Predicting a health-oriented lifestyle based on psychological hardiness with the mediating role of impulsivity in women athletes

Having a health-oriented lifestyle is very important for athletes to increase their success. The aim of this study was to investigate the mediating role of impulsivity in the relationship between psychological hardiness and health-oriented lifestyle in women athletes. The present study was a descriptive-correlational modeling of structural equations. The statistical population of the present study included all female athletes in Semnan sports clubs in 1399. By available sampling method, 182 people were selected to participate in this study. Data collection tools included Kobasa (1982) Psychological Hardness Questionnaire, Barratt et al. (1997) Impulsivity Questionnaire, and Walker et al.'s (1995) Health Promoting Life Style Questionnaire. Pearson correlation coefficient and path analysis were used to analyze the data using SPSS and Amos software. The results showed that the correlation coefficient between psychological hardiness and impulsivity with health-promoting behaviors was significant at the level of 0.01. Impulsivity also had a mediating role in the relationship between psychological hardiness and health-promoting behaviors (P <0.05). Based on the findings of this study, experts in the field of sports can design the necessary interventions to correct psychological hardiness and impulsivity in athletes and thus help them to achieve to a health-oriented lifestyle.Keywords: Health-oriented lifestyle, hardiness, impulsivity, athlete