ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Descriptive & Survey Study

Authors

Salman   Z. (*)
Pooraghaei Ardekani   Z. (1)
Hossein Fahimi   T. (1)






(*) Motion Behavior Department, Physical Education & Sport Sciences Faculty, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran
(1) Motion Behavior Department, Physical Education & Sport Sciences Faculty, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

Correspondence

Address: Physical Education & Sport Sciences Faculty, In Front of the Olympic Hotel, Hakim Highway West, Tehran. Postal Code: 1485743411
Phone: +98 (21) 44118630
Fax: +98 (21) 44118629
z_salman2005@yahoo.com

Article History

Received:  May  17, 2016
Accepted:  November 19, 2016
ePublished:  March 10, 2017

BRIEF TEXT


Today, the psychological traits in pressure and competitive situations have been accepted as the most important breakthrough in performance [1].

… [2-5]. High mental toughness has positive relation with ways of coping with problem-oriented stress.

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between mental toughness, ways of coping with stress and optimism in Iran premier league of sitting volleyball of veterans and disabled people.

This research is descriptive and correlational.

This study was conducted in 2015 among the 84 male veteran and disabled athletes (53 veterans and 31 disabled) in the premier league of sitting volleyball.

70 of these athletes with at least 3 years’ experience of professional sport were chosen purposively.

In order to collect data of research, 3 questionnaire were used: Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ): To collect information about sport mental toughness, sport Mental Toughness Questionnaire developed by Sheard and Golby was used [15]. Based on SMTQ questionnaire that is the only specific tool to measure the toughness in sport to date, three factors of reliability, stability and control are the key factors in mental toughness. This questionnaire has 14 items that 6, 4, and 4 items of it measure the subscale of reliability, stability and control respectively. Each items has 4 choices based on a Likert Scale (from strongly agree to strongly disagree). Reliability and validity of this questionnaire has been completely confirmed by Golby and Sheard, so that the Cronbach`s alpha coeffienct of reliability, stability and control were reported 80, 74, and 71% respectively. The validity of the questionnaire in Iran has been confirmed through confirmatory and explorative factor analysis [15]. The Questionnaire of Coping Ways to Stress: to collect information needed on ways to deal with stress, Yu questionnaire was used [16]. The questionnaire contains 32 items that measures four methods of coping with stress including problem-oriented (8 items), emotion-oriented (8 items), avoidance-oriented (8 questions) and intuitive or illumination-oriented coping (8 questions) and a five value Likert Scale from “always” (with score of 4) to “never” (with the score of zero). This questionnaire was studied in Iran by Tasadoghi. Cronbach`s alpha for the internal consistency of the questionnaire was 0.81 and the internal consistency of the whole questionnaire was 0.79. In addition, internal consistency of ways to deal with strass is in the range of 0.71 to 0.83 [17]. Revised Life Oriented Test: This test is one of the widely used measurement tool for optimism trend [18]. This test is the shortened version of the Life Orientation Test that measures individual differences in optimism-pessimism. This scale has three items about optimism, three items about pessimism and other four items that they are not scored and are solely used for avoiding mental orientation of the respondents. The test is on a five-degree Likert scale from “totally agree” to “totally disagree” [20]. After reversing the scores of questions related to skepticism, the sum of the scores of optimism and pessimism is calculated as the total score of optimism. The higher scores on this scale indicates more tendency to expect positive results against the negative ones. Shear and Carver reported the Cronbach` alpha of 76% and test-retest reliability coefficient of 79% (interval of four weeks) for a group of students [18]. The reliability coefficient alpha in a sample of 59 women with breast cancer has been 87% and test-retest reliability has been 74% with 12 months interval [21]. In a study by Kajbaf et al. that aims to examine the factor structure of the revised version of Life Orientation test, the results of principal component analysis using varimax rotation among the Iranian population empirically supported two-factor structure [20]. In the study by Taati et al., the Cronbach`s alpha coefficient for the revised Life Orientation Test was 65% [20]. For data analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics methods and appropriate statistical tests and SPSS 20 software were used. To check the descriptive and structural status of the subjects, measures of central tendency and standard deviation were used. Kolmogoronov-Smirnov test was used to check normality of data. In order to determine the correlation between the variables, the Spearman correlation coefficient and to predict the criterion variable from the predictive variable linear regression were used.

The mean age of the participants was 33.00 ± 7.34 years. 50% and 3% of the participants had more than 9 years and less than 3 years of experience in professional sport respectively. There was a positive and significant relation between mental toughness with the ways to cope with stress and the problem-oriented and intuitive –oriented styles of coping with stress, and there was a negative and significant relation between mental toughness and avoidance oriented style. However, there was not any significant relation between mental toughness and emotional-oriented style. Also, mental toughness could predict 8% of the ways of coping with stress. There was a positive and significant relation between mental toughness and the components of reliability and control; however, there was no relation between optimism and stability component of mental toughness. Optimism, also, had the potential for predicting mental toughness and more than 18% of the changes in the variable of mental toughness could be explained by optimism. No significant relation was observed between optimism and the methods of copying with stress and problem, emotion, and avoidance oriented methods. However, optimism had positive and meaningful relation with the intuitive-oriented method of copying with stress. The optimism variable could not explain significant amount of change in the methods of copying with stress (Table 1).

… [21-23]. The results of this study is in line with the results of studies that researchers has conducted in the domain of mental toughness [4, 6, 24-27]. … [28-30].

Holding training courses for optimism and useful ways to deal with stress seems useful. Also, interventions can be considered to improve mental toughness in training sessions.

It is clear than the use of the questionnaire as the only means of collecting data is a major constraint. Also, the sample and population of this study was limited to Iran`s Sitting Volleyball Players of Premier League in 2015, and unfortunately some athletes and coaches were not interested in research work and considered it as a trivial issue.

The veteran and disabled volleyball players who have more mental toughness can better cope with stress. Also, teaching optimism skill can improve the mental toughness.

All the friends who helped us in conducting this study, as well as veterans and disabled athletes in the Iran premier league of sitting volleyball, their couches and supervisors who allocated their precious time to this study are all appreciated.

Non-declared

Consent form for participating in the research was distributed and collected from the participants. The demographic information of the participants was kept privately and the results of the study were sent to the participant who were interested in the results via email.

This study is taken from a part of MA thesis in the major of Motor Behavior in the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Allameh Tabatabai.

TABLES and CHARTS

Show attach file


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