Digital biomarkers of psychological readiness in volleyball athletes: a systematic review of wearable, autonomic, and ecological measures

Journal of Educational and Learning Studies August 27, 2026 Volume 9, Number 1 3 authors

Abstract

This systematic literature review synthesised evidence on digital biomarkers relevant to psychological and autonomic readiness in volleyball, with particular attention to beach-volleyball contexts. The review followed PRISMA 2020 and used a structured Scopus search covering wearable sensors, heart-rate variability (HRV), autonomic regulation, well-being, recovery, monitoring, training load, and fatigue. The search identified 186 records; 45 full texts were assessed and 10 records were retained for the qualitative evidence map, including empirical studies and two secondary syntheses used for contextual benchmarking. Three themes were identified: autonomic regulation, wearable and inertial kinetics, and ecological psychological monitoring. HRV was sensitive to training and competition load, wearable measures characterized external and neuromuscular demands, and repeated self-report and sleep measures provided ecologically situated information about perceived readiness. However, the included studies did not establish construct equivalence for a single latent readiness variable, and direct multimodal criterion validation against performance outcomes was uncommon. Because independent screening logs and item-level appraisal sheets were not preserved in the source file, inter-rater agreement and retrospective risk-of-bias scores could not be reconstructed without introducing unverifiable data. The synthesis therefore emphasizes descriptive convergence and methodological heterogeneity rather than a pooled effect estimate. Future research should preregister readiness operationalizations, standardize HRV and ecological sampling protocols, synchronize psychological and wearable streams, and validate multimodal models prospectively in beach-volleyball environments.

Authors

  1. Rudyanto Rudyanto

    Universitas Negeri Padang

  2. Ifdil Ifdil

    Center for Educational Neuroscience, Trauma, and Human Behavior, Universitas Negeri Padang.

  3. Ardo Okilanda

    Universitas Negeri Padang

Keywords

No keywords available

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