Mental toughness as a mediator between sports psychological skills and athlete burnout: a buffering model

Abstract

Introduction: Athlete burnout is a critical issue in competitive sports, yet the mechanisms linking sports psychological skills to burnout remain under-explored. This study has proposed a mental toughness-mediated buffering model to address this gap. Methods: Data from 341 collegiate athletes were analyzed using hierarchical regression and Hayes’ PROCESS marco 3.5 (Model 4) with 5000 bootstrap samples for mediation effects. Results: Key findings have shown that: (1)Sports psychological skills negatively predicted all three burnout dimensions (reduced sense of accomplishment, devaluation, and emotional/physical exhaustion); (2)Mental toughness partially mediated the effects of sports psychological skills on devaluation (β = −0.135, 95%CI[−0.249, −0.026]) and reduced sense of accomplishment (β = −0.159, 95%CI[−0.261, −0.062]). (3) However, no significant mediation effect was observed for emotional/physical exhaustion, suggesting distinct pathological mechanisms for this dimension. Discussion: These results have advanced existing burnout theories by demonstrating dimension-specific mediation pathways, highlighting the need for targeted mental toughness interventions to mitigate devaluation and reduced sense of accomplishment in collegiate athletes.