The study's first hypothesis predicted that, as a whole, the sample would evidence a significant positive association between students' level of perceived parental pressure and their level of competition sports anxiety. This hypothesis was tested using the Pearson r correlation statistic. Findings were not significant (r=.007; df=48; p>.05). In other words, perceived parental pressure did not appear to be related to students' level of competition sports anxiety.
It seemed reasonable to speculate that while there may be no significance for the sample as a whole, there may be a correlation if the genders were considered separately. Therefore, two additional correlations were computed between the parental pressure and anxiety variables, one for females and one for males. Both correlations were computed using the Pearson r statistic. Findings observed for both males (r=-.15068; df=23; p>.05) and females (r=.23248; df=23; p>.05) were not significant.
Based on correlational findings it can be concluded that collected data did not support the study's first research hypothesis. In other words, findings indicated no association between perceived parental pressure and students' sports anxiety levels.
The study's second research hypothesis predicted that level of competition sports anxiety would be significantly higher for children who perceived their parents as high in level of pressure to excel in sports than it would be for children who perceived their parents as low in level of pressure to excel in sports. To test this hypothesis, subjects' parental pressure scores were first divided into low and high pressure groups depending upon whether they fell at or above the median, or below the median (Median=15.50) on the Parental Sports Pressure Questionnaire. Those whose scores feel below the median were considered to be experie...