Mediating Role of Mindfulness on the Relationship between Mental Toughness and Athletics Performance of Inter University Track and Field Athletes

Many Psychological factors influence an individual’s participation in sports. Some of them have a direct effect while some others act as mediators or moderators. An insight into how all these psychological constructs function in sport and physical activity is much important to sports psychologists. The purpose of the study was investigating the mediating role of mindfulness on the relationship between mental toughness and performance of interuniversity track and field athletes. Data was collected from a sample of 323 interuniversity athletes (162 Men, 161 Women) from four different Universities in Kerala, India within the age group of 18-22 years through purposive sampling. Athletes with history of mental illness or any other physical ailments and Team games and other individual game athletes were excluded from the study. Mindfulness Mindlessness Scale, Mental Toughness Scale and Direct Measures of Performance were used to collect the data. Multiple Regression analysis will be administered to examine the role of independent as well as intervening variables. The study found that mentally resilient athletes are attracted towards using psychological strategies to aid and enhance their performances.