The cognitive emotion regulation strategies and defense mechanisms in the elite athletes

There is no research on the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and defensive styles especially in elite athletes that face different emotions in the competitive atmosphere. The present study was carried out with the purpose of analyzing the cognitive emotion regulation strategies and defense styles in elite athletes. In total, 385 (285 male and 100 female) elite athletes were selected applying random cluster sampling method. All the participants completed cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire short version and Defense Styles Questionnaire version 40. The results showed that mature defense style is positively associated with acceptance, positive refocusing, and positive reappraisal; where as, it is negatively associated with self-blame. Immature defense style was negatively associated with acceptance and positive reappraisal but positively associated with rumination. Moreover, neurotic defense style was negatively associated with acceptance but positively associated with self-blame. The results of regression analysis indicated that mature defense styles can be positively predicted by acceptance and positive refocusing. In addition, self-blame could positively predict the neurotic defense style and both immature, neurotic defense styles could be negatively predicted by acceptance. It can be concluded that ego defense mechanisms are influenced by cognitive regulation unconsciously.