Date of Graduation

12-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Psychological Science

Advisor/Mentor

Bridges, Ana

Committee Member

Ham, Lindsay

Second Committee Member

Elbin, R.J.

Keywords

Contextual demands; Coping; Emotion Regulation; Performance; Stress; Wellbeing

Abstract

This study examined emotion regulation flexibility and well-being (including psychological well-being, physical well-being, perceived sport performance and worth of sport participation) in athletes in aesthetic sports. This population experiences high environmental demands and constraints and thus low control over their environment. Collegiate athletes within aesthetic sports and female athletes experience specific social factors and demands that threaten their well-being, compared to those experienced by male athletes and athletes within non-aesthetic sports. Consistent with the transactional theory of stress and coping, individuals with less power to regulate their environment will require greater ability to regulate themselves in accordance with their changing contexts (emotion regulation flexibility) in order to maintain well-being. I explored the relationship between emotion regulation flexibility and well-being in a sample of collegiate athletes within aesthetic sports with a series of hypotheses. Hypothesis one examined whether collegiate athletes in aesthetic sports with (1a) lower emotion regulation flexibility and (1b) perceptions of greater contextual demands experienced worse psychological and physical well-being, perceived sport performance and worth of sport participation than those with higher emotion regulation flexibility and perceptions of lower contextual demands. Hypothesis two tested whether emotion regulation flexibility moderated the relationship between perceived contextual demands and (2a) psychological well-being, (2b) physical well-being, (2c) perceived sport performance, and (2d) worth of sport participation. The third and fourth study aims were exploratory. Aim three examined whether resources, internalized mental health stigma, and perceived mental health stigma moderated the relationship between perceived contextual demands and well-being. Aim four explored the relationship between resources, mental health stigma, and emotion regulation flexibility. Gender was left out of these aim three and four analyses due to an insufficient number of participants who do not identify as women. Collegiate athletes in aesthetic sports (n = 140) completed self-report measures of demographics, emotion regulation flexibility, perceived contextual demands, psychological and physical well-being, perceived sport performance, worth of sport participation, mental health stigma (internalized and perceived), and resources. Hypotheses and study aims were examined with a set of regressions and bivariate correlation analyses. Consistent with hypotheses, perceived contextual demands predicted psychological and physical well-being and worth of sport participation, but not perceived sport performance, when controlling for other predictor variables. Contrary to hypotheses, emotion regulation flexibility did not predict any outcomes when controlling for other predictor variables. Emotion regulation flexibility, resources, and mental health stigma did not moderate any relationships between perceived contextual demands and well-being variables, with the exception of a marginally significant interaction between perceived contextual demands and emotion regulation flexibility predicting perceived sport performance. A probe of the interaction suggested athletes with higher emotion regulation flexibility reported less of a decline in perceived sports performance under high perceived contextual demands compared to those with lower flexibility. Exploratory analyses showed a medium positive relationship between emotion regulation flexibility and resources. Relationships between emotion regulation flexibility and stigma were not significant. Results have implications for supporting the well-being of athletes involved in college aesthetic sports.

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