The role of biological maturity in sport psychological skills of young rugby players: an explorative investigation

Abstract

The aims of this explorative study was to identify differences and possible changes in sport psychological skill levels of potentially talented rugby players with different maturity status over a two year period. The sport psychological skills were assessed using the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory-28 (ACSI-28). Eighteen rugby players (N=18) were classified into early developers (ED) (n = 4), average developers (AD) (n = 13) and late developers (LD) (n = 1), and were tested yearly from 2003 to 2005. Results showed that the ED attained borderline significantly better values than the AD in goal-setting and mental preparation (p = 0.07), as well as confidence and achievement motivation (p = 0.09) during 2003, whilst these differences were no longer evident in 2005. A significant improvement was observed in goal-setting and mental preparation (p = 0.007) among AD from 2003 to 2005. Although AD attained lower values in 2003 for coachability than ED, they showed significant improvements from 2003 to 2005 (p = 0.063), while ED did not change. The general coping skills score of ED remained unchanged over the two year period, while AD showed a significant increase (p = 0.004). From these results it was concluded that certain changes occurred in the sport psychological skill levels of ED and AD. Furthermore ED showed a bigger advantage at a younger age than AD regarding confidence, but that maturation contributed to the observed change in the confidence levels among AD.