Abstract:

This research was conducted based on the screening model in order to examine the mental toughness levels of athletes interested in individual and team sports in terms of different variables. The research group consists of 216 active volunteer athletes (Age Mean= 20.63±2.14), 133 males and 83 females, studying at Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University Faculty of Sports Sciences, dealing with individual and team sports. "Personal Information Form" and “Mental Toughness Inventory in Sports” (SZDE) were applied to the participants as a data collection tool. In the analysis of the data, firstly, it was examined whether the research group had a normal distribution (skewness and kurtosis values). Since a normal distribution was obtained, Independent Samples T-test was used for pairwise comparisons. Pearson Product Moments Analysis was used to determine the relationship between sports age and mental toughness sub-dimensions. All analyses were performed with the SPSS 18 package program and the significance level of the data was taken as p<0.05. In the findings obtained, it was found that male athletes were higher in the confidence and control sub-dimensions than female athletes; in the control sub-dimension, the average scores of team athletes were higher than individual athletes (p<0.05). It was determined that there was no statistically significant difference in mental toughness inventory between national and non-national athletes (p>0.05). A low-level positive and significant correlation was found between the sports year and the mental toughness inventory (p<0.05). As a result, it was determined that the mental toughness levels of the athletes differed according to gender, sports branch and sports year.

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