Abstract
BACKGROUND: The intensity of personality traits can significantly differentiate amateur, competitive, and professional athletes who use different approaches to practicing sports but compete against each other in the same competitions. Therefore, the objective of this article is to ascertain the extent to which personality traits and sporting levels are manifested in athletes who compete together in modern sports. METHODS: The study involved Polish athletes (N = 341), including historical fencers (n = 161), streetball players (n = 90), and modern dancers (n = 90). The NEO-FFI personality questionnaire was employed as the instrument of choice. The statistical analysis was conducted using the IBM SPSS Statistics 29.0 software package. The level of significance was assumed to be α = 0.05. RESULTS: The results demonstrated that there were statistically significant differences between the representatives of the various sporting disciplines in the intensity of all personality traits, with the exception of the difference in the intensity of neuroticism between historical fencers and modern dancers. Furthermore, when comparing all subjects by sporting level, significant differences were observed in the intensity of neuroticism (amateurs vs. competitive, amateurs vs. professional), extraversion (amateurs vs. professional) and conscientiousness (amateurs vs. professional, competitive vs. professional). Furthermore, it was found that lower intensities of neuroticism and higher extraversion were associated with higher levels of sport among historical fencers, whereas lower intensities of neuroticism and higher extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness were associated with higher levels of sport among streetball players. CONCLUSIONS: Among the surveyed population of athletes, the greatest differences occur in the intensity of neuroticism, extroversion, and conscientiousness. In addition, the most significant correlation is between low neuroticism and the level of training in a sport. Only extroversion intensity is not related to advancing to a higher level of sports performance. The intensity of all personality traits is important, but the intensity of neuroticism plays a leading role.