Examining the relationship between organizational stressor dimensions and sport performers' health and well-being

Whilst research has assessed the multidimensional nature of organizational stressors encountered in sport, a typically overlooked dimension is severity. Given its contribution to illness risk and compromised health and well-being (Slavich et al., 2019), it would be prudent to examine this dimension. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between the severity of organizational stressors encountered by sport performers and physical health and psychological well-being, before examining if stressor severity mediated the relationship between stressor occurrence and the outcomes (whilst controlling for neuroticism). 403 sport performers (186 male; Mage = 21.43 years) completed a questionnaire assessing the study variables. Structural equation modelling was used to analyze the data. The severity of organizational stressors had a significant, negative relationship with physical health (r = -0.374, p < .001), but not well-being. In the mediation analysis, direct effects were found for neuroticism (β = -0.632, p < .001) and stressor frequency (β = -0.226, p = .016) on physical health. Moreover, when adding stressor severity as a mediator, stressor frequency positively predicted stressor severity (β = 1.025, p < .001); however, the indirect effect of stressor frequency on physical health via stressor severity (-0.018, p = .885) and the direct effect between stressor frequency and physical health (β = -0.191, p = .204) were non-significant . The presentation will discuss a potential suppressor situation and the importance of controlling for neuroticism. Furthermore, it will forward theoretical and measurement implications regarding the multidimensional nature of stressors, and make applied recommendations for those tasked with supporting sport performers with their stress and health.