Quality of life, coach behaviour and competitive anxiety in Winter Youth Olympic Games participants.

Background: To ensure the highest technical performance, speed, safety, excellent control and to improve competitive performance, a successful regulation of competitive anxiety is necessary. Therefore, it seems crucial to identify factors influencing competitive anxiety of adolescent athletes. Research suggests that people reporting high quality of life are more capable to cope with stressful and challenging situations than others. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of quality of life, the involvement of parents in sports career and coach's leadership behaviour on competitive anxiety in Winter Youth Olympic Games participants.

Methods: During the first Winter Youth Olympic Games 2012 in Innsbruck/Austria, 662 (316 women) participants completed questionnaires and single items to assess quality of life, coach's leadership behaviour, parental involvement in sports career and competitive anxiety.

Results: Multiple regression analysis revealed positive influences of high quality of life and useful coach instruction on competitive anxiety.

Conclusions: The relationship between quality of life, coach behaviour and competitive anxiety in young elite athletes competing at the first Winter Youth Olympic Games should be considered in long-term programmes for reducing competitive stress.