INVESTIGATING THE INFLUENCE OF ANXIETY ON SPORTS PERFORMANCE AMONG BASIC SCHOOL ATHLETES IN THE CENTRAL REGION OF GHANA

ABSTRACT This research investigated the influence of anxiety on sports performance among selfselected Basic School athletes in the Central Region of Ghana. The study is a quasiexperimental research of static group comparison design. This design involves a group that has experienced treatment compared to another without treatment (control group). The sample for the study was made up of sixty (60) self selected and purposively selected male and female track athletes at the 31st Inter-Regional Basic School Sports Festival at Ho. A simple random sampling technique was used to group the participants into two groups of 30 experimental and 30 control groups respectively, of equal gender representation (15 males and 15 females experimental group & 15 males and 15 females control group). The research was conducted using 20 items questionnaires adapted from the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) by Spielberger (1968). The instrument was revalidated using test re-test method with a reliability coefficient of Cronbach alpha of .78 (α = .78). Three research questions were answered and one hypothesis was tested. Data collected was analysed using descriptive statistic of frequency counts and percentage for demographic information and Pearson product moment correlation to test the hypothesis at 0.05 significant level. The findings revealed that anxiety had a negative impact on performance. The higher the STAI score in the controlled group, the more poorly the athlete performed in an event as compared to those that obtained lower score of STAI due to the treatment intervention. It is recommended that coaches from basic school should be educated on the negative effects of anxiety on student athletes to ensure that they provide various intervention support systems for the athletes for improved performance.