Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT)

Abstract

The Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT) is a seminal, psychometrically validated self-report assessment instrument designed to measure individual differences in competitive trait anxiety (competitive A-trait) among athletes. Developed by pioneering sport psychologist Rainer Martens in 1977, the scale was created to address the limitations of general trait anxiety inventories, such as Charles Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), which frequently demonstrated modest predictive utility when applied to competitive athletic settings. Operating from an interactional paradigm of personality and situational specificity, the SCAT conceptualizes competitive trait anxiety as an acquired behavioral disposition that predisposes an athlete to perceive competitive athletic environments as threatening and to respond with disproportionate elevations in state anxiety (A-state).

The instrument comprises 15 items evaluated on a 3-point frequency scale (Rarely, Sometimes, Often). To minimize response bias, social desirability, and evaluation apprehension during administration, the scale incorporates five spurious or filler items (items 1, 4, 7, 10, and 13) that are excluded from scoring, leaving 10 scored items. Among these 10 items, two are positively phrased and reverse-scored (items 6 and 11), while eight reflect somatic arousal and cognitive apprehension prior to competition. Scored responses yield an aggregate score ranging from 10 to 30, with scores below 17 indicating low competitive anxiety, scores between 17 and 24 reflecting average competitive anxiety, and scores exceeding 24 denoting high competitive anxiety. Across extensive psychometric evaluations, the SCAT has demonstrated high internal consistency (Kuder-Richardson 20 and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients typically ranging from .80 to .88), exceptional test-retest reliability (coefficients between .70 and .88 across intervals of one to several weeks), and strong construct, convergent, and predictive validity in anticipating pre-competitive autonomic arousal and subjective state anxiety. The SCAT remains one of the most widely administered, historically foundational instruments in sport psychology research and athletic performance assessment.

Keywords

Sport Competition Anxiety Test, SCAT, Rainer Martens, competitive trait anxiety, sport psychology, pre-competitive state anxiety, athletic performance assessment, psychometrics, somatic anxiety, cognitive anxiety

Authors

The Sport Competition Anxiety Test was developed by Rainer Martens, Ph.D., who served as a distinguished Professor of Physical Education and Kinesiology and Director of the Motor Performance and Sport Psychology Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Martens is internationally recognized as a founding pioneer of contemporary sport psychology, serving as the founder and long-time president of the Human Kinetics publishing company and authoring seminal textbooks and measurement monographs that transformed modern athletic performance diagnostics.

In the validation and refinement of the instrument and its theoretical extension into multidimensional constructs, Martens collaborated closely with prominent researchers including Diane L. Gill, Ph.D. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro), Robin S. Vealey, Ph.D. (Miami University), and Damon Burton, Ph.D. (University of Idaho). Inquiries regarding the original historical scale validation and theoretical framework are documented in the monograph Sport Competition Anxiety Test (Martens, 1977) and the subsequent synthesis Competitive Anxiety in Sport (Martens, Vealey, & Burton, 1990).

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT) is to measure individual differences in competitive trait anxiety—defined specifically as an athlete’s tendency to perceive competitive sport situations as personally threatening and to respond to these situations with state anxiety reactions, characterized by subjective feelings of apprehension, tension, and heightened autonomic nervous system activity. Prior to the creation of the SCAT in the late 1970s, sport researchers and applied practitioners relied almost exclusively on generalized anxiety inventories, such as the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS) or Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). However, empirical investigations repeatedly indicated that general trait anxiety measures correlated weakly with an athlete’s actual psychological and physiological reactions before or during competitive athletic contests.

Martens hypothesized that anxiety is fundamentally context-dependent and situation-specific. The SCAT was constructed to bridge this theoretical and methodological gap by providing an ecologically valid, domain-specific measurement tool designed expressly for athletics. Clinically and diagnostically, the scale fulfills several key functions in both youth and adult sport populations:

• Identification of High-Anxiety Athletes: The SCAT enables coaches, sports medicine clinicians, and applied sport psychology consultants to identify athletes who suffer from chronic, debilitative competitive anxiety, predisposing them to the psychological phenomenon commonly known as “choking under pressure.”
• Predictive Baseline for Pre-Competitive State Anxiety: Empirical research demonstrates that baseline SCAT scores reliably predict the magnitude of state anxiety (A-state) an athlete will experience in the immediate hours and minutes leading up to an evaluative sporting contest, particularly under conditions of high objective situational uncertainty or perceived outcome importance.
• Intervention Tailoring and Evaluation: Applied sport psychologists utilize the SCAT as a pre- and post-intervention outcome measure to evaluate the efficacy of psychological skills training (PST) programs, including progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic training, biofeedback, cognitive restructuring, and stress inoculation training.
• Theoretical and Empirical Research: The scale has served as a foundational instrument across hundreds of academic investigations examining the relationships between anxiety, motor performance, perceptual narrowing, attentional control, autonomic arousal, coping strategies, and athletic burnout.

Psychological Construct

The construct assessed by the SCAT is competitive trait anxiety (competitive A-trait). In psychological assessment, trait anxiety is distinguished from state anxiety: whereas state anxiety reflects a transitory, fluctuating emotional condition characterized by consciously perceived feelings of tension and heightened autonomic arousal, trait anxiety represents a relatively stable personality predisposition or motive that reflects an individual’s inclination to perceive a broad range of non-dangerous conditions as threatening.

In developing the SCAT, Martens restricted this behavioral disposition to the specific context of competitive sport. Competitive trait anxiety is therefore defined as the propensity to perceive competitive situations as threatening to one’s self-esteem or psychological integrity and to respond with elevated state anxiety. The construct consists of two primary operational domains that manifest when an athlete confronts the competitive environment:

1. Somatic Symptomatology and Autonomic Arousal

Athletes with high competitive trait anxiety consistently report conditioned physiological reactivity prior to competitive events. The SCAT includes explicit items capturing the visceral, autonomic aspects of the stress response, such as:

• Gastrointestinal distress and autonomic activation (Item 8: “Before I compete I get a queasy feeling in my stomach”).
• Cardiovascular acceleration and sympathetic nervous system discharge (Item 9: “Just before competing, I notice my heart beats faster than usual”).
• Generalized physical tension and motor restlessness (Item 15: “Before I compete I usually get uptight”; Item 12: “Before I compete I am nervous”).

2. Cognitive Apprehension and Performance Worry

In tandem with somatic reactivity, the construct encompasses cognitive evaluations characterized by self-doubt, fear of social evaluation, and performance-related worry. The competitive arena is inherently an evaluative situation where one’s physical competencies, effort, and character are subject to public judgment by coaches, teammates, opponents, and spectators. The cognitive dimension of competitive A-trait captures this vulnerability:

• Fear of competitive failure and poor execution (Item 3: “Before I compete I worry about not performing well”).
• Preoccupation with behavioral errors and personal flaws (Item 5: “When I compete, I worry about making mistakes”).
• Inability to achieve psychological tranquility and physical relaxation before competition (Item 6: “Before I compete I am calm”; Item 11: “Before I compete I feel relaxed”).

Although modern multidimensional models (such as those operationalized in the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 [CSAI-2] and the Sport Anxiety Scale [SAS]) formally separate cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, and self-confidence into discrete subscales, Martens designed the SCAT as a global, unidimensional index that integrates both cognitive and somatic indicators into a singular metric of competitive trait anxiety.

Theoretical Framework

The theoretical framework underlying the SCAT is grounded in the interactional paradigm of psychology, drawing heavily upon Charles Spielberger’s Trait-State Anxiety Theory (1966, 1972) and Kurt Lewin’s classic field theory ($B = f(P, E)$), wherein behavior ($B$) is conceptualized as a function of the continuous interaction between personal dispositions ($P$) and the environmental situation ($E$).

Martens’ Competitive Process Model

To ground the scale in sport-specific dynamics, Martens (1977) formulated the Competitive Process Model, which outlines four sequential, interrelated stages through which athletic competition unfolds:

1. The Objective Competitive Situation (OCS): The external, real-world stimulus conditions that define the athletic contest. An OCS exists whenever a performance is evaluated by an individual who is aware of an objective performance standard against which the performance will be compared, in the presence of at least one other person capable of evaluating that comparison. Essential elements include opponent difficulty, audience presence, reward structure, and competitive stakes.
2. The Subjective Competitive Situation (SCS): The athlete’s idiosyncratic perception, cognitive appraisal, and evaluation of the Objective Competitive Situation. It is within the SCS that competitive trait anxiety exerts its primary influence. Athletes high in competitive A-trait process the objective reality through a cognitive filter of potential failure, public embarrassment, and loss of self-worth. In contrast, low competitive A-trait athletes view the exact same external contest as a positive challenge or an opportunity to demonstrate competence.
3. The Response: The behavioral, physiological, and psychological reactions elicited by the subjective appraisal. When an athlete appraises the situation as threatening, state anxiety (A-state) spikes. This includes immediate physiological shifts (sympathetic arousal, muscle tension, pupil dilation) and psychological alterations (narrowed attentional focus, negative self-talk, impaired decision-making).
4. The Consequences: The objective outcome of the performance (victory, defeat, personal record, tactical error) and the subjective meaning assigned to it. These consequences feed back into the athlete’s personality structure, either reinforcing or altering their competitive trait anxiety disposition for future competitions.

The SCAT was engineered specifically to capture the filtering mechanism operating at Stage 2 (the Subjective Competitive Situation). By quantifying the chronic tendency to appraise sport competition as threatening, the SCAT serves as the operational metric of the athlete’s internal predisposition within the competitive process.

Validity

The validity of the Sport Competition Anxiety Test has been extensively evaluated across youth, collegiate, amateur, and elite athletic samples, providing robust psychometric support for its intended interpretive functions.

Construct and Discriminant Validity

In his original monographs, Martens (1977) established construct validity by demonstrating that the SCAT differentiated between sports and athletic contexts involving varying degrees of evaluative stress. Furthermore, when compared against general trait anxiety measures, the SCAT exhibited distinct discriminant validity. Correlational studies between the SCAT and Spielberger’s STAI A-Trait scale consistently yielded moderate correlations (typically $r = .28$ to $.44$), indicating that while the two instruments share common variance related to general neuroticism and anxiety proneness, the SCAT captures substantial, unique variance specific to athletic evaluative contexts. The SCAT showed negligible correlations with non-anxiety personality constructs, such as extraversion, locus of control, and need for achievement, confirming its discriminant boundary.

Predictive and Concurrent Validity

The primary criterion for the SCAT’s validity was its capacity to predict state anxiety (A-state) in competitive situations. Martens and Gill (1976) conducted classic empirical trials demonstrating that high-SCAT athletes exhibited significantly greater increases in state anxiety prior to athletic competition than low-SCAT athletes, particularly when the competitive outcome was characterized by high ambiguity or subjective importance. Conversely, in non-competitive laboratory control conditions, high- and low-SCAT individuals did not differ in their state anxiety responses, proving that the scale’s predictive power is strictly activated by competitive, evaluative athletic stimuli.

Convergent Validity

Subsequent psychometric examinations have corroborated the convergent validity of the SCAT against modern multidimensional sport anxiety scales. In an extensive investigation by Dunn and Dunn (2001), the SCAT exhibited strong positive correlations with the somatic anxiety and worry subscales of the Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS; Smith, Smoll, & Schutz, 1990) and the Collegiate Hockey Worry Scale (CHWS), with correlations ranging between $r = .60$ and $r = .74$. These findings confirm that the SCAT effectively captures the core cognitive and somatic manifestations of competitive apprehension recognized across contemporary sport psychology literature.

Reliability

Extensive psychometric investigations have established that the SCAT possesses robust internal consistency and temporal stability across diverse athletic cohorts, including male and female participants across youth (SCAT-Child / SCAT-A), high school, and collegiate levels.

Internal Consistency

Original reliability analyses conducted by Martens (1977) across large normative cohorts ($N > 2,500$) yielded Kuder-Richardson 20 (KR-20) and Cronbach’s alpha ($lpha$) coefficients consistently between .80 and .88 for both the youth and adult forms. In a meta-analytic review of competitive anxiety instruments, Martens, Vealey, and Burton (1990) reported that the mean internal consistency estimate across dozens of independent published studies remained highly stable at $lpha = .84$. Item-total correlations for the 10 scored items uniformly exceed .40, with typical values ranging between .48 and .69, confirming that each scored item contributes meaningfully to the general competitive anxiety construct.

Test-Retest Reliability (Temporal Stability)

Because the SCAT is designed to assess a stable personality disposition (trait) rather than a fluctuating emotional state, establishing temporal stability is paramount. Empirical investigations have documented strong test-retest reliability:

• Short-term retest intervals (1 to 2 weeks) typically yield stability coefficients ($r_{tt}$) between .77 and .88.
• Longer-term retest intervals spanning an entire athletic season (3 to 6 months) demonstrate stability coefficients ranging from .70 to .75.

These coefficients confirm that competitive trait anxiety as measured by the SCAT reflects an enduring behavioral trait that remains relatively stable over time, while retaining sufficient sensitivity to detect genuine changes following targeted psychological skills interventions or cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Factor Analysis

The structural dimensionality of the SCAT has been a central topic in psychometric literature, catalyzing the evolution from unidimensional to multidimensional conceptualizations of sport anxiety.

Original Unidimensional Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

During the scale’s initial development, Martens (1977) conducted principal components and principal factor analyses with varimax and oblique rotations on the 10 scored items. The analyses consistently revealed a single dominant factor accounting for a substantial majority of the common variance (eigenvalues typically exceeding 3.5, with subsequent factors dropping below 1.0 or failing the scree test criteria). The item factor loadings on this general competitive anxiety dimension were robust, with all 10 scored items exhibiting primary loadings ranging from .45 to .75. Based on these empirical data, Martens conceptualized the SCAT as a strictly unidimensional instrument.

Subsequent Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) and Structural Debates

With the emergence of cognitive-affective multidimensional models in the 1980s, psychometricians re-examined the internal structure of the SCAT using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Studies by Schutz et al. (1981) and later psychometric evaluations identified that while a single general factor model exhibits acceptable fit indices, a two-factor correlated model separating Somatic Tension (e.g., items 8, 9, 12, 14, 15) and Cognitive Worry / Calmness (e.g., items 2, 3, 5, 6, 11) frequently yields marginally superior statistical fit:

• Goodness of Fit: Confirmatory models of the unidimensional structure typically produce Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) values between .06 and .08, and Comparative Fit Index (CFI) values around .91 to .94.
• Multidimensional Re-interpretation: Dunn and Dunn (2001) demonstrated that the high inter-factor correlation ($r > .70$) between the latent somatic and cognitive dimensions justifies the continued use of a composite unidimensional sum score in applied settings, even though the underlying items sample both physiological arousal and cognitive apprehension.

These structural investigations historically prompted the design of explicit multidimensional scales (e.g., the Sport Anxiety Scale by Smith et al., 1990), but the SCAT remains celebrated for its parsimonious, rapid, and robust assessment of global competitive trait anxiety.

Instrument / Measurement Tool

The Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT) is a self-administered, paper-and-pencil or digital psychometric scale consisting of 15 brief declarative statements. The instrument is engineered to minimize respondent distortion and evaluate situational sport anxiety with high efficiency.

Technical Characteristics:

• Construct Assessed: Competitive Trait Anxiety (Competitive A-trait).
• Target Population: Athletes participating in competitive individual or team sports (Youth form suitable for ages 10–14; Adult form for ages 15 and above).
• Administration Format: Individual or group administration, paper-and-pencil or computer-assisted self-report.
• Administration Time: Approximately 3 to 5 minutes.
• Total Item Count: 15 items (10 scored items, 5 filler/buffer items).
• Response Scale: 3-point categorical frequency rating scale:
  • 1 = Rarely
  • 2 = Sometimes
  • 3 = Often

Scoring Protocol and Mathematical Procedures:

1. Elimination of Filler (Spurious) Items: Items 1, 4, 7, 10, and 13 were purposefully designed to mask the test’s intent, reduce social desirability bias, and divert focus from anxiety-specific content. These five items score zero (0) and are completely omitted from the total score calculation.
2. Standard Scored Items: Items 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 14, and 15 reflect direct expressions of anxiety and are scored according to their authentic numerical value:
   • Rarely = 1 point
   • Sometimes = 2 points
   • Often = 3 points
3. Reverse-Scored Items: Items 6 and 11 reflect positive, relaxed emotional states prior to competition and are reverse-scored to maintain directional consistency with the anxiety construct:
   • Rarely = 3 points
   • Sometimes = 2 points
   • Often = 1 point
4. Total Composite Score Calculation: The respondent’s final score is calculated by summing the points assigned to the 10 scored items:

   (text{Total SCAT Score} = text{Item}_2 + text{Item}_3 + text{Item}_5 + (4 – text{Item}_6) + text{Item}_8 + text{Item}_9 + (4 – text{Item}_{11}) + text{Item}_{12} + text{Item}_{14} + text{Item}_{15})

   The resulting score ranges from a minimum of 10 to a maximum of 30 points.

Clinical and Normative Score Stratification:

• Scores Less than 17 (< 17): Low Competitive Trait Anxiety. The athlete experiences minimal evaluative distress prior to competition, typically viewing competitive demands as a positive challenge rather than a psychological threat.
• Scores between 17 and 24 (17–24): Average Competitive Trait Anxiety. The athlete experiences normative pre-competitive autonomic arousal and occasional performance worry, generally within manageable physiological and cognitive boundaries.
• Scores Greater than 24 (> 24): High Competitive Trait Anxiety. The athlete exhibits marked susceptibility to pre-competitive distress, intense somatic symptoms (e.g., gastrointestinal upset, tachycardia), and persistent worry regarding failure or negative social evaluation. Athletes in this category are prime candidates for psychological skills training and stress management interventions.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Sport Competition Anxiety Test was originally published in 1977 in Rainer Martens’ foundational monograph, Sport Competition Anxiety Test, released through Human Kinetics Publishers (Champaign, Illinois). A revised synthesis and extended normative data were subsequently published in Competitive Anxiety in Sport (Martens, Vealey, & Burton, 1990).

Regarding contemporary accessibility, permissions, and fees:

• Academic and Non-Commercial Research Use: The scale has entered widespread standard academic use. It is widely accessible in published scientific literature, clinical manuals, and physical education curricula. Dr. Rainer Martens and Human Kinetics made the instrument openly available for legitimate scientific research, educational instruction, and athletic performance diagnostics without per-administration licensing fees, provided that appropriate academic attribution and bibliographic citation are maintained.
• Commercial Applications: Commercial digital publishing, inclusion within proprietary diagnostic software platforms, or republication within commercial books requires formal copyright clearance from Human Kinetics Publishers.
• Ethical Administration: Practitioners administering the SCAT are bound by professional ethical guidelines (e.g., American Psychological Association or Association for Applied Sport Psychology) regarding informed consent, voluntary participation, and confidential handling of psychometric evaluation records.

References

• Dunn, J. G. H., & Dunn, J. C. (2001). Relationships among the Sport Competition Anxiety Test, the Sport Anxiety Scale, and the Collegiate Hockey Worry Scale. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 13(4), 411–429. https://doi.org/10.1080/104132001753226274
• Martens, R. (1977). Sport Competition Anxiety Test. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publishers.
• Martens, R., & Gill, D. L. (1976). State anxiety among successful and unsuccessful competitors who differ in competitive trait anxiety. Research Quarterly. American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 47(4), 698–708. https://doi.org/10.1080/10671315.1976.10615403
• Martens, R., Vealey, R. S., & Burton, D. (1990). Competitive Anxiety in Sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publishers.
• Schutz, R. W., Smoll, F. L., & Wood, T. M. (1981). Physical self-esteem and sport competition anxiety: A structural equation analysis. Journal of Sport Psychology, 3(3), 226–243. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsp.3.3.226
• Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Schutz, R. W. (1990). Measurement and appraisal of sport-related cognitive and somatic trait anxiety: The Sport Anxiety Scale. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 61(3), 259–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/02701367.1990.10608688
• Spielberger, C. D. (Ed.). (1966). Anxiety and Behavior. New York: Academic Press.
• Spielberger, C. D. (1972). Conceptual and methodological issues in anxiety research. In C. D. Spielberger (Ed.), Anxiety: Current Trends in Theory and Research (Vol. 2, pp. 481–493). New York: Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-657402-9.50015-8

Items of the Scale