Abstract
There is currently limited understanding of how to reduce perfectionism in sport. With research outside of sport as impetus, in the current study we evaluated the effectiveness of an online ACT-based intervention for reducing perfectionism and improving pre-competition emotions in soccer players. Following a pre-registered protocol, eighty-one female soccer players (M age = 24.28 years, SD = 6.77) were randomly allocated to either an intervention group (n = 41) or a waitlist control group (n = 40). The intervention group had access to a set of online ACT-based modules for 8-weeks. Athletes completed measures of trait perfectionism, perfectionism cognitions, and pre-competition emotions pre-intervention and post-intervention. A 2 (group) x 2 (time) ANOVA revealed significant interaction effects for trait perfectionism, perfectionism cognitions, and pre-competition emotions. Following the intervention, the two groups displayed significant mean differences for trait perfectionism, perfectionism cognitions, and almost all pre-competition emotions. However, due to lower reliability of some instruments, findings regarding post-competition emotions were discounted. The findings suggest that online ACT-based interventions may be a viable and effective way to reduce perfectionism in soccer players (but not necessarily improving pre-competition emotions).