Abstract

Anxiety has an impact on different areas of our lives, including sport performance. It can limit body coordination, cardio-vascular efficiency, and cognitive concentration. Anxiety is dangerous in some sports such as acrobatic flying because of its negative effect on attentional control. The availability of a tool measuring sport anxiety can thus be very useful, both for research and applied reasons. The aim of the present contribution was to validate an Italian version of the Sport Anxiety Scale 2 (SAS-2), which measures the competitive trait anxiety experienced by athletes. 251 participants (36.7% females, age M = 28.98, SD = 9.82) completed a questionnaire with several scales measuring sport anxiety, trait and state anxiety, depression, and social phobia. Our results supported the three-factorial structure of the SAS-2 and showed that its scores correlated with the other scales suggesting good validity. Practical applications of the findings, limitations and suggestions for future research were also discussed.