Cognitive and attentional processes associated with performance anxiety in a sample of community musicians

Objective
Current performance anxiety (PA) research has applied a transdiagnostic approach to targeting symptoms identified by musicians. The aim of this study was to assess the utility of cognitive and attentional processes involved in the development and maintenance of PA for musicians, including trait- and state- social anxiety, performance appraisals, threat appraisals, negative attentional focus, and rumination in relation to music performances.

Method
Eighty-one (N = 81) Australian musicians aged 18 or older were recruited to complete a series of questionnaires related to their most recent, and their upcoming performances.

Results
Multiple regression analysis revealed performance appraisals, rumination, and negative attentional focus made unique and significant contributions to explaining variance in PA, but demographic and musician-specific variables (e.g. whether Ps played for a living) did not. A further mediation analysis revealed significant direct and indirect relationships between PA and negative attentional focus and rumination in relation to music performance.

Conclusions
Results support the use of available cognitive models of social anxiety disorder (SAD) in the context of PA in musicians. Future studies assessing these factors in the context of actual performance are warranted, as is the evaluation of interventions targeting these specific cognitive and attentional maintaining factors for performing musicians.