ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1470829
This article is part of the Research TopicDeterminants of Achievement in Top SportView all 22 articles
Relationships between sensation seeking, mental toughness, and flow in athletes: A cross-lagged model
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hebei University, Baoding, China
- 2Beijing Sport University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 3Shanghai University, ShangHai, China
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Objective: This quasi-experimental study used a cross-lagged research design to explore the causal relationship between sensation seeking (SS), mental toughness (MT), and flow in athletes. Methods: Athletes completed validated scales measuring sensation seeking, mental toughness, and flow experience. This study made a three-month, two-stage follow-up investigation of 622 athletes (66.24% males). Results: (1) Athletes’ flow had a significant positive prediction on SS; SS(T1) showed a significant positive prediction on MT(T2) (p < 0.05); MT(T1) had a significant positive prediction on flow (T2) (p < 0.01); (3) MT had a longitudinal mediating effect on the relationship between SS and flow of athletes. Conclusions: In athletes, SS and MT facilitate flow generation. Particularly, MT can positively help athletes face challenges and enter a state of flow.
Keywords: Athletes, sensation seeking, Mental toughness, Flow, Cross-lagged model
Received: 26 Jul 2024; Accepted: 30 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yan, Jiang, Zhang, Wang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Guoli Zhang, Beijing Sport University, Beijing, 100084, Beijing Municipality, China
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