SynthesisBMJ open sport & exercise medicine2020
Developing and training mental toughness in sport: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies and pre-test and post-test experiments.
Synthesis in BMJ open sport & exercise medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- Do patient decision aids help people who are facing decisions about solid organ transplantation? A systematic review.Clinical transplantation · 2023Pooled it
- Comprehensive integration of mental health screening and triage with mental performance services through a sport science hub model in collegiate sport.Discover mental health · 2026Review
- Mental Toughness and 2K Rowing Performance in Division II Female Collegiate Athletes: A Longitudinal Analysis Using Mixed-Effects Modeling.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- From Slump to Comeback: Psychological Determinants of Performance Decline, Burnout, and Recovery in Competitive Athletes-A Systematic Review.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- General and sport-specific mental toughness in university students: associations with personality traits and physical activity.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- A pilot self-coach alignment audit in NCAA collegiate rowers: field feasibility, null findings, and design-sensitivity analysis for future self-verification research.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- A phenomenological exploration of mental toughness in decision-making: Perceptions from professional Ghanaian footballers.PloS one · 2026Article
- Effects of a six-week basketball-specific individual skills development program on mental toughness and sport competition anxiety.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Validation of the Chinese version of trait mental toughness inventory for sport in young basketball players: a confirmatory factor analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Effect of Physical Exercise on Esports Performance in First-Person Shooter Gamers: A Six-Week Randomized Controlled Trial.Sports medicine - open · 2025Article
- Is Mindfulness the Common Ground Between Mental Toughness and Self-Compassion in Student Athletes? A Cross-Sectional Study.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2025Article
- Enhancing Mental Toughness and Strength and Conditioning Performance in Collegiate Athletes Through Pressure Training.International journal of exercise science · 2025Article
- The relationship between attention control, emotion regulation and mental toughness among competitive female cricketers.South African journal of sports medicine · 2025Article
- Concurrent Validity and Inter-Rater Reliability Assessment of Two Mental Toughness Instruments in Firefighting: A Two-Wave Longitudinal Study.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Development of Mental Toughness among Basketball Sports School Students.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Conceptualization and validation of the TILT questionnaire: relationship with IGD and life satisfaction.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- The Impact of a Psychological Skills Training and Mindfulness-Based Intervention on the Mental Toughness, Competitive Anxiety, and Coping Skills of Futsal Players-A Longitudinal Convergent Mixed-Methods Design.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Mental Toughness and Resilience in Trail Runner's Performance.Perceptual and motor skills · 2023Article
- Development and validation mental training model: Mental Toughness Training Circle (MTTC).F1000Research · 2023Article
- The Effect of a Strength and Conditioning Protocol on NCAA Division 1 Women's Basketball Players' Mental Toughness.International journal of exercise science · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo investigate the efficacy of interventions designed to train and develop mental toughness (MT) in sport.
designSystematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: Journal articles, conference papers and doctoral theses indexed in Embase, Scopus, PubMed and SPORTDiscus from inception to 22 November 2019. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: Observational and pre-post experimental designs on the efficacy of physical and/or psychological interventions designed to promote MT in athletes.
resultsA total of 12 studies, published between 2005 and 2019, were included in the review. A majority of the studies included a sample comprised exclusively of male athletes (54.55%), MT interventions were primarily psychological (83.33%) and most studies measured MT via self-report (75%). The Psychological Performance Inventory (25%), the Mental Toughness Questionnaire-48 (16.67%), and the Mental, Emotional and Bodily Toughness Inventory (16.67%) were the most popular inventories used to measure MT. Methodological quality assessments for controlled intervention studies (
conclusionAlthough the findings of this review suggest there are effective, empirically based interventions designed to train MT in sport, practitioners should be aware of the level of validity of intervention research before adopting any of the MT training programmes reported in the applied sport psychology literature.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.