The relationship between perfectionism, competitive anxiety, achievement goals and attributions style of college handball players

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between perfectionism, achievement goals, competitive anxiety and attribution style of college handball players. 246 handball players (103 female and 143 male) were included in this study. All participants were asked to complete Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale for Athletes, 2X2 Achievement Goals Questionanire for Sport and Competitive State Anxiety Inventory before the competition, also Causal Dimensional Scale ?II were administered to handball players after the competition. The results revealed that personal standars subscale (adaptive form of perfectionism) was positively correlated with all subscales of achievement goals, cognitive anxiety and self confidence. Concern over mistakes and perceived parental pressure subscales (maladative forms of perfectionism) were positively correlated with maladaptive forms of achievement goals and somatic and cognitive anxiety. The results of multiple regression analyses showed that high mastery- avoidance goals, concern over mistakes and perceived parental pressure predicted by somatic and cognitive anxiety. Also, personal standarts and mastery- avoidance goals predicted by self confidence. The findings supported the idea that perfectionism is not always negative and maladaptive but may take adaptive forms also.