Competitive state anxiety and perceived performance in Chinese elite collegiate basketball athletes: a moderated mediation model of sport confidence and coaching style

This study aims to explore the moderated mediation mechanism of sport confidence and coaching style in the relationship between competitive state anxiety and perceived performance among Chinese elite collegiate basketball athletes. Specifically, data were collected from 315 valid participants across 15 universities in Northeast China using validated scales, and SPSS 26.0 with PROCESS Macro (Model 7) and bootstrap (5,000 samples) were employed for analysis. Results indicated that competitive state anxiety significantly negatively affected perceived performance. Further analysis revealed that sport confidence mediated this relationship. The moderated mediation test showed that coaching style dimensions differentially regulated the path: the indices of moderated mediation for Training and Instruction, Democratic Behavior, Social Support, and Positive Feedback were significant, indicating these supportive dimensions attenuated the detrimental effect of anxiety on sport confidence. In contrast, Autocratic Behavior failed to moderate the process. Collectively, competitive state anxiety is negatively associated with perceived performance in this population, with sport confidence emerging as a key mediator. Notably, the four constructive coaching style dimensions—not the overall style—buffer the first stage of mediation by weakening the negative association between anxiety and confidence. These results underscore sport confidence as a critical mediator and highlight the need to foster confidence and adopt supportive coaching to mitigate anxiety’s adverse effects on perceived performance.