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Abstract
Although many baseball players dream of playing professionally, intense training together with psychological pressure and injuries may increase athletes’ burnout and may lead athletes to quit and pursue alternate careers. Therefore, it is important for athletes to manage their mental toughness on their career paths. Findings from previous psychological capital (PsyCap) studies suggested that PsyCap had a positive influence on stress reduction. Therefore, this study examined PsyCap’s effects on athletes’ performance and career development, particularly under stress. We hope the findings can provide useful suggestions for athletes and coaches. To explore the relationships of PsyCap with athletic performance and career development, a structured questionnaire was distributed to 800 baseball players enrolled in middle and high schools in Taiwan with a valid return rate of 80.9%. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to verify the relationships among PsyCap, performance, and career development. The findings showed that PsyCap had significant influence on both athletic performance and career development of the study subjects. Based on our findings, implications for baseball players and coaches as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.
Highlights
Baseball is considered a national sport in Taiwan, and there is no double that this sport draws a lot of attention from the public
Since adolescence is a crucial period for athletic career development, in this study we examined the effects of psychological capital (PsyCap) on performance and career development of high school baseball players
The square root of average variation extract (AVE) of all values exceeded the minimum threshold level of 0.70, again indicating the reliability of all scales used in the study
Summary
Baseball is considered a national sport in Taiwan, and there is no double that this sport draws a lot of attention from the public. Every time when Taiwan’s national baseball team plays at any international competition, people are brought together as viewers gathering around TV cheering on the team. Taiwan’s national baseball team has seen success in many competitions. Becoming a professional baseball player does not happen overnight, but takes years of training, conditioning, discipline, determination, skill, and talent. While these training programs are usually designed to build players’ agility, explosive power, strength, endurance, and skill, it is the mental quality that makes the player stand out [2,3,4]. Mental toughness is the quality to distinguish the winner from other competitors and mentally tough players often have a better chance of winning a highly competitive event [5]
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