Sport AnxietyLST-FootballNCT07771972
Life Skills Training for Anxiety and Football Performance in Adolescent Players
A study testing Life Skills Training Program in people with Sport Anxiety and Athletic Performance, run by Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj at 1 site in China.
Trial summary
This randomized behavioral study will evaluate whether an eight-week life skills training program will reduce cognitive sport anxiety and improve football performance in non-elite adolescent football players in China. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 14 to 17 yearsHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Sport Anxiety, Athletic Performance
- What is being tested?
- Life Skills Training Program
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 320 participants
- Where
- 1 siteChina
- Study dates
- 11 Apr 2026to 20 Jul 2026
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 14 to 17 years
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Child
Who may be able to join
- Age 14 to 17 years at enrollment.
- Current membership in a non-elite/non-professional football team.
- At least one year of prior football participation.
- Regular participation in team football training.
- Ability and willingness to attend study assessments and, if allocated to the intervention, the life skills training sessions.
- Written informed consent from a parent or legal guardian and age-appropriate assent from the adolescent participant before study participation.
Who cannot join
- Current membership in a national football team.
- Current professional football contract.
- Current membership in a first-tier professional football academy.
- Any medical, musculoskeletal, or psychological condition that, in the judgment of the study team, would make participation in football-performance testing or the behavioral intervention unsafe or inappropriate.
- Inability to complete baseline assessment or comply with essential study procedures.
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
China1 site
Tianjin University of Sport, School of Sports Training
Tianjin, 301617
About this study
Official title: Life Skills Training and Athletic Performance of Non-Elite Adolescent Football Players: The Mediating Role of Reduced Cognitive Anxiety
This randomized behavioral study will evaluate whether an eight-week life skills training program will reduce cognitive sport anxiety and improve football performance in non-elite adolescent football players in China. A total of 160 players aged 14 to 17 years from 16 teams will be allocated individually within team-by-gender strata to either a life skills training group or a usual-training control group. The intervention will include 16 small-group sessions delivered twice per week for 45-60 minutes. Assessments will be conducted at baseline, immediately after the eight-week intervention, and four weeks later. The primary psychological outcome will be cognitive anxiety derived from the Worry and Concentration Disruption subscales of the Sport Anxiety Scale-2. The primary performance outcome will be a baseline-referenced Football Performance Index derived from passing accuracy, shooting accuracy, dribbling time, and agility time. The study hypothesis is that life skills training will reduce cognitive anxiety and improve football performance, and that greater reduction in cognitive anxiety immediately after the intervention will be associated with better football performance at follow-up.
Read the detailed description
The study will use a two-arm parallel longitudinal randomized design with three assessment points: T0 at baseline, T1 immediately after completion of an eight-week intervention, and T2 four weeks after T1. Participants will be 160 non-elite football players aged 14-17 years from 16 teams. Individual randomization will be conducted within team-by-gender strata using a computer-generated random sequence, targeting 80 participants per condition.
The life skills intervention will consist of 16 sessions delivered over eight weeks (two sessions per week; 45-60 minutes per session; approximately 8-10 players per small group). Content will include goal setting, self-management, emotional regulation, problem solving, decision making, communication, teamwork, time management, coping with mistakes, and transfer of skills beyond sport. Control participants will continue usual football training without the structured life skills program during the study period. Attendance, possible control contamination, and concurrent psychological training will be recorded.
Cognitive sport anxiety will be assessed using the 15-item Sport Anxiety Scale-2. Worry will comprise items 3, 5, 8, 9, and 11; Concentration Disruption will comprise items 1, 4, 7, 13, and 15; Somatic Anxiety will comprise items 2, 6, 10, 12, and 14. Cognitive Anxiety will be defined as Worry plus Concentration Disruption. Football performance will be assessed using passing accuracy, shooting accuracy, dribbling time, and agility time. These components will be standardized using fixed baseline reference parameters, with time-based measures reverse-directed, and combined into a T-score Football Performance Index in which higher values indicate better performance.
Primary intervention effects will be evaluated with linear mixed-effects models using condition, time, and condition-by-time fixed effects, while accounting for repeated observations within participants and clustering within teams. Secondary outcome contrasts will be adjusted using the Holm procedure. The longitudinal indirect pathway will be evaluated as intervention allocation → T1 cognitive anxiety reduction → T2 football performance. The indirect effect will be estimated with 5,000 team-cluster bootstrap resamples. Sensitivity analyses will include per-protocol attendance, control contamination, concurrent psychological training, complete T2 cases, multiple imputation with 20 imputed datasets, and alternative FPI scoring.
- Conditions
- Sport Anxiety, Athletic Performance
- Being tested
- Life Skills Training Program
- Keywords
- adolescent athletes, football; soccer, life skills, cognitive anxiety, sport anxiety, athletic performance, psychological skills, youth sport, China
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Life Skills Training ProgramBehavioural
An eight-week behavioral life skills program delivered in 16 small-group sessions (2 sessions/week; 45-60 minutes/session; approximately 8-10 players/group). The program will include goal setting, self-management, emotional regulation, problem solving, decision making, communication, teamwork, time management, coping with mistakes, and transfer of skills beyond sport. Attendance will be recorded. Per-protocol adherence will be defined as attendance at ≥80% of sessions (at least 13 of 16 sessions).
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Life Skills Training | Experimental | Participants will receive a structured eight-week life skills training program consisting of 16 small-group sessions delivered twice weekly. Each session will last 45-60 minutes and will involve approximately 8-10 players. Training will address goal setting, self-management, emotional regulation, problem solving, decision making, communication, teamwork, time management, coping with mistakes, and transfer of skills beyond sport. Receives: Behavioral: Life Skills Training Program |
| Usual Training Control | No intervention | Participants will continue their usual football training during the eight-week study intervention period and will not receive the structured life skills training program. Potential exposure to intervention content and concurrent psychological training will be monitored. |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Change in Cognitive Anxiety Score
Cognitive Anxiety will be calculated as the sum of the Worry and Concentration Disruption subscales of the 15-item Sport Anxiety Scale-2. Each subscale contains five items scored from 1 to 4; therefore the Cognitive Anxiety composite will range from 10 to 40, with lower scores indicating less cognitive sport anxiety. The primary analysis will evaluate differential change between groups over time.
Measured: Baseline (T0), immediately post-intervention at 8 weeks (T1), and 4-week post-intervention follow-up (T2; approximately 12 weeks after baseline)
Change in Baseline-Referenced Football Performance Index
The Football Performance Index will combine passing accuracy, shooting accuracy, dribbling time, and agility time. Each component will be standardized using fixed baseline reference parameters; dribbling and agility time will be reverse-directed so higher standardized values represent better performance. The composite will be transformed to a T-score metric, with higher scores indicating better football performance.
Measured: Baseline (T0), immediately post-intervention at 8 weeks (T1), and 4-week post-intervention follow-up (T2; approximately 12 weeks after baseline)
Secondary outcomes (4)
Worry Subscale Score
5-item SAS-2 Worry subscale; range 5-20; lower scores indicate less worry.
Measured: Time frame: T0, T1 at 8 weeks, T2 at approximately 12 weeks.
Concentration Disruption Subscale Score
5-item SAS-2 Concentration Disruption subscale; range 5-20; lower scores indicate less concentration disruption.
Measured: Time frame: T0, T1 at 8 weeks, T2 at approximately 12 weeks.
Somatic Anxiety Subscale Score
5-item SAS-2 Somatic Anxiety subscale; range 5-20; lower scores indicate less somatic anxiety.
Measured: Time frame: T0, T1 at 8 weeks, T2 at approximately 12 weeks.
Passing Accuracy
Football-specific passing accuracy performance measure; higher values indicate better performance.
Measured: ime frame: T0, T1 at 8 weeks, T2 at approximately 12 weeks.
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted19 Aug 2026
- Study start11 Apr 2026
- Primary completion15 Jul 2026
- Study completion20 Jul 2026
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for Sport AnxietyStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Other
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Model description
- Two-arm parallel study with 1:1 individual randomization within team-by-gender strata. Participants will be assessed at baseline, immediately after the 8-week intervention, and at a 4-week post-intervention follow-up.
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 320 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Islamic Azad University of Mashhad
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Zinat Ebrahimi, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07771972
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- TUS-LST-22FTYB009-01
- Acronym
- LST-Football
- Status last verified
- Aug 2026
- First submitted
- 9 Aug 2026
- Last updated
- 24 Sep 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- Undecided: The final individual participant data sharing plan will be determined after ethics approval and review of the parent/guardian consent, adolescent assent, institutional data-governance requirements, and applicable requirements in China. If sharing is permitted, only appropriately de-identified participant-level data will be considered for access.
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 24 Sep 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Life Skills Training and Athletic Performance of Non-Elite Adolescent Football Players: The Mediating Role of Reduced Cognitive Anxiety
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07771972
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- LST-Football / TUS-LST-22FTYB009-01
- Conditions
- Sport Anxiety, Athletic Performance
- Keywords
- adolescent athletes, football; soccer, life skills, cognitive anxiety, sport anxiety, athletic performance, psychological skills, youth sport
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 320 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- Islamic Azad University, SanandajUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Islamic Azad University of Mashhad
- Study start
- 11 Apr 2026 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 15 Jul 2026 (actual)
- Study completion
- 20 Jul 2026 (actual)
- First posted
- 19 Aug 2026 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
This randomized behavioral study will evaluate whether an eight-week life skills training program will reduce cognitive sport anxiety and improve football performance in non-elite adolescent football players in China. A total of 160 players aged 14 to 17 years from 16 teams will be allocated individually within team-by-gender strata to either a life skills training group or a usual-training control group. The intervention will include 16 small-group sessions delivered twice per week for 45-60 minutes. Assessments will be conducted at baseline, immediately after the eight-week intervention, and four weeks later. The primary psychological outcome will be cognitive anxiety derived from the Worry and Concentration Disruption subscales of the Sport Anxiety Scale-2. The primary performance outcome will be a baseline-referenced Football Performance Index derived from passing accuracy, shooting accuracy, dribbling time, and agility time. The study hypothesis is that life skills training will reduce cognitive anxiety and improve football performance, and that greater reduction in cognitive anxiety immediately after the intervention will be associated with better football performance at follow-up.
Detailed description
The study will use a two-arm parallel longitudinal randomized design with three assessment points: T0 at baseline, T1 immediately after completion of an eight-week intervention, and T2 four weeks after T1. Participants will be 160 non-elite football players aged 14-17 years from 16 teams. Individual randomization will be conducted within team-by-gender strata using a computer-generated random sequence, targeting 80 participants per condition.
The life skills intervention will consist of 16 sessions delivered over eight weeks (two sessions per week; 45-60 minutes per session; approximately 8-10 players per small group). Content will include goal setting, self-management, emotional regulation, problem solving, decision making, communication, teamwork, time management, coping with mistakes, and transfer of skills beyond sport. Control participants will continue usual football training without the structured life skills program during the study period. Attendance, possible control contamination, and concurrent psychological training will be recorded.
Cognitive sport anxiety will be assessed using the 15-item Sport Anxiety Scale-2. Worry will comprise items 3, 5, 8, 9, and 11; Concentration Disruption will comprise items 1, 4, 7, 13, and 15; Somatic Anxiety will comprise items 2, 6, 10, 12, and 14. Cognitive Anxiety will be defined as Worry plus Concentration Disruption. Football performance will be assessed using passing accuracy, shooting accuracy, dribbling time, and agility time. These components will be standardized using fixed baseline reference parameters, with time-based measures reverse-directed, and combined into a T-score Football Performance Index in which higher values indicate better performance.
Primary intervention effects will be evaluated with linear mixed-effects models using condition, time, and condition-by-time fixed effects, while accounting for repeated observations within participants and clustering within teams. Secondary outcome contrasts will be adjusted using the Holm procedure. The longitudinal indirect pathway will be evaluated as intervention allocation → T1 cognitive anxiety reduction → T2 football performance. The indirect effect will be estimated with 5,000 team-cluster bootstrap resamples. Sensitivity analyses will include per-protocol attendance, control contamination, concurrent psychological training, complete T2 cases, multiple imputation with 20 imputed datasets, and alternative FPI scoring.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Other
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 2
- Model description
- Two-arm parallel study with 1:1 individual randomization within team-by-gender strata. Participants will be assessed at baseline, immediately after the 8-week intervention, and at a 4-week post-intervention follow-up.
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Life Skills Training | Experimental | Behavioral: Life Skills Training ProgramParticipants will receive a structured eight-week life skills training program consisting of 16 small-group sessions delivered twice weekly. Each session will last 45-60 minutes and will involve approximately 8-10 players. Training will address goal setting, self-management, emotional regulation, problem solving, decision making, communication, teamwork, time management, coping with mistakes, and transfer of skills beyond sport. |
| Usual Training Control | No intervention | –Participants will continue their usual football training during the eight-week study intervention period and will not receive the structured life skills training program. Potential exposure to intervention content and concurrent psychological training will be monitored. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 14 to 17 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Child
Key inclusion criteria (6 listed)
- Age 14 to 17 years at enrollment.
- Current membership in a non-elite/non-professional football team.
- At least one year of prior football participation.
- Regular participation in team football training.
- Ability and willingness to attend study assessments and, if allocated to the intervention, the life skills training sessions.
Key exclusion criteria (5 listed)
- Current membership in a national football team.
- Current professional football contract.
- Current membership in a first-tier professional football academy.
- Any medical, musculoskeletal, or psychological condition that, in the judgment of the study team, would make participation in football-performance testing or the behavioral intervention unsafe or inappropriate.
- Inability to complete baseline assessment or comply with essential study procedures.
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Life Skills Training ProgramAn eight-week behavioral life skills program delivered in 16 small-group sessions (2 sessions/week; 45-60 minutes/session; approximately 8-10 players/group). The program will include goal setting, self-management, emotional regulation, problem solving, decision making, communication, teamwork, time management, coping with mistakes, and transfer of skills beyond sport. Attendance will be recorded. Per-protocol adherence will be defined as attendance at ≥80% of sessions (at least 13 of 16 sessions). | Behavioural | Life Skills Training |
Primary outcome
Change in Cognitive Anxiety Score
Time frame: Baseline (T0), immediately post-intervention at 8 weeks (T1), and 4-week post-intervention follow-up (T2; approximately 12 weeks after baseline)
Cognitive Anxiety will be calculated as the sum of the Worry and Concentration Disruption subscales of the 15-item Sport Anxiety Scale-2. Each subscale contains five items scored from 1 to 4; therefore the Cognitive Anxiety composite will range from 10 to 40, with lower scores indicating less cognitive sport anxiety. The primary analysis will evaluate differential change between groups over time.
Change in Baseline-Referenced Football Performance Index
Time frame: Baseline (T0), immediately post-intervention at 8 weeks (T1), and 4-week post-intervention follow-up (T2; approximately 12 weeks after baseline)
The Football Performance Index will combine passing accuracy, shooting accuracy, dribbling time, and agility time. Each component will be standardized using fixed baseline reference parameters; dribbling and agility time will be reverse-directed so higher standardized values represent better performance. The composite will be transformed to a T-score metric, with higher scores indicating better football performance.
4 secondary outcomes
Worry Subscale Score
Time frame: Time frame: T0, T1 at 8 weeks, T2 at approximately 12 weeks.
Concentration Disruption Subscale Score
Time frame: Time frame: T0, T1 at 8 weeks, T2 at approximately 12 weeks.
Somatic Anxiety Subscale Score
Time frame: Time frame: T0, T1 at 8 weeks, T2 at approximately 12 weeks.
Passing Accuracy
Time frame: ime frame: T0, T1 at 8 weeks, T2 at approximately 12 weeks.
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 24 Sep 2026.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: Undecided. The final individual participant data sharing plan will be determined after ethics approval and review of the parent/guardian consent, adolescent assent, institutional data-governance requirements, and applicable requirements in China. If sharing is permitted, only appropriately de-identified participant-level data will be considered for access.
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
The record lists no contact. Use the official record to reach the sponsor.
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Life Skills Training Program in people with Sport Anxiety and Athletic Performance, run by Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj at 1 site in China.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 6 inclusion and 5 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 24 Sep 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in China. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Change in Cognitive Anxiety Score (time frame: Baseline (T0), immediately post-intervention at 8 weeks (T1), and 4-week post-intervention follow-up (T2; approximately 12 weeks after baseline)). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 24 Sep 2026.