An examination of volleyball players' perceptions of challenge and threat in sport, emotion regulation, and coping styles with stress

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between volleyball players' perceptions of challenge and threat, their emotion regulation strategies, and their coping strategies with stress. Another aim of the study is to investigate how these variables relate to various demographic factors, including gender, years of involvement in the sport, level of participation, daily duration of training, academic achievement, parents' educational status, presence of licensed athletes in the family, number of siblings, practicing the sport willingly and with enjoyment, the person accompanying them to training, the person meeting their sporting needs, the person they communicate with regarding sports, family support, and the number of weekly training sessions. The study employed the relational survey model, one of the quantitative research designs frequently used within the descriptive research method. The study population consisted of 654 high school students actively engaged in volleyball in different schools in Kars city center, while the sample comprised 562 students. Data were collected using the Coping Strategies with Stress in Sport Inventory, the Emotion Regulation Scale, and the Challenge and Threat in Sport Scale. Descriptive statistics (arithmetic mean and standard deviation), independent samples t-test, and one-way ANOVA were used to determine whether significant differences existed across demographic variables. Furthermore, multiple regression and Pearson product-moment correlation analyses were conducted using the SPSS 21.00 program. The findings revealed that volleyball players' scores on challenge and threat perceptions, emotion regulation, and coping with stress were significantly and positively correlated. Specifically, significant positive correlations were found between challenge and threat, cognitive reappraisal and coping with stress; between threat, suppression, and coping with stress; between cognitive reappraisal, suppression, and coping with stress; and between suppression and coping with stress. Regression analysis further indicated that coping with stress was positively and significantly associated with challenge, threat, and cognitive reappraisal.The findings were discussed in the light of relevant literature, and recommendations were provided accordingly. Keywords: Volleyball, Coping with Stress, Challenge in Sport, Threat Perceptions, Emotion Regulation