Mental toughness, well-being, and coach-created motivational climate within collegiate athletics

This study examined the relationship between college student-athletes’ well-being, self-ratings of mental toughness in sport, and perceptions of the coach-created motivational climate. One hundred and two NCAA Division I female student-athletes completed measures of well-being, mental toughness, and coach-created motivational climate over the course of a university academic year. The author hypothesized that mental toughness and perceptions of the coach-created motivational climate would predict well-being. Overall, the results of the study found a predictive relationship between well-being and mental toughness, and well-being, mental toughness, and an ego-involving coach-created motivational climate. These results provide initial evidence that cognitive, affective, personality, and environmental factors influence student-athlete well-being. The findings also demonstrate that Henriques et al.’s (2017) Nested Model of Well-being (NM) may be an effective model to understand the unique factors that influence student-athlete well-being. For example, the results of the study indicate that the construct of mental toughness may overlap with Henriques et al.’s (2014) conceptualization of adaptive potentials (one’s skills and abilities to function effectively in the environment). Additionally, the influence of a student-athlete’s perception of the coach-created motivational climate on well-being may be aligned with the NM’s characterization of the environmental domain. These results indicate a need to study other factors that influence student-athlete well-being. This study demonstrates a need to develop measures that assess student-athlete well-being while also accounting for the unique cultural components of college athletics that may influence the well-being of student athletes