Relationships between mindfulness, self-compassion, and grit among Thai national athletes: the mediating role of self-regulation

ABSTRACT

Grit is a trait which reflects perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Grit has been demonstrated to be an important factor in athletic success, but it is unclear what psychological factors contribute to an athlete’s level of grit. Therefore, we examined the associations among mindfulness, self-compassion, self-regulation, and grit in Thai national athletes. Furthermore, we examined the mediating role of self-regulation in the associations between self-compassion, self-regulation, and grit. In a sample of 320 Thai national athletes, we observed that grit was positively correlated with mindfulness (r = .44, p < .001), self-compassion (r = .42, p < .001), and self-regulation (r = .51, p < .001). The findings also showed that mindfulness had positive direct and indirect associations with grit. Self-regulation had a positive and direct association with grit and also mediated the relationships between mindfulness on grit, β = 0.189 (p < .01, SE = 0.018, 95% CI: 0.038-0.112) and self-compassion on grit β = 0.319 (p < .01, SE = 0.056, 95% CI: 0.157-0.373). Self-compassion covaried with mindfulness but did not have a direct association with grit. Our findings suggested that athlete training programmes that addressed these factors were likely to be effective in promoting grit in athletes.

KEYWORDS:

• Grit
• mindfulness
• self-compassion
• self-regulation
• Thai national athletes

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by Chulalongkorn University: CU_GIF_62_01_38_01. The authors wish to thank Mr. Varongchayakul for his helpful comments on previous drafts of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

This research is funded by Faculty of Psychology, Chulalongkorn University (CU_GIF_62_01_38_01).