Temperamental dimensions of the TEMPS-A in male and female subjects engaging in extreme or/and high risk sports

• Published in: Journal of affective disorders Vol. 170; pp. 66 - 70
• Main Authors: Siwek, Marcin, Dudek, Dominika, Drozdowicz, Katarzyna, Jaeschke, Rafał, Styczen, Krzysztof, Arciszewska, Aleksandra, Akiskal, Kareen K., Akiskal, Hagop S., Rybakowski, Janusz K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier B.V 01.01.2015; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Biological and medical sciences; Bipolarity; Case-Control Studies; Dangerous Behavior; Extreme sports; Female; Humans; Male; MDQ; Medical sciences; Mood disorders; Personality Inventory - statistics & numerical data; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reproducibility of Results; Sports - psychology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Temperament; TEMPS-A; Young Adult; Bipolarity; MDQ; Extreme sports; Temperament; TEMPS-A; Human; High risk; Sport; Female; Male; Personality
• ISSN: 0165-0327; 1573-2517; 1573-2517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2014.08.036

We investigated temperamental dimensions of the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa and San Diego Autoquestionnaire (TEMPS-A) as well as bipolarity features in male and female subjects engaging in extreme or/and high risk sports. The web-based case-control study was performed in 480 subjects engaging in extreme or/and high risk sports (255 male, 225 female) aged 26±6 years and in 235 age- and sex-matched healthy controls subjects (107 male, 128 female), aged 28+9 years. The TEMPS-A questionnaire, 110 questions version, has been used, evaluating five temperament domains: depressive, cyclothymic, hyperthymic, irritable and anxious. The Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) was employed for the assessment of bipolarity. Both male and female athletes had significantly higher scores of hyperthymic temperaments compared with control male and female subjects who had declared themselves as not involved into the activities of extreme or/and high risk sports. In addition, compared with controls, male sportsmen had lower scores of depressive and anxious temperaments, and female athletes had higher scores of cyclothymic and irritable temperaments. Both male and female athletes obtained significantly higher scores of bipolarity as measured by the MDQ, than control men and women. Web-based study involving a risk of selection and recall bias, problematic homogeneity of the experimental group. Subjects engaged into extreme or/and high risk sports have significantly higher scores of hyperthymic temperament, measured by the TEMPS-A and present sex-specific features of other temperaments. Such subjects obtain also greater bipolarity scores as measured by the MDQ.