Sports performance in function of self-efficacy: a systematic review

Rendimiento deportivo en función de la autoeficacia: revisión sistemática

Introduction

Sports performance, as defined by Ericsson and Charness (1994), refers to the highest possible performance given the current knowledge and training methods existing in the specific domain of practice. On the other hand, Conejero et al. (2017) define performance as the final result of a motor action, considering the characteristics of each discipline. If each sport has different traits, its evaluation will have different indicators and possibly a concept adapted to its operationalization.

Bloom (1985) investigated different sports activities and disciplines to find patterns and similar characteristics in individuals who had developed their activity to levels of excellence. Through various case studies that included swimmers, tennis players, pianists, sculptors, and scientific specialists in the fields of mathematics and neurology, he found that most had a playful motivation at an early age, presence of motivation generators towards the activity of interest, and a strong parental bond that conveyed the importance of excellence.

In the sports aspect, the development of skills focuses on successfully anticipating future events and skillfully coordinating overlapping movements. It has been mentioned that sports performance is the result of extreme adaptation, achieved through lifetime effort, including adaptive changes at the physiological level and specific motor skills. For psychology, the study of performance was out of reach for many years, as research focused on studying the innate (physiological) conditions of the subject (Ericsson & Charness, 1994). With the arrival of sports psychology, a professional field oriented towards creating and evaluating programs and techniques to develop psychological skills (Cantón, 2010) that will impact sports performance was established.

Sports performance is a central element in sports sciences and "congruently for sports psychology." Optimal performance allows achieving success and desired results. Therefore, it is important to consider: What factors influence sports performance? What sports settings have considered self-efficacy as an object of study? What evidence has sports psychology found in relation to athlete performance and with what type of scope? (Ursino et al., 2018).

We understand self-efficacy as the assessment an individual gives to their capacity to achieve a specific goal (Bandura, 1977). It is likely that an individual with a high degree of self-efficacy will exert greater effort to complete a task despite environmental threats.

Self-efficacy belongs to the construct of success, which etymologically has its origin in the English noun success and its verb form succeed, which does not come directly from Latin but was incorporated through the French spoken by the conquerors. It is composed of "su/sub" (under) and cedere (to go towards), which refers to going under or going behind (Klein, 1966). Success is explained through Nicholls' (1984) achievement goal theory, which states that the main objective of a subject in competitive environments is to demonstrate ability based on two conceptions: task orientation, which refers to mastery of the activity; and ego orientation, which refers to the outcome, where success comes from victory over each rival by demonstrating greater ability. It is important to consider that the dimension of the concept allows us to analyze it from different representations, as it is a concept relative to each individual's interpretation, often related to problem-solving, passing tests, or progressing towards a specific point. Therefore, it can be analyzed as a phenomenon with various research dimensions.

The following of a psychological stimulus can be determinant for reaching maximum performance levels (Bloom, 1985). On the other hand, each sports discipline is considered a subculture with its particular systems and values (Malico et al., 2008), making each sport a relevant object of study concerning the same psychological variable, such as self-efficacy. The review by Ursino et al. (2020) provides clarity on the advances in the study of sports performance as a polysemic term sensitive to each discipline. However, it is of utmost importance to understand the state of knowledge related to psychological aspects to generate appropriate strategies for athletes in training and for new emerging sports.

Objective

The objective of this paper was to conduct a systematic review of existing studies on the influence of the self-efficacy variable on sports performance, in the main international databases.

Research Question

How does the perception of self-efficacy influence the athletic performance of athletes?

Materials and Methods

Search Strategy

In this systematic review, the PRISMA statement (Page et al., 2020) was used, which consists of 27 items divided into seven sections, ensuring that the information is transparent, reproducible, and systematic.

Studies were identified through electronic databases: Scopus, VHL (Virtual Health Library), EBSCOhost, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar.

Two semantic fields were used, one pertaining to the area of sports performance and the other describing the perception of self-efficacy. Search terms, both in English and Spanish, were: Sport* performance/rendimiento deportivo, athletic performance/rendimiento atlético, psychomotor performance/desempeño psicomotor, sport* achievement/logro deportivo, and sport* result/resultado deportivo, combined with success/éxito, self-efficacy/autoeficacia, success attribution*/atribuciones de éxito, and achievement/logro. Searches were conducted using the Boolean operators “AND” and “OR” (Table 1).

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

Studies that met the following inclusion criteria were selected: a) type of document source (scientific articles); b) empirical cross-sectional designs with athlete, sportsmen, or player participants; c) documents in English or Spanish; d) studies that included a variable related to self-efficacy or concepts related to the construct (success, attributions, and achievement) and a variable related to the player's sports performance; and e) studies from the year 2017 to 2023 to include the most up-to-date literature, following the review period by Ursino et al. (2020), which considered previous years.

Based on the exclusion criteria, theses, scientific meetings, outreach journals, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and books were discarded. It was considered that the information from these sources would be included in the highest-prestige sources.

Study Selection Process

The systematic search process (Figure 1) identified a total of 304 articles. Seventeen studies were eliminated as duplicates. Subsequently, title and abstract were examined, and "when necessary" the full text was reviewed. From the analysis, studies were discarded based on inclusion criteria of language (English and Spanish) n = 1, article type (n = 1) as it was a book, discarded for being systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses (n = 14), psychometric reviews (n = 9), for not including both study variables (n = 157), and for the study type (n = 95), which included: experimental research, case studies, longitudinal studies, interventions, and others whose methodology was not cross-sectional. Finally, a result of n = 10 was included in this review.

Methodological Quality Assessment

To evaluate the methodological quality of the selected studies, the assessment tool for cross-sectional studies AXIS (Downes et al., 2016) was used, which aims to assist in systematic interpretation by informing about the quality of the research. It contains 20 items divided into five sections that evaluate the introduction, method, results, discussion, and others. Therefore, a total percentage is obtained that describes the quality, validity, accuracy, relevance, and design of the study.

The evaluation criteria are scored with one or zero for each of the 20 items to describe the methodological content that should be considered in each study. Finally, the obtained score is summed and a rule of three is used to determine the percentage of each study. Of the 10 reviewed articles, an index of 75% or more was considered acceptable for inclusion in the study (Table 2), none of which were eliminated as all met the desired minimum scores.

Data Extraction

For data extraction, the following information was recorded: author, year, country, number of participants (including sex and age range/average), type of sport (including years of experience), instruments used, variable related to self-efficacy, variable related to sports performance, main results, and limitations (Table 3).

Results

The ten studies included in this review were mostly conducted in Europe (n = 4) (Baretta et al., 2017; Durovic, 2021; Koper et al., 2020; Sklett et al., 2018), followed by Asia (n = 4) (Ahmed et al., 2020; Çakiroğlu, 2021; Li et al., 2020; Peng & Zhang, 2021), and finally, two in America, specifically in the United States (Hepler et al., 2017; van Raalte & Posteher, 2019).

Regarding the population, most of the studies included both men and women in their samples (n = 6) (Baretta et al., 2017; Durovic, 2021; Hepler et al., 2017; Koper et al., 2020; Li et al., 2020; Peng & Zhang, 2021), followed by studies that only considered men (n = 2) (Ahmed et al., 2020; Sklett et al., 2018) and studies that did not specify the gender of their population (n = 2) (Çakiroğlu, 2021; van Raalte & Posteher, 2019). The average age was 26.65 years (n = 6), with only one study (Ahmed et al., 2020) indicating that their population was under 20 years old, and three studies not mentioning the age range or average age (Çakiroğlu, 2021; Sklett et al., 2018; van Raalte & Posteher, 2019).

Regarding the sample size, it ranged from 40 to 459 participants, with an average of 154.1. In terms of sports, the studies included various disciplines such as boccia, competitive apnea, handball, soccer, water polo, skiing, basketball, darts, taekwondo, and athletics; the study by Çakiroğlu (2021) did not specify the practiced disciplines. Likewise, the experience in sports ranged from 4.26 to 9.72 years of experience, considering the studies that reported it (n = 4) (Baretta et al., 2017; Li et al., 2020; Peng & Zhang, 2021; van Raalte & Posteher, 2019).

The instruments used to assess perceived self-efficacy in the athlete were GSES or GSE (General Self-Efficacy Scale) in two studies (Durovic, 2021; Peng & Zhang, 2021), which is a general self-efficacy scale designed by Baessler and Schwarzer (1996) and aims to assess the stable feeling of competence to effectively handle stressful situations. Followed by the Ski Jumping, Throwing, and Dart Throwing Self-Efficacy scale (n = 2) (Hepler et al., 2017; Sklett et al., 2018), which were created from Bandura's (2001) Self-Efficacy Scale Construction Guide, which describes the construct structure and provides steps to design, write, and validate a scale adapted to the required environment. The study by van Raalte and Posteher (2019) relied on the NGSE (New General Self-Efficacy Scale), which is a new scale developed by Chen et al. (2001), which aims to measure individuals' perception of their ability to perform successfully in a variety of different situations. For the work of Koper et al. (2020) they relied on the SSA (Self-Efficacy for Sport Activities Scale), which is a scale of self-efficacy in sport environments and represents the extent to which a person is convinced of his or her ability to follow an exercise program, even under unfavorable conditions. Subsequently, Ahmed et al. (2020) used the TSCI (Trait Sports Confidence Inventory), which was created by Vealey (1986) to measure confidence traits when performing a sport activity. In the case of the study by Li et al. (2020), the SSEQ (Sport Self-efficacy Questionnaire), a questionnaire developed to measure athlete self-efficacy under training and competition conditions by the athlete, was applied (Wei et al., 2008). In the study by Çakiroğlu et al. (2021), the variable was assessed using the ASEQ (Athletic Self-Efficacy Questionnaire), which is validated to provide information on the perception of self-efficacy in athletes (Sahraian et al., 2016). Finally, in the study by Baretta et al. (2017), two scales created through expert opinion in freediving were used to express perceived self-efficacy in both modalities of the discipline (vertical and horizontal). Regarding validity and reliability, two studies (Djurovic, 2021; Sklett et al., 2018) showed no evidence in this regard, the rest, (n = 8) used instruments that had been piloted, tested or used previously.

Regarding the tools used to evaluate sport performance, mostly (n = 5) discipline-specific measures were used. For example, in the study by Baretta et al. (2017) it was determined from distance and depth in the two types of apnea evaluated (horizontal and vertical); for the work by Sklett et al. (2018) it was calculated from ski jump scores; Peng and Zhang (2021) evaluated free throw scores in closed and open space, as their population was basketball players; Hepler et al. (2017) used the sum of the scores obtained from the dartboard when throwing darts; and Ahmed et al. (2020) evaluated performance from the throws of track and field competitors as they were all throwers. On the other hand, in the studies of Koper et al. (2020) and Li et al. (2020) used as a measure of performance the place obtained in the competition event, being Boccia and Taekwondo the evaluated disciplines, respectively. In the case of van Raalte and Posteher (2019), the PPAA (Perceptions of Performance Academic and Athletic) scale was used, which measures the perception of athletic and academic performance (Rees & Hardy, 2004). Çakiroğlu (2021) used a scale (Athletic Performance Questionnaire) validated and created by Charbonneau et al. (2001), which from five items assesses perceived athletic performance. Finally, Djurovic (2021) used self-assessments of athletic performance designed for the study.

Regarding the results, most studies (n = 7) indicate that self-efficacy can have a significant relationship and influence on performance in a sport discipline and can even be considered a predictor in freediving and ski jumping (Baretta et al., 2017; Sklett et al., 2018). Only the study by Li et al. (2020) showed inconsistent results to relate it to athletes' self-efficacy. The above confirms that the self-efficacy perceived by an athlete when practicing a discipline is a relevant factor in their sport performance. It can also influence an athlete's motor abilities under competitive and non-competitive conditions, which will largely determine his or her outcome (Peng & Zhang 2021). Most studies indicate a relationship between the self-efficacy variable and the athlete's competitive status. Therefore, the level of self-confidence can determine the way of facing challenges; before, during and after the competition.

The main limitations mentioned in the studies are: the research design does not allow generalization to the whole sport context (n = 4), being cross-sectional and with purposive or non-equivalent samples due to the availability of the players. There is a risk of bias, due to the fact that performance data were obtained from subjective measures (n = 3) (Koper et al., 2020; Li et al., 2020; van Raalte & Posteher, 2019) which, is confirmed in the review by Ursino et al. (2020), as performance assessment continues to show shortcomings, by employing unreliable analysis methodologies, resorting to self-reported and contextual measures, for example the outcome of a single competition, it would be valuable to include more consistent measures such as aerobic capacity and athlete mobility. Other articles indicate that it is important to consider more variables to explain the phenomenon of sport performance, such as environmental influences (Sklett et al., 2018), internal motivation (Ahmed et al., 2020) and personality (Li et al., 2020). In addition to analyzing the sport contexts (coach, family and professionals) that could, or could not, have an impact on the athlete (García-Naveira, 2018). Also, it is recommended to control for years of sport experience and to solve the need for more standardized instruments to assess self-efficacy.

Conclusions

The present work aimed to perform a systematic review of existing studies on self-efficacy and sport performance, considering the period from 2017 to 2023. For several decades, studies have aimed to find the factors involved in athletes' sports performance. Sport psychology proposes to examine factors unrelated to physical ability, which have a great impact on the state before, during and after sports practice. Therefore, the self-efficacy perceived by the athlete will have a relevance in the outcome of the sport practice. Programs focused on improving the athlete's confidence can greatly complement the achievement of expected goals in high performance.

Studies allow us to observe that the athlete's perceptions about what he/she can achieve, regardless of whether or not he/she has the physical conditions, will make him/her face challenges, difficulties and competitions in a different way. In this way, the beliefs about one's own capabilities have a great power of action.

The synthesis of the information reviewed allows us to conclude that the variable of self-efficacy is present in different sports, as it is an element of impact, which will predict sporting behavior and therefore “its result”. On the other hand, there are few inconsistencies in the relationship between the variables, which are due to limitations or particular considerations of each study. It is evident that sport psychology has an area of opportunity to strengthen the operationalization and evaluation of those psychological constructs that can influence sport performance, because it is one of the main conditions that limit the generalization of results.

Finally, despite the evidence found, the relevance of replicating the studies in different populations and sports should be considered. Exploring in depth each variable and its combination, as part of explanatory models of behavior. This will allow us to have greater clarity in the theories of response to the sports phenomenon, and thus be able to design intervention tools that strengthen the appropriate psychological processes that help the optimal sports development; achieving an impact on the permanence, motivation and satisfaction in the execution of physical activity, which will contribute positively to overall health.

Ethics Committee Statement

Not applicable because the study is a systematic review.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest; the funding institutions had no influence on the design of the study, the analysis of the data or the interpretation of the results.

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding for the project UNAM-DGAPA-PAPIIT IN305123 The first author was funded by CONAHCYT, grant number 822407. You can verify the funding source data at https://conahcyt.mx/becas_posgrados/

Authors' Contribution

Conceptualization David Erick Martinez Ramirez, Jaime Camacho Ruíz, Manuel Leonardo Ibarra Espinosa, Jaime García Rodríguez & Virginia Flores Pérez; Methodology David Erick Martinez Ramirez & Jaime Camacho Ruíz; Software David Erick Martinez Ramirez & Jaime Camacho Ruíz; Validation David Erick Martinez Ramirez & Jaime Camacho Ruíz; Formal Analysis David Erick Martinez Ramirez, Jaime Camacho Ruíz & Virginia Flores Pérez; Investigation David Erick Martinez Ramirez, Jaime Camacho Ruíz, Manuel Leonardo Ibarra Espinosa, Jaime García Rodríguez & Virginia Flores Pérez; Resources Erick Martinez Ramirez & Jaime García Rodríguez; Data Curation David Erick Martinez Ramirez, Jaime Camacho Ruíz & Virginia Flores Pérez; Writing – Original Draft David Erick Martinez Ramirez & Jaime Camacho Ruíz; Writing – Review & Editing David Erick Martinez Ramirez & Jaime Camacho Ruíz; Visualization David Erick Martinez Ramirez, Jaime Camacho Ruíz, Manuel Leonardo Ibarra Espinosa, Jaime García Rodríguez & Virginia Flores Pérez; Supervision David Erick Martinez Ramirez & Jaime Camacho Ruíz; Project Administration David Erick Martinez Ramirez; Funding Acquisition David Erick Martinez Ramirez. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Data Availability Statement

Data are not available because the paper is a systematic review.

References

Author notes

* Correspondence: Esteban Jaime Camacho Ruíz, ejcamachor@uaemex.mx

Additional information

Short title: Sports Performance in Function of Self-Efficacy: a Systematic Review

How to cite this article: Martínez-Ramírez, D.E., Camacho, J., Ibarra, M.L., García, J., & Flores, V. (2024). Sports performance in function of self-efficacy: a systematic review. Cultura, Ciencia y Deporte, 19(61), 2054. https://doi.org/10.12800/ccd.v19i61.2054