The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of psychological skills training (PST) in enhancing mental toughness among Turkish professional soccer team. Sixteen weeks of cognitive-behavioral conceptual framework-based PST program designed according to factors (confidence -constancy -control) of Sport Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ; Sheard et al., 2009) and (self-acceptance, positive relations with others, environmental mastery, purpose in life, personal growth and autonomy) scales of Psychological well-being (SPWB; Dierendonck, 2005). Twenty-six male soccer players between 18-33 years old (mean ± s: age 26.69 ± 3.54 years) voluntarily participated in this study. The relationship between mental toughness (MT) and psychological well-being was identified by conduction of Pearson Product Moment Correlations. To check effect of PST on MT and PWB in progress Paired sample t test was used. Throughout the intervention program, MT and PWB levels of participants significantly increased, in addition to self-acceptance, autonomy and positive relationships with others. Moreover, positive significant relationships were found between components of PWB and MT.

In this study, mental toughness and anxiety have been chosen to be compared between male American football and handball players. The present study was carried out to determine and examine the psychological parameters mentioned above and show the importance of these concepts in the process of sport career. Mental toughness (with its sub-dimensions) and anxiety levels of 44 male participants were determined. Twenty-seven of those participants were American football players between 19 and 25 years of age (mean ± s: age 20.93 ± 2.25 years). Their sports experience ranged between 1 and 19 years (mean ± s: 10.26 ± 3.34 years). The remaining seventeen participants were handball players between 18 and 26 years of age (mean ± s: age 21.54 ± 3.31 years). Their sport experience ranged between 5 and 12 years (mean ± s: 9.15 ± 4.13 years). Differences between the groups were determined using the "Independent Sample t-test" analysis method using the SPSS 21.0 software. The independent sample t-test results showed that there were significant differences in the total mental toughness (including its sub-dimensions; confidence, constancy and control) and anxiety levels of the two group of players (p < .05). The American football team players' confidence, control, and total mental toughness levels were higher than that of handball players and they had lower level scores for constancy and anxiety levels.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a six-week psychological skill training (PST) program that is based on a cognitive-behavioral conceptual framework on team cohesion, confidence, and anxiety of an intact team. Thirty-six male basketball players, 19 athletes for the experimental group and 17 athletes for the control group, aged between 15-16 years old voluntarily participated in this study. For the quantitative part of the study, the Group Environment Questionnaire, Trait Sport-Confidence Inventory, and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were given during the pre-intervention, post-intervention and follow-up tests. Qualitative methods were also employed in the current study to support validation of the implied PST program. Six players and the coach of both teams were interviewed utilizing a semi-structured interview schedule. Statistical testing within factor analyses of the experimental group reveals a significant difference over time for team cohesion and for self-confidence but no significant difference for anxiety. Moreover, comparisons between the experimental and control groups' results indicate that there is a significant difference between groups. Overall, it is concluded that the experimental team's participation in the PST program affected the team's cohesion levels and the athletes' self-confidence levels positively but there is no significant effect on the athletes' anxiety levels.

This study aims to evaluate the relationships between sport mental toughness (SMT) and psychological wellbeing (PWB) of undergraduate student athletes. Mental toughness represents the ability of a person to cope with the demands of training and competition, increased determination, focus, confidence, and maintain control under pressure. Mental toughness has been explained as the ability of an athlete to cope with the requests of practice and competition, improved determination, focus, self-confidence and keeping control under pressure. The concept of PWB has been introduced in eudaimonic part as the realization of potential through some form of struggle. The sample of the study constituted by 130 participants from two Turkish universities, included participants from a Physical Education and Sport Education program from four years of standard undergraduate study. To assess mental toughness, the Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ) (Sheard et al., 2009) was administered; while to assess PWB, Ryff's PWB scale (1989a) were given to volunteer participants. To identify the internal consistency of the validated questionnaires, Cronbach's alpha score was used. The relationship between SMT and PWB was identified by conduction of Pearson Product Moment Correlations. To check for age, gender and level of the study, the hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses was used to examine the predictive capacity of mental toughness on PWB. Multiple linear regression analyses' findings revealed that sub-dimensions of SMT were moderate to strong predictors of PWB with between 40 and 66% of variance explained. Consequently, the demographic factors were not found to predict PWB. These results are consistent with the assumptions and continue to show the potential importance of SMT within the physical education and sports learning environments.

Gucciardi et al. (2009) [1] suggest that mental toughness is more a function of environment than domains, and as such, mental toughness is potentially important in any environment that requires performance setting, challenges, and adversities. Due to vital importance of mental toughness in sports and particularly in soccer, this paper focused on the comparison of sport mental toughness levels of soccer officials with their age group, education level, refereeing category and sports experience years. Mental toughness was checked by Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ). The SMTQ was applied to soccer officials (159 licensed referees) who all were registered to the Turkish Football Federation (TFF). The sample consisted of 146 male subjects, mean age was 29.10 years (SD = 7.54, range = 19-54) and 13 female subjects mean age was 22.82 years (SD = 4.71, range = 19-27). To determine the difference of Sport Mental Toughness level among soccer referees One-Way ANOVA was used for normal distribution and Scheffé Test was used for determining the differences across groups with through SPSS Package 21.0 and the significant level was set at 0.05. The findings of this research paper showed that there were significant differences between soccer officials' three sub-factors (confidence -constancycontrol) of mental toughness and their officiating experience years. This could be attributed to the fact that 15 and above years experienced officials were mentally tougher than those with 0-5 years' experience and those with 6-10 years' experience. There were not any significant differences between other variables (refereeing categories, education levels and age groups) of soccer officials and their mental toughness levels.