Making the leap from good to great : comparisons between sub-elite and elite athletes on mental toughness

The purpose of this study was to utilise the newly developed and validated instrument - the Mental Toughness Inventory (MTI) - in order to see how patterns of mental toughness varied across ages, gender, and between elite and sub-elite athletes. The MTI was administered to 479 athletes (aged 12 to 19 years) based at an elite sports high school along with 325 elite athlete on athlete scholarships at various institutes of sport around Australia (including the Australian Institute of Sport, New South Wales Institute of Sport, Western Australia Institute of Sport, and the ACT Academy of Sport). Statistical analysis (i.e., reliabilities, confirmatory factor analyses, and multigroup-multimethod analyses) demonstrates that the MTI is highly suitable for assessing mental toughness in these groups. Given the MTI psychometric properties are stable across groups, the instrument provides a sound basis for assessing mean differences in mental toughness between groups. A number of significant differences in mental toughness levels across age, gender and between elite and sub-elite athletes are observed. The study highlights differences in patterns of mental toughness that may contribute to athletes making the leap from sub-elite to elite performance.