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Helping athletes cope effectively with injury is likely of great interest to many sport stakeholders. Mental toughness is one psychological factor positively associated with resilience and sport performance, though stubborn persistence through injury might not always be conducive to adaptive athlete outcomes. Self-compassion-a balanced, nonjudgmental approach in relating to oneself when experiencing suffering-might help circumvent these pitfalls and complement injury recovery. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between mental toughness and self-compassion in a sport injury context. This study consisted of 2 phases-phase I quantitatively assessed the relationships between mental toughness, self-compassion, and other psychological constructs, while phase II used qualitative interviews to corroborate and inform these findings. In phase I, competitive athletes who were injured at the time of data collection (n = 81) completed mental toughness, self-compassion, coping resources, self-esteem, and self-criticism questionnaires. Self-compassion was positively correlated with mental toughness (r = .48, P < .01), coping resources (r = .54, P < .05), and self-esteem (r = .60, P < .01). Self-compassion and self-criticism were negatively correlated with each other (r = -.52, P < .01). Results from hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that self-compassion was a significant predictor of mental toughness (ΔR² = .07, P < .01), coping resources (ΔR2 = .10, P < .01), and self-criticism (ΔR² = .06, P < .01), beyond the effects of self-esteem. Four injured athletes who scored above the median on mental toughness and self-compassion measures were interviewed in phase II. Thematic analysis generated 2 themes: (1) self-compassion grants access to wise mental toughness and (2) mental toughness helps activate self-compassionate actions during injury. These findings are consistent with recent research and suggest that both mental toughness and self-compassion can work together to help athletes cope with sport injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the personality characteristics that help and/or hinder competitive success in sport is of great interest to many sport psychology researchers. Grit (i.e. passion and perseverance towards long-term goals) is one such construct that has recently gained popularity in the sport domain. This scoping review explored the associations between grit and the cognitive, affective, and behavioural variables that reside within athletes and sport settings. Ninety publications were identified through various search strategies. The majority of studies explored relationships between grit and athlete sex, athlete skill/competitive level, sport performance, motivation, mindfulness, self-compassion, and deliberate practice. Constructs that have been previously critiqued as sharing significant variance with grit were also collated from the existing research. Six collegiate-level coaches were consulted as knowledgeable stakeholders and provided input to the results of the scoping review. These results allowed for the identification of future research considerations, including ameliorating current issues regarding grit measurement in sport contexts, and the designing and testing of interventions aimed at increasing athlete grit levels. Additional research with stronger methodological design and rigour is needed, and recommendations to enhance the quality of future studies with athletes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the effects of a self-compassion intervention on negative cognitive states and selfcompassion in varsity women athletes. Athletes who self-identified as being self-critical were randomly assigned to a self-compassion intervention (n = 29) or attention control group (n = 22). The self-compassion intervention consisted of a psychoeducation session and writing components completed over a 7-day period. Measures of self-compassion, state self-criticism, state rumination, and concern over mistakes were collected pretreatment, at 1 week posttreatment, and at a 4-week follow-up. A mixed factorial MANOVA with follow-up post hoc tests demonstrated moderate-to-strong effects for the intervention at posttest and follow-up (Wilks’s Λ = .566, F (8, 42) = 4.03, p < .01, η2 = .43). The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the self-compassion intervention in managing self-criticism, rumination, and concern over mistakes. Fostering a self-compassionate frame of mind is a potential coping resource for women athletes dealing with negative events in sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-compassion represents a shift in how to support performance and well-being in sport, and there has been recent attention directed toward the construct in both research and applied domains. To inform next steps in research and practice, we have reflected on self-compassion intervention and practice based on the current state of the literature and present key considerations for progressing understanding of self-compassion in sport. For the potential of self-compassion in supporting performance and well-being to truly be understood and harnessed, it is necessary to be strategic in addressing remaining fundamental questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]