What Good are Positive Emotions (PE) for Athletes? Mental resources mediating the link between PE and thriving in ice hockey

Introduction: The Broaden-and-build theory (BBT) of PE (Fredrickson, 2001) predicts that PE is linked to diverse outcomes of mental and physical health, as well as psychological resources (Davidson et al., 2013; Fredrickson et al., 2003; McCarthy, 2011; Lyubomirsky et al., 2005). Despite its relevance for sport-performance, BBT has not been empirically tested in the sports context. This study examines the predicted theoretical effects among German ice hockey athletes in a longitudinal study design. Methods: So far, athletes from sixteen different teams (N total = 213; 7 U17, 8 U20, 1 DEL2) have participated during the season 2018/19 in the online survey. Across three measurement points during the season (t0 = baseline, t1 and t2 = 5-6 days after a game loss or win, respectively), athletes completed the study about their emotional experiences (Fredrickson, 2013), thriving (Su et al., 2014), and psychological resources like resilience (Leppert et al., 2008), self-efficacy (Schwarzer et al., 1995), creativity (Kaufman et al., 2004), perceived psychosomatic illness symptoms (Mohr & Müller, 2014), and symptoms of depression (Eaton et al., 2004). Results: Data collection ran until March 2019. The authors expect psychological resources (resilience, self-efficacy and creativity) to mediate the relationship between PE and thriving and a faster recovery after game loss when PE at baseline were high. Discussion: Based on BBT and the results of the study, recommendations for athlete’s performance capability and recovery will be developed. The current study integrates theoretical approaches of positive psychology in the context of applied sport psychology.