Gender, football and futsal influence subjective decision-making style

Abstract

Introduction: Although research on decision-making in sport has grown, decisional style has been insufficiently addressed in football and futsal and could be relevant to psychological well-being and technical–tactical performance. Aim: This study aimed to analyse the decisional style of football and futsal players and to compare the results according to the players’ sport and gender. Method: The design was descriptive, cross-sectional, comparative, and non-experimental, using the Decision-Making Style Questionnaire in Sport (DSQS). The sample comprised of 280 players from La Rioja region, Spain (207 males and 73 females, aged 10 years or older), 202 were football players (171 men and 31 women) and 78 were futsal players (36 men and 42 women). Results: The comparison of the multivariate effect of gender on the DSQS scales showed that women scored higher in Decision-Related Anxiety and Stress (DRAS), whereas men scored higher in Perceived Decision-Making Competence (PDC). Besides, there are differences according sport modality, since the value of PDC and Engagement in Learning Decisional (ELD) scales are higher in football, and the AAD value is higher in futsal. Conclusions: The player’s sport and gender seem to influence the decision-making style, with practical implications highlighted, such as cognitive-behavioural strategies, cognitive-motor training, emotional and autonomy support, and guided feedback. The results open future research lines on both modalities and their comparison by gender.