Atkinson, Dr Mark (University of Florida)

Mental toughness and hardiness at different levels of football: Sports Psychology and Coaching Atkinson, Dr Mark (University of Florida)

Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Sport - Sport Psychology, grade: First Class, University of Sunderland, language: English, abstract: There has been little research into the psychological factors affecting footballers at different levels (Hanin et al, 2000), in particular, the mental toughness and hardiness of footballers. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between mental toughness and hardiness of footballers and the level of football at which they perform. Participants - 61 footballers (mean AGE=25.23 years; range 18-40 years; SD=5.55), from various clubs and 2 levels of performance. Mental toughness was measured using the Psychological Performance Inventory (PPI; Loehr, 1986). Hardiness was measured using the Personal views survey III- R (Maddi and Khoshaba 2001). Elite footballers scored significantly higher than recreational footballers in overall mental toughness, hardiness and each individual subscale, (Golby & Sheard, 2004). While the present study confirms that elite footballers have superior levels of mental toughness and hardiness than recreational footballers, future research might concentrate further on psychological skills training, coping strategies and psychological preparation strategies in a wider variation of sports specific to a wider range of athletes, from grass roots to international level.