Mental toughness and athletic performance in male adolescents field athletes: A multiple regression analysis

Abstract

The research is exploratory, evaluating how the four dimensions of mental toughness, Control, Commitment, Challenge, and Confidence, affect the athletic performance among male under 18 athletes who participated in the Sabah School Sports Council Championship 2024. The study employed a quantitative correlational design and a multiple-regression analysis which evaluated the predictive ability of these psychological variables on the performance outcome. Results showed none of the mental toughness dimensions significantly predicted athletic performance. However, Commitment, demonstrated the strongest, despite being non significant trend, suggesting athletes characterised by increased dedication and perseverance achieved high competition outcomes. However, the total regression model that explained performance variance had a relatively small proportion (R² = 0.065), indicating that mental toughness alone does not fully capture the performance in sports. Other determinants, such as physical conditioning, technical ability, and environmental factors like the quality of coaches and training infrastructure, had a stronger influence on the performance outcomes. The research highlights the need for an integrative training paradigm that combines psychological development of skills with physical conditioning. Based on this, coaches and sports psychologists are recommended to focus on creating Commitment through the use of a systematic mental Skills programme, which includes goal-setting methods and mental rehearsal methods. The findings are added to the overall understanding of mental toughness among adolescent athletes, which is especially the case in a non-Western setting like Malaysia. Further studies should be considered for future research that involves longitudinal studies, incorporates additional psychological factors (e.g., self-talk and motivation), and examines the cultural aspects that influence the development of mental toughness.