Abstract
<jats:p>Background and purpose The aim is to study psychological content features of decision-making in junior athletes with signs of mixed anxiety-depressive disorder (MADD). Material and methods The research participants were students of sports schools for children and youth located in Ukraine’s regional centres. The survey involved junior athletes aged 15 to 19 who attended schools and regularly trained, with a total of n = 112 individuals representing teams U-15, U-17, and U-19. They had participated in and won sports competitions of different levels. The research employed valid and reliable psychodiagnostic tools tested across numerous sports samples. Results MADD signs were diagnosed in n = 21 (18.75%) respondents in the total sample. Two petal diagrams visualising the decision-making profiles of juniors with and without MADD signs were created. The combined matrix of correlations between decision-making parameters and mixed anxiety-depressive disorder demonstrated completely different trajectories of significant correlations and loadings of the key studied parameters. The productive coping strategy “vigilance” (three correlations) and the unproductive coping strategy “avoidance” (two correlations) were found to be the most dependent decision-making parameters, which are excessively sensitive to the signs of anxiety and depressiveness. The inverse correlations with the productive coping strategy “vigilance” demonstrated the critical importance of vigilance for junior athletes. No significant difference was found in the studied groups for the grouping variable “gender differentiation”. For the grouping variable “mixed anxiety-depressive disorder”, superiority of athletes with MADD signs was found in the non-productive coping strategy “avoidance”. Conclusions It was substantiated that mixed anxiety-depressive disorder signs can alternate, become more pronounced, and cause considerable discomfort, which is occasionally accompanied by body aches and gastrointestinal problems, which reduces the quality of life and is transformed into the coping strategy of decision avoidance. The study proposes measures for operationalising negative manifestations of anxiety caused by the dominant “avoidance” strategy by means of the diagnostic and corrective program for overcoming anxiety. It was recommended that the established scientific facts and significant differences should be integrated into professional training for teachers-coaches at sports schools for children and youth.</jats:p>