Significant others and children’s mental toughness in sports: a longitudinal test of the social influence in sport model

Mental toughness (MT) is a multidimensional psychological construct that characterises individuals who are psychologically persistent and durable in the face of challenges, adversities, and stressors. This two-wave longitudinal study examined if the social influences of coaches, fathers, mothers, and peers were predictive of children’s mental toughness in sport contexts. Participants were 112 children (7 to 12 years old) who played basketball at the recreational level in China. At baseline and 3-month follow-up, they completed a questionnaire measuring their mental toughness and perception of social influences, such as positive influence, punishment, and dysfunction, from the four social agents. The model with correlations between social influence and mental toughness at a change-score level yielded excellent goodness-of-fit using variance-based structural equation modeling (VB-SEM). Children’s mental toughness was positively associated with positive influence, and negatively associated with punishment and dysfunction. Multi-group SEM showed that the relationships were invariant between coaches, fathers, mothers, and peers. The findings show that children are more likely to have increased mental toughness when significant others exert positive social influence in the sporting environment.