PREDICTIVE DETERMINANTS OF ANXIETY, DEPRESSION AND STRESS ON ATHLETICS PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS, UNIVERSITY OF PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA: COUNSELLING IMPLICATIONS

The study investigated the predictive determinants of Anxiety, Depression and stress on Athletics performance of students in university of Port Harcourt. Three objectives, three research questions and corresponding null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level. The correlational research design was adopted. The population of the study comprised of 3,400 students who participates in sports in the University. A simple random sampling technique was used to draw the sample size of 1,700 students using 50% of the population through balloting system. Two non-cognitive instruments designed by the researchers titled “Anxiety, Depression and stress scale” (ADSS) and Athletics performance scale (APS) were used for data collection. The ADSS and APS contained 30 and 10 items respectively. Face and content validities of the instruments were ensured by experts in Educational Psychology. Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of ADSS and APS at 0.98, and 0.88. The linear regression was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance it was found out that Anxiety, Depression and stress can significantly predict athletics performance among students of University of Port Harcourt. It was concluded that sports counselors should be engaged in all sports events, so that they can use psychological principles, skills, therapies and approaches to ensure that sports, man and woman of the university maintain good psychological states at all times.