TY - JOUR
T1 - Relationships between mental toughness, barriers to exercise, and exercise behaviour in undergraduate students
AU - Stamp, Elizabeth
AU - Crust, Lee
AU - Swann, Christian
AU - Perry, John
PY - 2017/5/1
Y1 - 2017/5/1
N2 - The present study explored relationships between mental toughness (MT), barriers to exercise, and self-reported exercise behaviour in university students. Perceived harriers to exercise are important since previous work has identified barriers as strong predictors of exercise behaviour. MT was hypothesised to predict exercise barriers and self-reported exercise behaviour. Participants were 173 undergraduate students (45 men, 128 women) from 10 United Kingdom universities. Questionnaires were used to assess MT, exercise levels, and exercise barriers. Path analysis identified that MT predicted barriers to exercise, with higher MT associated with weaker perceived barriers. Regular exercisers were found to have significantly higher MT than non-regular exercisers, with commitment identified as a key difference. These findings support the proposed hypotheses and provide further evidence of the importance of MT in exercise I physical activity contexts, future research that adopts longitudinal designs and tests targeted interventions to reduce perceptions of barriers and enhance exercise participation are encouraged.
AB - The present study explored relationships between mental toughness (MT), barriers to exercise, and self-reported exercise behaviour in university students. Perceived harriers to exercise are important since previous work has identified barriers as strong predictors of exercise behaviour. MT was hypothesised to predict exercise barriers and self-reported exercise behaviour. Participants were 173 undergraduate students (45 men, 128 women) from 10 United Kingdom universities. Questionnaires were used to assess MT, exercise levels, and exercise barriers. Path analysis identified that MT predicted barriers to exercise, with higher MT associated with weaker perceived barriers. Regular exercisers were found to have significantly higher MT than non-regular exercisers, with commitment identified as a key difference. These findings support the proposed hypotheses and provide further evidence of the importance of MT in exercise I physical activity contexts, future research that adopts longitudinal designs and tests targeted interventions to reduce perceptions of barriers and enhance exercise participation are encouraged.
KW - Exercise
KW - Exercise barriers
KW - Higher education
KW - Individual differences
KW - Physical activity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85026820886&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.7352/IJSP.2017.48.262
DO - 10.7352/IJSP.2017.48.262
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85026820886
SN - 0047-0767
VL - 48
SP - 262
EP - 277
JO - International Journal of Sport Psychology
JF - International Journal of Sport Psychology
IS - 3
ER -