Mental toughness and physical fitness tests of boxing athletes associated with big five personality factors

Abstract

The present study related to boxing athletes’ mental toughness and physical fitness performances with Big Five Factors. For this, the sample was composed of eleven recreational boxers who competed at the state level and were regularly training (technical and tactical) 4 times a week during the evaluation period. The 44-item Big Five Inventory (BFI) measures the Big Five dimensions of Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness, and Extraversion and the 14-item Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ) were applied with Strength, Power, and Endurance Tests, Pearson and Spearman’s correlations were used to verify the association between BFI, physical and mental tests, respectively, p≤.05. Our results demonstrated that significant and strong correlation between agreeableness factor and sit-ups test, with 40.85±12.36 freq./min (r=.72, p=.02) and, in SMTQ, a strong correlation between Neuroticism and Control [10(9;12) score, r=.76, p≤0.01], Constancy [10(9;12) score, r=.84, p≤0.01] and Total SMQT [37(34;37) score, r=.84, p≤0.01]. In conclusion, these results suggest that Neuroticism factors are associated with mental toughness, while the agreeableness factor is related to muscular endurance capability. Mental toughness and endurance results are associated with boxers’ personalities whose drive motivates them relentlessly towards success and promotes thriving in boxing training environments or during championships.