RESEARCH ARTICLE


The e-S.F.E.R.A. Questionnaire: A New Tool For Sport Psychologists Working In Mental Training



Andrea Caputo1, *, Stefano Drivet1, Riccardo Sandretto1, Giuseppe Vercelli2, Claudio G. Cortese1
1 Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
2 Sport and Human Performance Psychology Center “Umbro Marcaccioli” (ISEF Foundation), Turin, Italy


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Creative Commons License
© 2023 Caputo et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy; E-mail: andrea.caputo@unito.it


Abstract

Background:

Esports are gaining worldwide recognition. Given the characteristics of this discipline, esporters need proper mental preparation. The S.F.E.R.A. model is widely used in sport psychology practice in Italy, aiming to maximize athletes’ performance and improve five mental factors: Synchrony, Strength, Energy, Rhythm, and Activation.

Objectives:

The present study aims at 1) developing a questionnaire to detect those factors and 2) investigating their similarity with more classical psychological dimensions.

Methods:

A sample of 211 players of competitive online games filled out the “e-S.F.E.R.A. Questionnaire”. Confirmatory Factor Analysis for each factor and regressions on Engagement, Flow and Addiction were performed.

Results:

Results 1) confirm the monofactorial structures of mental factors and 2) show the positive relations of Energy with Vigor and Dedication of Engagement and Activation with all dimensions considered, including Addiction.

Conclusion:

This study provides sports psychologists with a new framework and tools for esporters’ mental optimization.

Keywords: Mental training, Esports, Sport psychology, Gaming, Sports performance, Eplayers.