Coping strategies regulating emotion in sport participation Pons*, J., Viladrich*, C., Ramis*, Y., and Polman**, R. *Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona **Bournemouth University INTRODUCTION Sport participation in adolescence has been identified as a stressful experience. Sport participation may generate emotions like pre-competitive anxiety and potentially lead to sport dropout. Cognitive Motivational Relational Theory of Emotion (CMRT; Lazarus, 1999) is frame that considers emotions, coping strategies and outcomes as a whole emotional process. Although emotional process has been largely explored in sport (Nicholls & Polman, 2007), few studies have highlighted its influence on sport participation. CMRT postulates that emotions will influence the selection of those strategies to cope with. Previous studies suggest the relation between pre-competitive anxiety and coping strategies (e.g., Dias et al., 2012). Thus the aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of anxiety and coping strategies on sport participation from CMRT perspective. Cognitive-Motivational-Relational Theory of Emotion COPING STRATEGIES ANXIETY OUTCOMES METHOD Participants In this study participate 500 team-sport male (63.2%) and female (36.8%) athletes of ages between 13 and 21 (Mage = 16.42, SD = 1.54). Participants practiced basketball (49.8%), soccer (19.4%), volleyball (14.6%), handball (11.2%), roller hockey (3.4%) and water-polo (1.6%). Questionnaires Sport Anxiety Scale-2 (SAS-2; Smith, Smoll, Cumming, & Grossbard, 2006). Inventaire des Stratégies de Coping en Compétition Sportive (ISCCS; Gaudreau & Blondin, 2002). Effort expenditure factor was only constituted by one item due to the differences between Original and Spanish versions of the ISCCS. Sport Commitment Questionnaire (SCQ; Scanlan et al., 1993). Data Analysis Preliminary data analysis showed 0,3% of missing data. Weighted Least Squares Mean and Variance Adjusted (WLSMV) was used to deal with ceiling and floor effects and standard errors were corrected for multilevel design effects due to team clustering. CFA showed excellent fit, so we proceed to compute partial and total mediation SEM. All analyses were made with Mplus 7.0. The best fitting model is presented. .440 Effort Expenditure   Somatic anxiety   -.817 .309 .178 R2 = .191 R2 = .490 .483 .319 Thought control   Enjoyment   -.619 Concentration disruption   .130 .774 -.621 R2 = .718 .184 Commitment   .104 R2 = .160 Worry   Venting of emotions   CFI = .962 TLI = .957 RMSEA (CI95) = .033 (.029-.037) Sig < .01: values > .130 Sig < .05: values ≤ .130 positive path negative path .337 R2 = .481 .698 Resignation   CONCLUSIONS Results provide evidence in favor of CMRT postulates. Coping strategies partially mediate the relationship between pre-competitive anxiety and sport enjoyment and participation. Effort expenditure and thought control strategies appear to promote enjoyment, meanwhile resignation decrease enjoyment. Pre-competitive anxiety factors differentially predict the use of coping strategies. Somatic anxiety positively predicted those strategies positively associated with enjoyment. Concentration disruption positively predicted resignation and venting of emotions. On the other hand, concentration disruption negatively predicted effort expenditure and thought control. Worry had significant direct and mediated contributions to enjoyment and commitment, suggesting to have a positive role in sport participation. References Dias, C., Cruz, J. F., & Fonseca, A. M. (2012). The relationship between multidimensional competitive anxiety, cognitive threat appraisal, and coping strategies: A multi-sport study. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 10, 52–65. Gaudreau, P., & Blondin, J. P. (2002). Development of a questionnaire for the assessment of coping strategies employed by athletes in competitive sport settings. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 3, 1–34. Lazarus, R. S. (1999). Stress and emotion. A new synthesis. New York: Springer. Nicholls, A. R., & Polman, R. C. (2007). Coping in sport: A systematic review. Journal of Sports Sciences, 25, 11–31. Scanlan, T. K., Carpenter, P. J., Schmidt, G. W., Simons, J. P., & Keeler, B. (1993). An introduction to the sport commitment model. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 15, 1–15. Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., Cumming, S. P., & Grossbard, J. R. (2006). Measurement of multidimensional sport performance anxiety in children and adults: The Sport Anxiety Scale-2. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 28, 479–501. This research was supported by grant FPU13/00738 from the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (Spain) Contact: joan.pons.bauza@uab.cat