Flexibilidade cognitiva e ansiedade-estado pré-competitiva: associação dos construtos na categoria sub-15 de um projeto social de futebol

Abstract

This dissertation presents two articles on the experience of working in a Social Football Project, Futuro Re2ondo (Bicas, MG), grounded in the Social Psychology of Sport. The goal is to understand sport as a tool for citizenship and social transformation.The first article reconsiders the concepts of youth and citizenship within educational sport, proposing a model of practice that legitimizes young people as sociocultural promoters, breaking away from the notion of adolescence as a stage of social/political absence. Supported by the Social Psychology of Sport and the Pedagogy of Tenderness, the practice-based account contributes to legitimizing youth as thinking subjects capable of influencing their own realities.The second article is a result of the praxis developed in the first and aimed to construct scientific knowledge in response to demands related to pre-competitive state anxiety identified in the under-15 category. A case study involving 20 adolescents (aged 13–15) investigated whether low cognitive flexibility would imply higher pre-competitive state anxiety, using data collected from cognitive flexibility tests (WCST), pre-competitive state anxiety inventories (CSAI-2R), semi-structured interviews, and heart rate variability measurements. The sample showed preserved mental flexibility (median above T-score 50) and cognitive/somatic anxiety levels similar to Brazilian athletes aged 16–52. However, there was a positive correlation between cognitive anxiety and perseverative errors (PE; rho = 0.40, p = 0.04) and perseverative responses (PR; rho = 0.42, p = 0.03) in the WCST. In the high (n = 10) vs. low (n = 10) cognitive anxiety groups, the former exhibited higher PR (26.0 ± 18.4 vs. 13.6 ± 8.7; p < 0.05) and PE (22.9 ± 15.5 vs. 12.6 ± 7.8; p < 0.05). A reduction in high-frequency power (HF, ms²) (p = 0.009; n = 19) indicated lower cardiovagal activity following the evocation of anxiety-inducing situations previously identified by the participants and recorded during a friendly match. The data revealed a limitation in the CSAI-2R, as external anxiogenic factors reported by the participants (e.g., referee decisions and peer/coach pressure) and later recalled in post-match interviews are not captured by the instrument. The study suggests interventions aimed at improving coping strategies focused on cognitive anxiety triggered by aggressive/unfair external communication, thereby promoting youth autonomy in emotional regulation and social protagonism.