Gender and coping in sport : Do male and female athletes cope differently?

The aim of this chapter was to systematically review the recent literature (1990 to February 2009) on gender and coping in sport. In particular we examined gender differences in coping, whether males and females differed in the appraisal of stressors (e.g., stress intensity and perceived control of stress), and examined evidence for the situational and dispositional hypothesis among athletes. A detailed literature search of SPORTdiscus, Medline, PSYCHinfo, PSYCHarticles, yielded 16 studies spanning 19 years. Thirteen of these studies found gender differences in coping among athletes. However, the findings of these studies are equivocal and questionable, because important constructs such as type of the stressors and stressor appraisals were not controlled for in these studies. It is suggested that poor methodologies are preventing researchers from addressing the issue of whether male and female athletes cope differently and the underlying reasons for any such differences.