In this study, we aimed to clarify the effect of competitive anxiety on depressive symptoms through inference errors before a tournament (hereafter including a match), which may increase competitive anxiety. Furthermore, we also decided to examine intervention variables that lead to a reduction in depressive symptoms among the variables that make up inference errors. The subjects of the study were 133 male college students who belong to University A and continue to play competitive sports. The results showed that the process that leads to depressive symptoms was that "cognitive anxiety about winning or losing" and "loss of confidence" influenced "depressive symptoms" through "arbitrary inference," "selective attention," and "overgeneralization."
