Neuroticism in young archers: Nafanailova 2018 study

At a sports college for the Olympic reserve in Yakutsk, Siberia, the authors gave a battery of clinical and personality questionnaires to 60 boys between the eighth and eleventh school years: 30 archers and 30 rifle shooters. The aim was to see which personal traits go with a higher level of 'neuroticisation', a construct from the Russian school that measures the presence of neurotic-type traits.

According to the authors, most of the archers had a low or very low level of neuroticisation, and higher values went with poorer communication skills (Spearman correlation 0.694). On the questionnaire about ways of coping with difficulties, the archers scored unfavourably on planned problem solving and positive reappraisal; on the adaptation questionnaire most had low adaptive potential but high neuropsychological stability. About a quarter showed moderately marked character traits, with no link to neuroticisation. In the closing portrait the archers come across as introverted, rigid and unsociable, and the rifle shooters as extroverted and assertive.

The authors state that archers and rifle shooters differ significantly, but give no figures, and they end by saying that the hypothesis of a link between neuroticisation and personal traits was not confirmed, despite the correlation reported a few paragraphs earlier.

The study was carried out in the 2016-2017 school year by the psychology institute of the North-Eastern Federal University, at the Olympic reserve college named after R. M. Dmitriev. There were five instruments: the multi-level 'Adaptability' questionnaire by Maklakov and Chermyanin; the clinical test of the level of neuroticisation and psychopathisation by Lasko and Tonkonogiy; Leonhard's questionnaire, in Schmieschek's version, for accentuated character traits; the Lazarus coping test; and the projective 'Self-portrait' drawing. Ages ranged from 14 to 18, and all were male.

Comparisons use Spearman's rank correlation and the Mann-Whitney test. The paper contains no tables, means, standard deviations or breakdowns by level: the results are described in words, with only two numerical values, and some of the observations (reserve, one-word answers, teasing between teammates during the tests) come from conversations with the boys and from how they behaved while filling in the questionnaires.

With no tables or means, almost nothing in the paper can be checked. The two numbers it does contain are reported confusingly: the correlation of 0.694 is called significant 'at N=0.01', and the Mann-Whitney test gives 'U critical = 0.047 at P ≤ 0.5', notations that match no standard way of reporting these tests. In several places it is unclear whether a result refers to the archers, the rifle shooters or everyone together.

Some conclusions contradict each other: most archers are said to have both low adaptive potential, with 'possible neuropsychological breakdowns', and high neuropsychological stability; a correlation between neuroticisation and communication is reported, and then the hypothesis is declared not confirmed. The portrait of archers as rigid, coarse and prone to aggression rests partly on impressions gathered while the boys filled in the forms. The sample comes from a single college, is entirely male, and includes no measure of shooting, competitive level or results.

For anyone who shoots the study adds nothing usable. It does not measure shooting, does not follow the boys over time, and cannot tell us whether a given personality profile helps or hinders an archer; even the comparison with rifle shooters is asserted without the data. The idea that archers are more withdrawn and less communicative comes from a single Siberian college and from questionnaires designed for clinical use, so it does not describe archers in general.

The authors suggest autogenic training, trust exercises and team-building activities. These are reasonable ideas for any youth squad, but they do not follow from the findings of this study.