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The ability to positively reinterpret events, remain calm and relaxed under pressure, and maintain emotional control are characteristics of mental toughness, which may be a protective factor in coping with demands of sport. In this study, we examined the relationships of mental toughness with coping behavior, and with related constructs of hardiness and optimism. Additionally, gender differences were explored through structural equation modeling. Collegiate athletes (n = 570) from various sports and levels of play completed measures of mental toughness, hardiness, optimism, and coping. Structural Equation Modeling results indicated that mental toughness was superior to hardiness and optimism in predicting approach styles of coping (i.e., problem-, emotion-focused coping). Additionally, the model was gender-equivalent. These findings demonstrate that mental toughness is superior to hardiness and optimism in predicting positive coping behaviors. More work is needed on the possible stress-buffering effects and benefits of mental toughness. Future work can then determine how mental toughness can be developed in varied sport populations (e.g., injured, transitioning athletes) and its benefits for those athletes.
Stress and the inability to effectively cope with it are leading sources of decreased performance (Haney & Long, 1995) and related health issues (e.g., anxiety, depression, muscle tension, injury) in sport (Nicholls, Backhouse, Polman, & McKenna, 2009). An athlete's ability to cope with the demands of stress in competition is important to successful performance (Scomiaenchi & Feltz, 2010). Stress affects people differently; some experience decreases in performance, whereas others find ways of adapting to the stressful situations. Hoedaya and Anshel (2003) found that spectator booing and being ignored by teammates were significantly more stressful for some athletes, whereas others found poor officiating calls to be more stressful. Athletes differed on what they perceived as stressful, thus altering how they reacted. According to Lazarus' (1966) Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, a person faced with a stressor, makes a primary appraisal of whether the stressor is threatening, along with perceptions about the event as stressful, positive, controllable, challenging or irrelevant. Positive psychological characteristics such as, mental toughness, may alter the way an individual perceives and responds to stress.
Mental toughness is a broad construct that encompasses many key elements to successful performance (e.g., confidence, optimistic thinking, and buoyancy; Butt, Weinberg, & Culp, 2010; Jones, Hanton, &...