Psychometric properties of the Mental Toughness Scale for Adolescents

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate psychometric properties of the Mental Toughness Scale for Adolescents (MTS-A, McGeown, Clair-Thompson & Putwain, 2016) among Iranian gifted adolescents.

300 gifted adolescents (150 male and 150 female) completed the Mental Toughness Scale for Adolescents and the Emotion Cognition Regulation Questionnaire (ECRQ, Garnefski, Kraaij & Spinhoven, 2001). The confirmatory factor analysis method and internal consistency were used to compute the MTSA's factorial validity and reliability, respectively. Also, in order to examine the construct validity of the MTS-A, we computed correlations between different dimensions of MTS-A with adaptive non-adaptive emotion cognition regulation strategies.

The results of confirmatory factor analysis based AMOS software showed that 6-factor structure of the challenge, commitment, control of emotions, control of life, confidence in abilities and interpersonal confidence in the Iranian gifted adolescents sample had good fit with data. Correlational analyses between multiple dimensions of the mental toughness with adaptive non-adaptive emotion cognition regulation strategies provided initial evidence for the MTS-A concurrent validity. Internal consistency for the challenge, commitment, control of emotions, control of life, confidence in abilities and interpersonal confidence components was 0/88, 0/90, 0/80, 0/91, 0/81 & 0/96, respectively.

In sum, these findings provide evidence for the validity and reliability of the MTS-A as an instrument to measure of mental toughness among Iranian gifted adolescents.