The mediating role of training behaviors on self-reported mental toughness and mentally tough behavior in swimming.

Abstract

Self-regulated training behaviours plays a vital role in athletes' physical and mental sporting development. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the mediating role of self-regulated training behaviours (self and coach rated) on the relationship between selfreported Mental Toughness (MT) and coaches perceptions of swimmers Mentally Tough behaviour (MTb) in competition. A second purpose of the study was to examine how discrepancies in coach and athlete perceptions of training behaviours related to coach perceptions of swimmers MTb in competition. A sample of 12 swimming coaches (11 men and 1 women) and 208 of their competitive swimmers (86 men and 122 women) participated in the study. The swimmers completed self-report assessments of MT and self-regulated training behaviours. The coaches completed questionnaires regarding observations of their swimmers MTb in competition and a smaller pool of items from the athletes self-regulated training behaviours questionnaire. Findings supported our hypotheses that MT was positively related to self-regulated training behaviours (self and coach rated) and training behaviours was positively related to coach rated MTb. Further, self-regulated training behaviours (β = 0.12; CI = 0.05-0.20) and coach rated perceptions of training behaviours (β = 0.07; CI = 0.03-0.13) mediated the relationship between self-report MT and coach rated MTb in competition. Finally, a significant amount of variance in MTb was accounted for (23%) only when there was agreement between the coach and the athlete regarding the level of selfregulated training behaviours. We recommend that future research examines what specific types of training behaviours positively influence MT.

Mental toughness for employees: towards conceptual clarity and scale development

“…Likewise, the results of our research indicate that higher levels of perseverance, control, resilience and confidence are significantly related to flourishing at work and enhanced performance. The findings of our research are supported by prior research that studies MT and performance among athletes (Beattie et al. , 2017; Mahoney et al , 2014) and students (Lin et al.…”

“…Likewise, the results of our research indicate that higher levels of perseverance, control, resilience and confidence are significantly related to flourishing at work and enhanced performance. The findings of our research are supported by prior research that studies MT and performance among athletes (Beattie et al, 2017;Mahoney et al, 2014) and students (Lin et al, 2017). This study explores MT vis-a-vis psychological capital, flourishing and performance among employees at superficial level and thus expands the intellectual boundaries of MT literature among employees.…”

Profiles of psychological skill use and their relations with self- and coach-rated mental toughness in Thai athletes.

“…The medium size correlation ( r = .32) between self- and coach-ratings of mental toughness is similar to what has been observed in other studies (Beattie, Alqallaf, Hardy, & Ntoumanis, 2019) and supports the idea that these measures are capturing, at least to some degree, different facets of mental toughness. Whereas self-ratings reflect the personal resources (cognitions, emotions, and behaviors) associated with mental toughness, coach ratings reflect whether or not mentally tough behavior has actually occurred.…”

Leadership, Mental Toughness, and Attachment Relationship in the World Beach Volleyball Context

“…To maintain a high level of performance under a wide variety of stressors is the goal of every high-performance athlete. Among the development of human psychological resources that enable athletes to use their cognitive, emotional, and behavioral mechanisms to prevent psychological problems, aiming to maintain or improve their performance is mental toughness [1,2]. An important construct for athletes in sports such as beach volleyball, who face adversity in matches, in which, as a rule, substitutions, which could serve as strategies to improve the team's performance, are not allowed.…”