Shatskaya, A.N.

Background. Anxiety is one of the main factors that have a negative impact on competitive results in athletes. The specifics of sports activities require to apply diagnostic methods that, on the one hand, are compact, and on the other hand, provide high psychometric indicators in assessing psychological characteristics, including anxiety. In this regard, the development of a modern and reliable method for testing sports anxiety seems necessary and relevant.

Objective. The aim is to test of the questionnaire "Sports Anxiety Scale" on a Russian-speaking audience of athletes of various sports and age categories.

Study Participants. The study involved 297 athletes, including 188 men and 109 women, age ranging from 18 to 63 years (M = 23 years, SD = 5.19).

Methods. The research had a survey design. The following questionnaires were used: Sport Anxiety Scale, A. Beck Anxiety Scale, W. Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, Anxiety Scale from the DASS-21 questionnaire, a short version of the Dark Triad questionnaire. To process quantitative data, we used confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis and Cronbach's α coefficient.

Results. The adaptation results confirmed the factorial validity, internal reliability, convergent and divergent validity of the Russian version of the "Sports Anxiety Scale". The Scale has a three-factor structure and consists of the following subscales: "Cognitive Anxiety", "Physiological Anxiety", "Concentration Difficulties". The Sports Anxiety Scale is reliable due to the high α-Cronbach coefficient (α = 0.84).

Conclusions. As a result of testing the "Sports Anxiety Scale" on a sample of athletes of various sports, high structural validity and internal reliability of the method were demonstrated. In this regard, the "Sports Anxiety Scale" can be used for practical purposes to solve diagnostic and psychotherapeutic tasks in professional sports.

Background. Language development is one of the most important tasks of education. Therefore, the study of those factors that affect it remains in demand. Though the relationship between language development and executive functions has been broadly studied recently, there is no data on their relationship in a longitudinal perspective in children aged 6 to 8 years. A comprehensive analysis of the relationship between language development and executive functions is of great importance for transition from kindergarten to primary school.

Objective. The study focuses on how narrative ability develops in children from preschool to the middle of elementary school and how it is associated with the level of executive functions.

Sample. The material was obtained during a three-year longitudinal study. The study sample data was collected in two sections: a) in kindergarten (n = 288, M = 6.59 years, SD = 4.11 months) and b) in the second grade of primary school (n = 210, M = 8.75 years, SD = 3.84 months).

Methods. The children’s executive functions were assessed with the NEPSY-II diagnostic toolkit, as well as with the DCCS method. The children’s narratives were assessed with the method of creating stories based on a series of pictures.

Results. 1) A statistically significant increase in micro- and macrostructure of narratives was found. 2) In kindergarten, girls demonstrate higher indicators in both macro- and microstructure of narrative than boys. However, by the 2nd grade, these significant differences are no longer observed. 3) Analysis of the relationship between narrative indicators and components of executive functions revealed that the strongest positive relationship is observed between auditory working memory and macro-microstructure in the preparatory group, however, by the 2nd grade, this relationship ceases to be significant. 4) It was shown that children who demonstrated higher rates in all executive functions at preschool age have higher results in narratives at school.

Conclusions. The important role of the development of executive functions during the preschool period of childhood in the development of narrative ability at school age is shown.