Abstract

The exceptionally increased indices of stress are observed in the age period of youth and adulthood (Arnett, 2007). Athletic identity is a part of lifelong developing self-reflection indicating to what extent people relate themselves with physical activeness and/ or sports activity (Brewer et al., 1993; Anderson et al., 2007). The athletic identity of a young person may be related with higher levels of the stress one experiences or, on the contrary, may decrease stress. The aim of this research is to establish the athletic identity of 1st year students and to discover its relationship with the stress experiences by the student. Reeder stress inventory was used in order to evaluate psychological stress. Athletic identity was measured by employing Youth Athletic Identity Questionnaire (Anderson et al., 2007). 254 1st year undergraduate students (135 female and 119 male) representing Lithuanian Sports University aged 18 to 25 (age average 19.52 (0.64)) participated in the research. The results of the research revealed that those 1st year students whose athletic identity is expressed more prominently undergo less stress than those 1st year students whose athletic identity is expressed less prominently. It is likely that physical activity significantly shapes the identity of a young individual which positively contributes to the psychological health of the youth. Verf.-Referat