since they have different coaches (something that becomes a strange variable). It is therefore more interesting to use age as a moderator. Trait anxiety is mediated by the biological development of brain structures related to cognitive control, and therefore depends on the rate of biological maturation. The problem is that the chronological age does not coincide with the biological maturation. It would therefore be necessary to use some of the variables that indicate this maturation as the peak age of growth in height, or as the relative age, although the latter is less efficient

The suggestion is taken into account and a grouping is made according to the type of competition (mini-basketball and basketball). As a result of this change, the corresponding statistical index (U Mann-whitney) is applied

Pag. 3 line 107 I do not understand this grouping. In the procedure it has not been clarified when the questionnaires were passed. It is necessary to do it. The SAS-2 measures competitive anxiety so if there were participants who did not compete, they could not pass the questionnaire. This is a big problem because it is the true independent variable. If this group of nonparticipants in the competition has previously accumulated competitive experiences, you must specify in the description of the characteristics of the sample. If this were the case, it would also be necessary to have information on the variables that could be contaminating the relationship established here between the type of competition and anxiety. This group may have voluntarily decided not to compete due to lack of motivation towards competition, caused by some environmental trait or variable. They may perceive competition as aversive and that this generates greater trait anxiety

The independent variable (participating in the competition or not) is not controlled, since we cannot know if it has had previous experiences, so the possible contamination of the variable cannot be controlled. For this reason, this variable is eliminated from the study

Pag. 6 paragraph 1. Authors must interpret these results. These are the most important results of their study. They should have been analysed carefully and those theoretical models that explain anxiety used to justify how the competition proposal could be the cause of lower values with respect to previous studies

The results have been interpreted, analysed and discussed. In this sense, the possible reasons for the levels of anxiety in the studied athletes are explained

Pag. 6 line 193. Again authors should justify why the proposal competition (mixed) may be the reason that, unlike the background, anxiety do not change. Sincerely, I think the reason may be closer to the kind of motivation (more autonomous than controlled) that promotes the competition, one of the variables related to the mental health. In addition, women in comparison with men generally perceive the competition as more stressful and feel they have less control over their stress. Hence, it could be women who will benefit the most from this competition proposal

We consider this question, but no change has been made. It is true that women are favoured, but to what extent more than men, it is a variable that is difficult to analyse and quantify. To do this we should know how much more women benefit from the programme than men. That is, we do not know what the starting level of participants (male/female) was before they started in the schools in order to compare them with our study data

Pag. 6 line 208. The relationship established here is not possible. For this you should have carried out an experiment. It has not even controlled for the present mediator variables that may explain why non-participants in its competition obtain lower results

This statement is removed from the text

Reviewer 2’s comments and suggestions for authors

Details of the revisions and responses

I did not identify the novelty of the study. Maybe training models that reduce anxiety would be a strong point of the paper

Indeed. The novelty and strong point of the implemented study is precisely the use of a sports model that reduces the anxiety of the players in training

This issue is highlighted at the end of the discussion section

Review 2’s comments and suggestions for authors

Details of the revisions and responses

1.   How you interpret not having found differences in the comparison with different competitions

We have interpreted this issue: Probably because participation and competition is mixed in all categories, because the value of equality between boys and girls is promoted, and because the coaches are trained in this sense

2.    He has not clarified why he believes that his mixed competition is the cause of the non-differences between genders. This should be interpreted

We have interpreted this issue: Perhaps, these results can be explained by the fact that the adaptations made to the RMF competition programme are similar in both categories and have the same aim: To use the competition as a means of training, as educational as possible, and not as an end

In addition we have modified this things in text (in yellow)

-       We have changed Table 4 to Table 3, in the title of the table and in the text

-       We've changed the title of the subsection "Differences based on the different age categories" by "Differences based on the different competitions"

-       We have removed the following paragraph from the discussion section: “In addition, the results showed that the boys and girls that take part in RMF’s in-house competitions had lower levels of both somatic and cognitive anxiety than those that do not participate in those competitions”