Facilitation of Mental Health in Undergraduate, Adventure-Sport Curricula Students: The Effect of Mental Toughness

Authors

Wheels Pelton, SUNY PlattsburghFollow
Hiroki Matsuo, Baylor UniversityFollow
Grant Morgan, Baylor UniversityFollow
Steven Maynard, SUNY PlattsburghFollow
Andreas Stamatis, SUNY PlattsburghFollow

Abstract

Mental toughness (MT) has been positively associated with academic/physical performance and mental health (MH). Adventure sports studies involve exposure to exploratory and risk-taking activities aiming to facilitate positive psychological outcomes. Although such programs are frequently promoted for this purpose, there is a lack of empirical evidence concerning the effects of such a curriculum on the levels of MT/MH in undergraduate students. PURPOSE: To examine the effect of an adventure-sport curriculum on the levels of MT/MH of first-year (FY), and non-FY (NFY) undergraduate students of an expeditionary (EXP) studies program and compare it to FY students of another program (FWL). METHODS: In total, 53 students agreed to participate (N_FWL = 28; N_EXPfy= 14; N_EXPnfy = 11). The Mental Toughness Index and the Mental Health Continuum – Short Form were used for data collection and were administered four times. The analysis consisted of two-way ANOVA with repeated measures and regression analysis in IBM SPSS Statistics. RESULTS: In general, MT and MH were positively correlated: r(184) = .369, p < .001. Simple main effects analysis showed that MH was significantly different between groups (p = .027). There were significant differences in MH between MT levels (p < .001).CONCLUSION: Following the suggestion of Moscati et al. (2019), we recruited students of unrelated courses, as well. However, evidence was not found to support that adventure-sport curricula facilitate positive psychological outcomes. MT was the strongest predictor for MH when compared to major and class rank. Concerning MH initiatives for undergraduate students, practical implications include a recommendation of possibly focusing on MT interventions instead of curricula and/or class rank. Possible limitations include small sample size and convenience sample.

Recommended Citation

Pelton, Wheels; Matsuo, Hiroki; Morgan, Grant; Maynard, Steven; and Stamatis, Andreas (2022) "Facilitation of Mental Health in Undergraduate, Adventure-Sport Curricula Students: The Effect of Mental Toughness," International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings: Vol. 2: Iss. 14, Article 31.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ijesab/vol2/iss14/31