Psychological resilience among adolescents Differences by sports participation and gender
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Psychological resilience is an important psychological capacity that helps adolescents adapt to stress and challenging experiences. Sports participation may provide structured opportunities involving goal setting, coping experiences, and social interactions that are associated with differences in resilience. This study examined differences in psychological resilience among adolescents based on sports participation (individual sports, team sports, and non-athletes) and gender. Using a cross-sectional descriptive-comparative research design, 240 high school adolescents aged 14–18 years were selected through convenience sampling. The sample included 120 athletes and 120 non-athletes, with equal representation of males and females. Athletes were categorized into individual and team sports, and resilience was assessed using the Resilience Scale developed by Wagnild and Young (1993). A two-way factorial ANOVA was conducted to examine the effects of sports participation group and gender, including their interaction effect. Results indicated a significant main effect of sports participation group, with individual sport athletes reporting the highest resilience scores, followed by team sport athletes and non-athletes. Post hoc comparisons showed that both individual and team sport athletes had significantly higher resilience scores than non-athletes, while individual sport athletes also scored significantly higher than team sport athletes. A significant gender effect was observed, with males reporting slightly higher resilience scores than females; however, the effect size was small. The interaction between sports participation group and gender was not significant. Overall, adolescents participating in organized sports showed higher resilience scores than non-athletes, suggesting the potential value of structured sports opportunities in supporting adolescent psychological development.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
References
Acar, G., & Serin, K. (2025). Sports and psychological resilience: The key role of sports for children. Yalova Üniversitesi Spor Bilimleri Dergisi, 4(1), 18-35. https://doi.org/10.70007/yalovaspor.1604465 DOI: https://doi.org/10.70007/yalovaspor.1604465
Blanco-García, C., Acebes-Sánchez, J., Rodriguez-Romo, G., & Mon-López, D. (2021). Resilience in sports: Sport type, gender, age and sport level differences. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(15), 8196. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18158196 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18158196
Bozdag, B. (2020). Examination of psychological resilience levels of high school students. World Journal of Education, 10(3), 65-78. https://doi.org/10.5430/wje.v10n3p65 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5430/wje.v10n3p65
Compas, B. E., Jaser, S. S., Bettis, A. H., Watson, K. H., Gruhn, M. A., Dunbar, J. P., Williams, E., & Thigpen, J. C. (2017). Coping, emotion regulation, and psychopathology in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analysis and narrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 143(9), 939-991. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000110 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000110
Eime, R. M., Young, J. A., Harvey, J. T., Charity, M. J., & Payne, W. R. (2013). A systematic review of the psychological and social benefits of participation in sport for children and adolescents: informing development of a conceptual model of health through sport. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 10(1), 98. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-10-98 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-10-98
Evans, M. B., Eys, M. A., & Bruner, M. W. (2012). Seeing the "we" in "me" sports: The need to consider individual sport team environments. Canadian Psychology / Psychologie Canadienne, 53(4), 301-308. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030202 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030202
Fletcher, D., & Sarkar, M. (2012). A grounded theory of psychological resilience in Olympic champions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 13(5), 669-678. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2012.04.007 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2012.04.007
Fletcher, D., & Sarkar, M. (2013). Psychological resilience: A review and critique of definitions, concepts, and theory. European Psychologist, 18(1), 12-23. https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000124 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000124
Galli, N., & Vealey, R. S. (2008). "Bouncing back" from adversity: Athletes' experiences of resilience. The Sport Psychologist, 22(3), 316-335. https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.22.3.316 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.22.3.316
Gerber, M., Brand, S., Feldmeth, A. K., Lang, C., Elliot, C., Holsboer-Trachsler, E., & Pühse, U. (2013). Adolescents with high mental toughness adapt better to perceived stress: A longitudinal study with Swiss vocational students. Personality and Individual Differences, 54(7), 808-814. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.12.003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.12.003
Gucciardi, D. F., Hanton, S., Gordon, S., Mallett, C. J., & Temby, P. (2015). The concept of mental toughness: Tests of dimensionality, nomological network, and traitness. Journal of Personality, 83(1), 26-44. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12079 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12079
Hayes, N. (2025). Comparative analysis of mental resilience in individual vs. team sports athletes. Revista Internacional de Medicina y Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, 25(100), 54–69. https://doi.org/10.15366/rimcafd2025.100.004
Kucuk, H. (2024). Investigation of sport participation motivation and psychological resilience in football players. Journal of ROL Sport Sciences, 5(1), 30-40. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10876509
Luthar, S. S., Cicchetti, D., & Becker, B. (2000). The construct of resilience: A critical evaluation and guidelines for future work. Child Development, 71(3), 543-562. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00164 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00164
Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. American Psychologist, 56(3), 227-238. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.227 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.227
Masten, A. S. (2014). Ordinary magic: Resilience in development. Guilford Press.
Mlouki, I., Majdoub, M., Hariz, E., Silini, A., Mrabet, H. E., Rezg, N., & El Mhamdi, S. (2024). Gender differences in adverse childhood experiences, resilience and internet addiction among Tunisian students: Exploring the mediation effect. PLOS Global Public Health, 4(1), e0002556. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002556 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002556
Nicholls, A. R., Polman, R. C. J., Levy, A. R., & Backhouse, S. H. (2009). Mental toughness in sport: Achievement level, gender, age, experience, and sport type differences. Personality and Individual Differences, 47(1), 73-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.02.006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.02.006
Nicholls, A. R., Taylor, N. J., Carroll, S., & Perry, J. L. (2016). The development of a new sport-specific classification of coping and a meta-analysis of the relationship between different coping strategies and moderators on sporting outcomes. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1674. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01674 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01674
Pasquerella, L., Aychman, M. M., Tasnim, N., Piccirillo, A., Holmes, V., & Basso, J. C. (2025). The benefits of chronic sport participation and acute exercise on mental health and executive functioning in adolescents. Scientific Reports, 15, 22392. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88427-0 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88427-0
Popovych, I., Radul, I., Hoian, I., Ohnystyi, A., Doichyk, M., & Burlakova, I. (2022). Athletes' resilience typology: a comparative analysis of individual and team sports. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 22(9), 2036-2046. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2022.09260 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2022.09260
Rutter, M. (1987). Psychosocial resilience and protective mechanisms. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57(3), 316-331. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1987.tb03541.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1987.tb03541.x
Sabato, T. M., Walch, T. J., & Caine, D. J. (2016). The elite young athlete: Strategies to ensure physical and emotional health. Open Access Journal of Sports Medicine, 7, 99-113. https://doi.org/10.2147/OAJSM.S96821 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2147/OAJSM.S96821
Sheng, X., Liang, K., Li, K., Chi, X., & Fan, H. (2024). Association between sports participation and resilience in school-attending students: A cross-sectional study. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1365310. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1365310 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1365310
Tamres, L. K., Janicki, D., & Helgeson, V. S. (2002). Sex differences in coping behavior: A meta-analytic review and an examination of relative coping. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 6(1), 2-30. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327957PSPR0601_1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327957PSPR0601_1
Ungar, M. (2011). The social ecology of resilience: Addressing contextual and cultural ambiguity of a nascent construct. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 81(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.2010.01067.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.2010.01067.x
Wei, D., Xue, J., & Sun, B. (2025). Team vs. individual sports in adolescence: Gendered mechanisms linking emotion regulation, social support, and self-efficacy to psychological resilience. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1636707. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1636707 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1636707
Wagnild, G. M., & Young, H. M. (1993). Development and psychometric evaluation of the Resilience Scale. Journal of Nursing Measurement, 1(2), 165–178.
Werner, E. E. (2000). Protective factors and individual resilience. In J. P. Shonkoff & S. J. Meisels (Eds.), Handbook of early childhood intervention (pp. 115–132). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511529320.008 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511529320.008
Wiedenman, E. M., Kruse-Diehr, A. J., Bice, M. R., McDaniel, J., Wallace, J. P., & Partridge, J. A. (2024). The role of sport participation on exercise self-efficacy, psychological need satisfaction, and resilience among college freshmen. Journal of American College Health, 72(9), 3507-3514. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2023.2177817 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2023.2177817