Chen, Liew Guo
(2020)
Development and validation of mental toughness questionnaire among volleyball players in Malaysia.
Masters thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Abstract
Athletes’ performance is often affected by various psychological factors, which
should be taken seriously to ensure peak performance during competitions. Mental
toughness is one of the psychological attributes commonly discussed by sport
psychologists to influence athletic performance. Developing and nurturing these
attributes can help athletes to control their thoughts, words, actions, and emotions,
which will ultimately lead to optimal athletic achievement. Currently, to the best of our
knowledge, no studies have been conducted to examine mental toughness among
volleyball players in Malaysia. Understanding an abstract concept, such as mental
toughness, requires a sound measurement instrument. Moreover, given the lack of
specific measurement instruments in volleyball, it is crucial to develop an appropriate
questionnaire to assess mental toughness for this sport. In this study, the present
researcher is attempting to converge the available literature in the research of mental
toughness to find the most consistent predictors of mental toughness. Based on these
predictors, a measurement instrument has been developed and validated. This study
hopes to identify the attributes of mental toughness, specifically for the Malaysian
volleyball players. The study began with the item construction procedure, which
involved five experts in assessing the relevance of the initial items to the proposed
subscales. The experts were asked to select 10 most appropriate and relevant questions
for each factor. Next, based on these 40 selected items, another five experts in the field
of sport psychology, coaching, and elite volleyball national players with approximately
fifteen years’ experience were identified to provide expert assessment regarding the
content of the initially selected items. The present study employed a cross-sectional
study design, validating the developed questionnaire to measure pertinent factors related
to mental toughness. It was divided into two phases. Phase 1 was conducted among
competitive athletes who represented the state team in Malaysia. This is followed by
Phase 2, which was conducted among volleyball players who represented teams from
school, university, district, state, and national levels. Using purposive sampling, the
participants were informed that their participation was entirely voluntary; those who
were interested completed the self-administered questionnaires. The data were analysed
using SPSS 25 for descriptive statistics, and Mplus version-8 was used for the
confirmatory factor analysis. The mean differences of the mental toughness subscales
among the volleyball players’ levels of involvement were analysed using one-way
ANOVA. The results found four most consistent factors through the converging process,
namely attention control, self-belief, commitment, and desire for success. For Phase 1,
a total of 404 state-level athletes participated in the study (males 66.1%, females 33.9%),
with a mean age of 16.44 (SD=2.57). In the testing measurement model of the newly
developed questionnaire, the final model consisted of 35 items, which resulted in a good
fit to the data [CFI = .897, TLI = .891, SRMR = .052, RMSEA (90%CI) = .042
(.038, .046)]. The internal consistency coefficients measured using Cronbach’s alpha
were .849 for attention control, .837 for self-belief, .867 for commitment and .849 for
the desire to succeed. The ICC value for the test-retest reliability ranged from .620
to .727 among the newly developed questionnaire subscales. For Phase 2, a total of 272
volleyball players from school, university, district, state, and national levels participated
in the study (males 56.6%, females 43.4%), with a mean age of 17.33 (SD=3.96). In the
testing measurement model of the newly developed questionnaire, the final model
consisted of 35 items that resulted in a good fit to the data [CFI = .903, TLI = .901,
SRMR = .055, RMSEA (90%CI) = .046 (.041, .052)]. Internal consistency coefficients
measured by Cronbach’s alpha were .845 for attention control, .850 for self-belief, .870
for commitment and .849 for the desire to succeed. There was a significant mean
difference between the mental toughness levels of volleyball players from school,
university, district, state, and national levels in self-confidence and sustained attention.
The findings indicated that the newly developed questionnaire could be used to assess
the mental toughness levels of volleyball players. This newly developed information is
important for the sport psychologists and coaches of our nation so that they could apply
it to our national athletes to improve their sporting performance.
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