The effect of age on self-compassion &self-criticism in elite women athletes and the potential influence of these factors on perceived sport performance

Résumé

Self-compassion has been identified as a valuable resource for women athletes in sport with relevance to reducing self-criticism and producing a more productive perception of oneself and their performance. Current research has suggested that self-compassion increases with age while self-criticism declines; however, there has been limited investigation of these trends within an athletic population. This study aimed to address this gap by exploring the effect of self-compassion and self-criticism in elite women athletes of two sample groups distinguished by age: older (G1; n=16; M_age=52.27) and younger (G2; n= 28; M_age=21.56) through an online survey. Results indicated no significant differences between groups in self-compassion (t=-0.881, p=0.384), self-criticism (t(42)=1.622, p=0.112), or perceived sport performance in training (t(42)=-0.794, p=0.431) and competition (t(42)=0.284, p=0.778). There was no correlation between age and self-compassion (r=-0.252, p=0.195; r=-0.346, p=0.190), self-criticism (G1 r=0.326, p=0.090 and G2 r=0.250, p=0.351), or perceived sport performance in training (G1 r=0.196, p=0.318 and G2 r=0.196, p=0.041) or competition (G1 r=0.053, p=0.787 and G2 r=-0.238, p=0.376). These findings contradict trends of the general population. There is need for more research as this initial study highlights that elite women athletes do not seem to have the same increase in self-compassion and decrease in self-criticism as their non athlete counterparts with age.