ABSTRACT
Mental toughness describes a set of positive psychological resources that predict a range of outcomes, including wellbeing. It has been conceptualized as a state, but research has not yet examined the impact of positive or adverse childhood experiences on its development. Such experiences are known to be important for wellbeing and mental health. The current study aimed to examine the relationships between adverse and positive childhood experiences and later mental toughness, and whether mental toughness mediated the relationship between childhood experiences and wellbeing. Three hundred and eleven participants (53 males and 256 females, with a mean of 35.5 years (SD 13.67) completed measures of childhood experiences, mental toughness, and wellbeing. Positive, but not adverse childhood experiences predicted mental toughness, and there was a significant indirect path from positive experiences to wellbeing via mental toughness. The results are discussed in terms of implications for the theory of mental toughness, and implications for supporting the development of mental toughness, which may in turn enhance wellbeing.
Introduction
Mental toughness is ‘an umbrella term that entails positive psychological resources, which are crucial across a wide range of achievement contexts’ (Lin et al., Citation2017). The term originated within sports psychology, to describe attributes that allow athletes to deal with the demands of intensive training and competition (e.g., Connaughton et al., Citation2008; Jones et al., Citation2007). However, more recently, mental toughness has been explored in other domains, including educational (e.g., St Clair-Thompson et al., Citation2015; St Clair-Thompson & Mcgeown, Citation2019; Crust et al., Citation2014),occupational (e.g., Marchant et al., Citation2009), and clinical settings (e.g., Sadeghi Bahmani et al., Citation2018). Mental toughness has also been found to be an important predictor of mental health and wellbeing (e.g., Gerber et al., Citation2013; Lin et al.,Citation2017; Stamp et al., Citation2015). For example, individuals with higher mental toughness report lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress, in both adolescence and adulthood (e.g., Gerber et al., Citation2013; Mojtahedi et al.,Citation2021). Haghighi and Gerber (Citation2019) found that mental toughness was associated with fewer mental health disturbances, irrespective of the amount of stress experienced. Mental toughness has also been related to better quality sleep, which may result from reduced stress, reduced hyperarousal, or fewer dysfunctional thoughts because of higher mental toughness (e.g., Brand et al., Citation2014a, Citation2014b).
Several models of mental toughness have been proposed (e.g., Gucciardi, Citation2017). However, according to the most frequently used model, by Clough et al. (Citation2002), mental toughness comprises four characteristics: challenge, commitment, control, and confidence. Challenge describes the way in which people approach and manage challenging tasks. Commitment is the perseverance to carry out tasks successfully, despite problems or obstacles. Control encompasses control of life and emotional control; the extent to which someone views outcomes as dependent on their own efforts, and the ability to regulate emotions to an appropriate level of intensity. Confidence is comprised of confidence in abilities and interpersonal confidence; feeling confident at attempting new or difficult tasks, and feeling confident in social situations (e.g., S. P. McGeown et al., Citation2016).
Several researchers have highlighted the similarities between mental toughness and other attributes, including resilience, self-efficacy, and motivation (e.g., St Clair-Thompson & Mcgeown, Citation2019). However, one of the reasons for the growing interest in mental toughness is that it has been conceptualized as a state; temporary, brief, and caused by external circumstances (e.g., St Clair-Thompson & Mcgeown, Citation2019). Personality traits are usually considered to be stable across the life course, for example, Roberts et al. (Citation2001) explored the continuity of personality from 18 to 26 years of age. Results revealed that people maintained fairly consistent views of themselves across this period, despite numerous environmental changes. In contrast, other characteristics are considered malleable. For example, Moffitt et al. (Citation2011) researched the concept of self-control; described as a concept drawing upon several other abilities and tendencies including inattention-hyperactivity and executive functions, and particularly relevant to mental toughness, conscientiousness, self-regulation, and willpower. They considered self-control to be malleable, and therefore to be a target for intervention. Similarly, mental toughness may be malleable. Horsburgh et al. (Citation2009) estimated the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to mental toughness and found that approximately half of the variance in mental toughness was attributable to non-shared environmental factors. Gucciardi et al. (Citation2015; Study 4) asked participants to complete a measure of mental toughness once a week for 10 weeks. Participants’ mental toughness was compared to both their usual mental toughness and other participants’ mental toughness. The results showed that over half of the variance was due to within-person variation.
It is, however, important to note that research within clinical settings has suggested that mental toughness is more stable. Sadeghi Bahmani et al. (Citation2016a) found that mental toughness scores in a group of patients who had just received a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis didn’t differ from the scores of control participants, and Sadeghi Bahmani et al. (Citation2018) found in the same participant group that mental toughness remained stable over a 2-year period. Whether mental toughness acts as trait or a state has important implications, for example, viewing mental toughness as a state suggests that it can be developed, given the right environment and support. However, research has not yet examined the impact of familial, interpersonal, or educational factors on the development of mental toughness. Sadeghi Bahmani et al. (Citation2016b) explored the role of psychological dimensions in childhood that might predict mental toughness in adolescence, with a focus on internalizing and externalizing behaviour problems and prosocial behaviour. They found that fewer behaviour problems and more prosocial behaviour in childhood were associated with higher mental toughness in adolescence. This was attributed to behavioural measures being informative of self-regulation, which is related to good mental health. Importantly though, the findings could not shed light on why behaviour was related to later mental toughness. There are of course many familial, interpersonal, and educational factors that can influence behaviour (e.g., Akcinar & Baydar, Citation2016), and arguably these factors could also influence mental toughness. Understanding the impact of such environmental factors could inform interventions, having implications in many domains. For example, there may be a role for parents, families, and teachers in the development of children’s mental toughness, and in turn this may support behaviour, and wellbeing and mental health.
Researchers within the domain of sport have explored athletes’ perceptions of how mental toughness may be developed. Thelwell et al. (Citation2010) suggested that it can be influenced by the sporting environment, but also life experiences outside of sport, such as relocation, parental separation, or difficulties at school. It has been suggested that mental toughness can be supported through a range of practises, such as interacting with a role model, receiving useful advice and emotional support, proper training (see also, Connaughton et al., Citation2010; Gucciardi et al., Citation2008), and having coaches who are challenging but provide feedback, and foster autonomy and a sense of control (Weinberg et al., Citation2018). Studies within educational domains have also considered potential approaches to supporting mental toughness development, including teacher support, providing more engaging lessons, and minimizing distractions (e.g., St Clair-Thompson & Mcgeown, Citation2019). There is also one empirical study that has examined the relationships between familial factors and mental toughness. Sağkal and Özdemir (Citation2019) examined strength-based parenting, describing parents deliberately identifying and cultivating positive qualities and states in their children. This was assessed using a questionnaire tapping perceptions of parents’ knowledge (e.g., ‘My parents see the strengths that I have’) and parents’ practices (e.g., ‘My parents give me opportunities to regularly do what I do best’). Strength-based parenting predicted higher levels of mental toughness. Mental toughness may therefore be influenced by parenting practices, but arguably also by a broader range of both adverse and positive childhood experiences.
Adverse childhood experiences are those that have potential to cause harm to a child, either directly (e.g., abuse and neglect), or indirectly (e.g., through parental conflict, parental substance misuse or family mental illness; Hughes et al., Citation2017). Positive experiences include healthy relationships with parents and peers, and positive experiences at school. Positive childhood experiences therefore operate independently from adverse experiences but can also attenuate the impact of adverse circumstances (see also, Bethell et al., Citation2019). Previous studies have examined the impact of both adverse and positive childhood experiences on several psychological constructs that are conceptually like mental toughness, including resilience, motivation, and self-esteem.
Kelifa et al. (Citation2020) asked participants to complete measures of adverse childhood experiences and resilience. Higher levels of adverse childhood experiences predicted lower levels of resilience. Pasha-Zaidi et al. (Citation2020) examined adverse childhood experiences and a range of outcomes, including motivational beliefs and self-regulation (monitoring and navigating one’s own learning). More adverse experiences resulted in poorer motivation and self-regulation, although this was moderated by gender. With regards to positive experiences, peer acceptance and the quality of children’s friendships have been found to have a positive effect on self-esteem (e.g., Antonopoulou et al., Citation2019). Warm, close, and autonomy supportive parenting, and secure attachments with parents have been found to improve both resilience and self-esteem (e.g., Calvo et al., Citation2020; Kritzas & Grobler, Citation2005; Özdemir et al., Citation2017). Research has also suggested an important role for schools in developing children’s resilience (e.g., Neville et al., Citation2019; Ungar et al., Citation2019), motivation, and self- esteem (e.g., Margolis & McCabe, Citation2006).
Research has, of course, revealed the importance of both adverse and positive childhood experiences for mental health and wellbeing. Adverse childhood experiences can negatively impact wellbeing (e.g., Hughes et al., Citation2017; Kelifa et al., Citation2020; Oshio et al., Citation2013), particularly depressive disorders (e.g., Chapman et al., Citation2004), and positive childhood experiences increase the likelihood of better wellbeing (e.g., Bethell et al., Citation2019; Kosterman et al., Citation2011).Positive experiences such as secure relationships, protective environments, and healthy social and emotional development can also act as protective factors in mitigating the long-term effects of adverse experiences (e.g., Crouch et al., Citation2019; Walsh et al., Citation2020). Research has started to examine the underpinnings of the relationships between childhood experience and wellbeing, by exploring factors which may mediate their relationship. For example, Kelifa et al. (Citation2020) found that resilience partly mediated the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and wellbeing, and Kim et al. (Citation2019) found that adverse experiences had a significant indirect impact on depression, through self-esteem. With regards to positive experiences, Calvo et al. (Citation2020) found that the relationship between parental attachment and wellbeing was mediated by resilience (along with psychological flexibility and dispositional mindfulness), and Hu and Ai (Citation2016) found that self-esteem partially mediated the effect of parent- adolescent relationships on depression. Sağkal and Özdemir (Citation2019) revealed that mental toughness mediated the relationship between strength-based parenting and psychological distress (depression and anxiety) and subjective happiness. Therefore, arguably mental toughness may also mediate the relationship between positive and negative childhood experiences and wellbeing.
The current study therefore had two aims. The first was to examine the relationship between retrospective reports of adverse and positive childhood experiences and later mental toughness. It was predicted that more positive and fewer adverse experiences would predict higher levels of mental toughness. The second aim was then to explore whether mental toughness mediated the relationship between retrospective reports of positive and negative childhood experiences and later wellbeing. It was predicted that mental toughness would act as a mediator.
Method
Participants
There were 311 participants (53 males, 256 females, and 2 who preferred not to say). The age of the participants ranged from 19 to 92 years, with a mean of 35.5 years (SD 13.67). Most participants were employed either full or part time (75.6%). Others were students (10%), self-employed (4.8%), unemployed (2.9%), stay at home parents (1.3%) or other, including retired (5.5%). Participants were recruited via snowball sampling through advertisement of the study on a social media platform. Due to the nature of the research questions the aim was to recruit a diverse range of participants. Therefore, all participants were required to be over the age of 18, but there were no other exclusion criteria.
Materials and procedure
Adverse childhood experiences were measured using the 11 item Adverse Childhood Experiences Survey (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention; Anda et al., Citation2010). Participants were asked to response either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as to whether they had experienced each adverse event whilst they were growing up, for example, parental divorce, or having a member of the household use drugs or excessively drink alcohol. The number of items experienced were totalled to create an overall score.
Positive childhood experiences were measured using the questionnaire from Bethell et al. (Citation2019), which was an adaptation of the Child and Youth Resilience measure-28 (Liebenberg et al., Citation2013). Participants were asked to respond either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to 7 positive aspects of childhood related to parents, peers, and school, for example, whether they ‘felt safe and protected by an adult in their home’ or ‘felt a sense of belonging in high school/ secondary school’. The number of items experienced were totalled to create an overall score.
Mental toughness was assessed via the Mental Toughness Questionnaire 48 (MTQ48; Clough et al., Citation2002), in which participants rate the extent to which they agree with each of 48 statements on a 5-point Likert Scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). Scores were calculated for the subcomponents of mental toughness; challenge, commitment, control and confidence, and a total mental toughness score was also computed. Cronbach’s alpha for mental toughness was calculated as .95.
Psychological wellbeing was assessed using the Scales of Psychological Wellbeing 18- item version (Ryff, Citation1989; Ryff & Keyes, Citation1995). This assesses six scales of wellbeing: self-acceptance, personal growth, purpose in life, positive relationships with others, environmental mastery and autonomy. Participants are asked to respond to a series of items using a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The current study utilized a total wellbeing score, and Cronbach’s alpha was .82.
The questionnaires were administered online. Participants were presented with information about the study and then asked to provide their consent. The retrospective measures of adverse childhood experiences and positive childhood experiences were then presented, followed by measures of mental toughness and psychological wellbeing. Participants were then debriefed and thanked for their participation. The study was approved by the local ethics committee.
Results
Descriptive statistics and correlations between all variables are shown in . There were significant correlations between all the variables. Higher levels of positive childhood experiences were related to higher levels of mental toughness and wellbeing, and lower levels of adverse childhood experiences were related to higher levels of mental toughness and wellbeing. Higher levels of adverse childhood experiences were also associated with lower levels of positive childhood experiences.
Table 1. Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations.
A regression analysis was used to examine the extent to which childhood experiences predicted mental toughness. As can be seen in , positive childhood experiences predicted mental toughness, but adverse childhood experiences did not, F (2,308) = 16.05, p < .01, R2 = .09. Regression analyses were then used to examine the extent to which adverse and positive childhood experiences predicted the subcomponents of mental toughness. Each model was significant, with F (2,308) = 9.03, p < .01, R2 = .06 for challenge, F (2,308) = 12.63, p < .01, R2 = .08 for commitment, F (2,308) = 10.89, p < .01, R2 = .07 for control, and F (2,308) = 16.05, p < .01, R2 = .09 for confidence. Positive, but not adverse, childhood experiences were a significant predictor of mental toughness in each case (p < .01). Due to the findings being consistent across the subcomponents of mental toughness, further analyses utilized total mental toughness scores.
Table 2. Multiple regression analysis.
To examine whether the relationship between childhood experiences and wellbeing was mediated by mental toughness, the direct effect (DE) from childhood experiences to wellbeing, and the indirect effect (IE) from childhood experiences to wellbeing via mental toughness were calculated using PROCESS (e.g., Hayes, Citation2009) with 5000 bootstrap samples. Lower and upper bound 95% confidence intervals (CI) that do not encompass zero indicate significance at the .05 level. Given that the previous regression analyses revealed that positive but not adverse childhood experiences predicted mental toughness, only positive childhood experiences were examined. There was a significant direct effect of childhood experiences on wellbeing, (DE = 1.39, CI 95% [0.80 and 2.00]). There was also a significant indirect effect of childhood experiences on wellbeing via mental toughness (IE = 1.68, CI 95% [1.07 and 2.32]). The path coefficients are shown in .
Figure 1. Direct and indirect effects.
Discussion
The study aimed to examine the relationship between retrospective reports of adverse and positive childhood experiences and later mental toughness, and whether mental toughness mediated the relationship between childhood experiences and wellbeing. It was found that positive, but not adverse childhood experiences predicted mental toughness, and that mental toughness acted as a mediator in the relationship between positive childhood experiences and wellbeing.
The finding that positive childhood experiences predicted mental toughness is consistent with the findings of Sağkal and Özdemir (Citation2019), who described relationships between strength-based parenting and mental toughness but extends these findings to a broader range of positive childhood experiences. Thus parenting, peer relationships, and school environment may all be important for the development of mental toughness (along with early internalizing and externalizing behavioural difficulties and prosocial behaviour; see, Sadeghi Bahmani et al., Citation2016b). This is also consistent with suggestions that the school environment may play a role in the development of mental toughness (e.g., St Clair-Thompson & Mcgeown, Citation2019) and cognate constructs (e.g., Neville et al., Citation2019), but this is the first empirical study to examine these relationships in the context of positive childhood experiences and mental toughness.
Adverse childhood experiences did not predict mental toughness (when controlling for positive experiences). This is inconsistent with previous demonstrations of relationships between adverse childhood experiences and resilience and related concepts (e.g., Kelifa et al., Citation2020). There are several possible explanations of this finding. Although there are similarities between mental toughness and resilience, there are also important distinctions. Resilience is defined as the ability of an individual to ‘bounce back’ in the face of adversity, while mental toughness is thought to have proactive elements, describing how people seek out or approach challenging situations (e.g., St Clair-Thompson & Mcgeown, Citation2019). Perhaps adverse childhood experiences impact resilience but have less of an impact on mental toughness due to its proactive nature. In addition, resilience is often conceptualized and measured as the ability to cope with traumatic life events (e.g., Connor & Davidson, Citation2003), whereas mental toughness describes the way people deal with and approach frequent situations (e.g., St Clair-Thompson & Mcgeown, Citation2019). Therefore, perhaps adverse childhood experiences hinder individuals’ resilience when faced with traumatic and stressful experiences, but do not impact the ability to deal with everyday challenges. Previous studies examining the impact of adverse childhood experiences have also failed to simultaneously consider positive experiences (see also, Bethell et al., Citation2019).
Participants in the current study had also experienced few adverse childhood events, with a mean score of two out of a possible eleven. Some studies have examined adverse childhood experiences and resilience in high-risk populations. Kelifa et al. (Citation2020) recruited participants from Eritrea, where many young adults have grown up in the aftermath of War and child abuse and neglect are quite common and rooted in sociocultural norms. However, participants in other studies have also reported few adverse childhood experiences. Pasha-Zaidi et al. (Citation2020) reported relationships between adverse experiences and motivational beliefs and self-regulation, but as in the current study, participants reported few adverse experiences. Thus, it seems more likely that adverse experiences not being a significant predictor of mental toughness is due to conceptual differences between mental toughness and resilience, or the consideration of positive alongside adverse experiences, rather than low levels of adverse experiences in the sample.
Mental toughness also acted as a mediator of the relationship between positive childhood experiences and wellbeing. It is well established that several familial and educational factors during childhood are important for later wellbeing (e.g., Bethell et al., Citation2019; Calvo et al., Citation2020; Kosterman et al., Citation2011), and the current study suggests that mental toughness is a group of psychological resources that is partly responsible for these relationships. Therefore, parent and peer support, and a positive school environment can enhance mental toughness, which then leads to more positive wellbeing. This finding is consistent with reports that relationships between familial and educational factors and wellbeing are mediated by factors such as resilience and self- esteem (e.g., Calvo et al., Citation2020; Hu & Ai, Citation2016), and extends the findings of Sağkal and Özdemir (Citation2019) in demonstrating that mental toughness mediates the relationship between a broader set of familial and educational variables and wellbeing.
The findings of this study have important implications for the theory of mental toughness, in providing additional evidence that mental toughness is influenced by external circumstances (e.g., St Clair-Thompson & Mcgeown, Citation2019; Gucciardi et al., Citation2015; Horsburgh et al., Citation2009). They also have implications for practice, by having identified factors that could be targeted to enhance mental toughness, that in turn may enhance wellbeing. Research into mental toughness interventions is still in its infancy, but research has suggested an important role for schools. Clough and Strycharczyk (Citation2012) described an intervention in which pupils participated in a range of activities in school designed to tap the challenge, commitment, control and confidence subcomponents of mental toughness, and completed a measure of mental toughness before and after these lessons. The results were encouraging, suggesting an improvement in mental toughness and better pupil outcomes. S. McGeown et al. (Citation2017) explored adolescents’ views about mental toughness in school. They highlighted the importance of experiences of success in allowing pupils to face challenging tasks, providing a framework for developing achievable learning goals, and teaching techniques to allow pupils to recognize and control their emotions. The current findings further suggest that teachers and policy makers should recognize the importance of the broad school environment, including children’s sense of belonging at school and positive peer relationships, for supporting the development of mental toughness, and in turn wellbeing. The findings also highlight a role for close and secure relationships with parents. Parents should therefore be encouraged to build positive relationships with children, having good communication, and mutual trust, and this may help with the development of mental toughness.
There are, however, some limitations of the current study. It relied upon self-report measures which were administered concurrently, so the relationships between constructs may have been inflated due to common method effects (e.g., Podsakoff et al., Citation2003). Future research would therefore benefit from using other approaches, such as collecting information from parents and peers and examining the relationship with self-reports of mental toughness and wellbeing. The approach taken also focussed on positive familial and educational factors broadly. Further research should seek to examine the more specific aspects of positive childhood experiences in the home and the school that cultivate mental toughness, to better inform future interventions.
It is also important to note that in the current study although childhood experiences were a significant predictor of mental toughness they only accounted for a small proportion of the variance (9%). Although this suggests that mental toughness is influenced by external circumstances, it shows that additional factors must also play a role in determining mental toughness. Although viewed by many researchers as a trait that can be developed given the right environment and support (e.g., St Clair-Thompson & Mcgeown, Citation2019), mental toughness has also been considered as a stable trait (e.g., Sadeghi Bahmani et al., Citation2018) and at least partly attributable to genetic factors (e.g., Horsburgh et al., Citation2009). In addition, due to the nature of the current study, with participants retrospectively reporting childhood experiences and reporting current levels of mental toughness and wellbeing, there are many life changes that participants may have encountered since childhood that could also have impacted upon mental toughness. Therefore, longitudinal studies examining childhood experiences and later mental toughness would be useful for further developing our understanding of these relationships.
In conclusion, the current study suggests that mental toughness can be influenced by positive familial and educational environments during childhood, and that mental toughness partially mediates the relationships between positive childhood experiences and wellbeing. This has important implications in many domains, with mental toughness being crucial for wellbeing and across a wide range of achievement contexts.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (HSCT), upon reasonable request.
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