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Effects of Psychological and Psychosocial Interventions on Sport Performance: A Meta-Analysis

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Abstract

Background

Psychologists are increasingly supporting the quest for performance enhancement in sport and there is a need to evaluate the evidence base underpinning their work.

Objectives

To synthesize the most rigorous available research that has evaluated psychological, social, and psychosocial interventions with sport performers on variables relating to their athletic performance, and to address some of the perplexing issues in the sport psychology intervention literature (e.g., do interventions have a lasting effect on sport performance?).

Methods

Randomized controlled trials were identified through electronic databases, hand-searching volumes of pertinent journals, scrutinizing reference lists of previous reviews, and contacting experts in the evaluation of interventions in this field. Included studies were required to evaluate the effects of psychological, social, or psychosocial interventions on sport performance in athletes when compared to a no-treatment or placebo-controlled treatment comparison group. A random effects meta-analysis calculating the standardized mean difference (Hedges’ g), meta-regressions, and trim and fill analyses were conducted. Data were analyzed at post-test and follow-up (ranging from 1 to 4 weeks after the intervention finished) assessments.

Results

Psychological and psychosocial interventions were shown to enhance sport performance at post-test (k = 35, n = 997, Hedges’ g = 0.57, 95 % CI = 0.22–0.92) and follow-up assessments (k = 8, n = 189, Hedges’ g = 1.16, 95 % CI = 0.25–2.08); no social interventions were included or evaluated. Larger effects were found for psychosocial interventions and there was some evidence that effects were greatest in coach-delivered interventions and in samples with a greater proportion of male participants.

Conclusions

Psychological and psychosocial interventions have a moderate positive effect on sport performance, and this effect may last at least a month following the end of the intervention. Future research would benefit from following guidelines for intervention reporting.

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Notes

  1. This inclusion criterion was established because sole treatments or comparisons between active treatments lack a meaningful comparison, particularly in view of the aforementioned limitations of previous reviews in this area of sport psychology research.

  2. Hand-searched journals include: European Journal of Sport Science (2001–2015); International Journal of Applied Sport Sciences (2000–2015); International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology (2003–2015); International Journal of Sport Psychology (1970–2015); Journal of Applied Sport Psychology (1989–2015); Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology (2007–2015); Journal of Sport Psychology (1979–1987) and Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology (1988–2015); Journal of Sport Behavior (1978–2015); Journal of Sport Psychology in Action (2010–2015); Journal of Sports Sciences (1983–2015); Psychology of Sport and Exercise (2000–2015); Research Quarterly in Sport and Exercise (2000–2015); Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports (1991–2015); Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology (2012–2015); and The Sport Psychologist (1984–2015).

  3. Researchers were selected based on having published four or more sport-related intervention studies.

  4. Descriptive accounts are available from the first author on request.

  5. Correlation matrix available from the first author on request.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Thomas Curran for his advice about the statistical analysis and for his comments on an earlier version of this paper.

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  1. School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

    Daniel J. Brown & David Fletcher

  2. Department for Health, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 3AY, UK

    Daniel J. Brown

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Brown, D.J., Fletcher, D. Effects of Psychological and Psychosocial Interventions on Sport Performance: A Meta-Analysis. Sports Med 47, 77–99 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0552-7

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