Are Adolescents With High Mental Toughness Levels More Resilient Against Stress?

Abstract

Mental toughness has been explored predominantly within sport contexts. Nevertheless, it is difficult to conceive mental toughness as only applicable to athletes. This study examines whether mentally tough participants exhibit resilience against stress. This is a cross-sectional study based on two different samples: Sample 1 consisted of 284 high school students (99 males, 185 females, M = 18.3 years). Sample 2 consisted of 140 first through fifth semester undergraduate students (53 males, 87 females, M = 20.0 years). Participants provided information about their level of perceived stress (10-item Perceived Stress Scale), mental toughness (48-item Mental Toughness Questionnaire) and depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory). Consistent across the two samples, mental toughness mitigated the relationship between high stress and depressive symptoms. The interaction between stress and mental toughness explained 2% of variance in the adolescent sample and 10% of variance among young adults. The promotion of protective factors that foster resilient adaptation is a relevant issue. Mental toughness may appeal to individuals that are typically difficult to be reached with health interventions. Because mental toughness is part of young people's daily speech, it may serve as a less academic resource than other health psychology concepts.

The Development and Validation of a Mental Toughness Scale for Adolescents

“…Past research has demonstrated relationships between mental toughness and positive education outcomes (e.g., attainment, behaviour, peer relationships, educational transitions; St-Clair-Thompson et al, 2014;2016) and physical and psychological health (Gerber et al, 2012;2013a;2013b;. It was therefore hypothesised that scores on the subcomponents of the MTS-A would be related to adolescents' motivation and engagement, depression, generalised anxiety and test anxiety.…”

Sleep Quality, Sleep EEG Pattern, Mental Well-Being and Cortisol Secretion in Patients with Ruptured Aneurysm Post-Treatment: A Comparison with Post-Surgery Meningioma Patients and Controls

“…Furthermore, research with healthy populations has shown that mental toughness is associated with good subjective sleep quality [31] and favourable objective sleep EEG pattern [32]. Mental toughness also has the potential to buffer against depressive symptoms if individuals are exposed to high stress [33,34]. Finally, research shows that stress is associated with sleep complaints mainly because stress is linked to increased sleep-related dysfunctional cognitions [35].…”

Lay perceptions of mental toughness: Understanding conceptual similarities and differences between lay and sporting contexts

“…Despite empirical investigations in non-sporting contexts (e.g., Gerber et al, 2012;Gerber, Kalak et al, 2013;Gucciardi et al, 2015;St. Clair-Thompson et al, 2015), lay perceptions of mental toughness remain relatively unexplored.…”

“…Although sport has been a predominant focus, empirical research suggests that the benefits of mental toughness extend to a variety of non-sporting populations (Crust, 2007;Gerber et al, 2012;Gerber, Kalak et al, 2013;Gucciardi & Jones, 2012;Gucciardi, Hanton, Gordon, Mallett, & Temby, 2015;St. Clair-Thompson, Bugler, Robinson, Clough, McGeown & Perry, 2015).…”