Sport psychology and performance meta-analyses: A systematic review of the literature

Sport psychology as an academic pursuit is nearly two centuries old. An enduring goal since inception has been to understand how psychological techniques can improve athletic performance. We aimed to synthesize the extant literature to gain insights into the overall impact of sport psychology on athletic performance. Thirty meta-analyses published between 1983 and 2021 met the inclusion criteria, covering 16 distinct sport psychology constructs. Overall, sport psychology interventions hypothesized to enhance performance such as cohesion, confidence, and mindfulness were shown to have a moderate beneficial effect, whereas variables hypothesized to be detrimental to performance such as cognitive anxiety, depression, and ego climate had a small negative effect. Our review strengthens the evidence base for sport psychology techniques and may be of great practical value to practitioners.