Abstract
We examine the structure of soldier's psychological skills and assess the relationship between psychological skills profiles and physical performance with data from 427 soldiers from a Stryker Brigade. Exploratory factor analyses results provided empirical support for a three-factor structure that included foundation skills, psychosomatic skills, and cognitive skills. Cluster analysis revealed three emergent psychological skills profile groups: (a) strong skills, (b) weak skills, and (c) fearful focus clusters. Soldiers in the strong psychological skill profile group performed better than their peers in the other profile groups on the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) performance measure. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, research, and practice.
Notes
The opinions and assertions in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.
1A detailed report examining the measurement properties of the OMSAT-RS is available from the first author upon request.