Abstract:

The research aims to compare the mental toughness skills of national and elite athletes who actively do sports. The study group consisted of 204 active sports students, 160 males and 44 females, studying in physical education and sports teaching, coaching education and sports management departments in sports sciences faculties. 130 elite athletes and 74 national athletes participated in the study. The Sport Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ-14), developed by Sheard et al. (2009) in order to determine the mental toughness levels of athletes, consists of 14 items. SPSS 25.0 program was used for the analysis and statistical operations of the data obtained from the students. Primarily, the kurtosis and skewness coefficients were examined to determine whether the parametric tests met the basic assumptions. It was observed that the obtained scores met the normality assumption. Then, the data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, T-test, ANOVA test. There was a significant difference in the “Confidence” sub-dimension of SMTQ-14 scores according to age groups (t=-3.539; p<0.001). No significant difference was found in all other variables (p>0.05). As a result of the study, there was a significant difference in favor of the athletes who are over 21 years old in the "Confidence" sub-dimension according to age groups. It can be said that athletes who are over 21 years old are better at believing in their abilities and thinking that they are better than their competitors in order to reach their goal in difficult situations that require struggle.

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