Predicting Resilience Based on Dark Triad Personality and Psychological Wellbeing in Athletes Students

The concept of resilience has been recently extensively considered concerning sports studies; accordingly, in most qualitative studies, it has been used to explore the attitudes of coaches, athletes, and sports psychologists. In this regard, the present study aimed to determine resilience in athletic students based on dark triad personality and psychological wellbeing.

This was a descriptive and correlational study. The population of the study consisted of all male students of Guilan University of Physical Education in the first semester of the academic year 2019-2020. A sample of 200 individuals was selected by convenience sampling method; then, the required data were collected using Sheard et al.’s (2009) Resilience Scale for Adults, Jonsson and Webster’s Dark Triad Personality Questionnaire, and Ryff’s 18-item Psychological Wellbeing Scale (1989). The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis.

This study was approved by Research Ethics Committee of Guilan University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.GUMS.REC.1398.121).

 The present research results suggested a positive and significant correlation  between the resilience of the examined athletic students and narcissism (r=0.495, P<0.001), self-acceptance (r=0.598, P<0.001), purposefulness in life (r=0.556, P<0.001), personal growth (r=0.648, P<0.001), the mastery of the environment (r=0.645, P<0.001), positive correlation  with others (r=0.569, P<0.001), and independence (r=0.381, P<0.001). Moreover, there was a significant negative correlation between antisocial behavior (r=-0.557, P<0.001) and Machiavelli’s aspect (r=-0.604, P<0.001), and the explored students’ resilience. Additionally, multiple regression analysis data revealed that dark triad personality and psychological wellbeing predict 62% of resilience in the study subjects.

 The current investigation results signified a significant correlation between dark triad personality and psychological wellbeing, and resilience in athletic students. Accordingly, educators and teachers need to pay more attention to the role of psychological wellbeing and different dimensions of athletes’ personalities for promoting the health and performance of students.