Do Sport Engagement–Competition Anxiety Associations Differ Across Visual Impairment Classification Groups? Evidence from Blind Football and Partially Sighted Futsal

Objective: Competition anxiety is an important psychological factor associated with athletes’ performance and psychological functioning. However, limited evidence exists regarding the relationship between sport engagement and competition anxiety among athletes with visual impairment, particularly across different visual impairment classifications. This study aimed to examine the associations between sport engagement and cognitive and somatic competition anxiety and to determine whether these associations differed across B1, B2, and B3 classification groups competing in distinct football contexts. Because B1 athletes competed in blind football whereas B2 and B3 athletes competed in partially sighted futsal, classification group and competition format were not separable in the present design. Methods: The study employed a cross-sectional correlational design and included 226 athletes classified as B1, B2, or B3 who competed under the Turkish Blind Sports Federation during the 2025–2026 season. B1 athletes competed in blind football, whereas B2 and B3 athletes competed in partially sighted futsal. Data were collected using the Sport Engagement Scale and the Revised Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2. Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine bivariate associations. Conditional differences in the associations across the three classification groups were examined separately for cognitive and somatic anxiety using PROCESS Macro Model 1 with 5000 bootstrap resamples, with B1 specified as the reference category. The classification groups simultaneously represented different visual-function categories and different competitive formats. Results: Sport engagement was negatively associated with cognitive anxiety (r = −0.20, p = 0.003) and somatic anxiety (r = −0.24, p < 0.001). For cognitive anxiety, the moderation model was statistically significant (R2 = 0.426, F(5, 220) = 32.64, p < 0.001). The Sport Engagement × B2 (B = 0.684, p < 0.001) and Sport Engagement × B3 (B = 0.843, p < 0.001) interactions were significant. The conditional association was clearly negative among B1 athletes (B = −0.859, p < 0.001), whereas the corresponding estimates for B2 and B3 were weaker and their confidence intervals included zero. A similar pattern emerged for somatic anxiety. The moderation model was significant (R2 = 0.412, F(5, 220) = 30.79, p < 0.001), with significant Sport Engagement × B2 (B = 0.650, p < 0.001) and Sport Engagement × B3 (B = 0.678, p < 0.001) interactions. The conditional association was clearly negative among B1 athletes (B = −0.792, p < 0.001), whereas the estimates for B2 and B3 were weaker and less precise, with confidence intervals including zero. Conclusion: The associations between sport engagement and cognitive and somatic competition anxiety differed across the B1, B2, and B3 groups competing in distinct football contexts. Higher sport engagement was associated with lower cognitive and somatic anxiety overall, with the strongest and most precise negative estimates observed among B1 blind football players. Because classification group was inherently linked to competition format in the present sample, these differences should be interpreted as group-specific patterns arising within distinct sensory and competitive contexts rather than as effects attributable specifically to visual impairment classification or visual function. From an applied perspective, psychological preparation and pre-competition monitoring should therefore consider the combined sensory and competitive demands characterizing blind football and partially sighted futsal.