ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicPsychological Factors in Physical Education and Sport - Volume VIView all 44 articles
The effect of team cohesion on mental toughness: a mediation and moderation mixed study based on COR theory
Provisionally accepted
Yiguo XU
wenhao TIAN*- Dankook University, Yongin, Republic of Korea
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Objective: To investigate the mechanisms through which team cohesion, social support, and self-identity influence athletes' mental toughness, grounded in Conservation of Resources (COR) theory. Methods: A total of 523 valid questionnaires were collected from athletes aged 16–35 years using the Team Cohesion Scale, Social Support Scale, Self-Identity Scale, and Mental Toughness Scale. The collected data was validated through correlation analysis, regression analysis, and other methods.Results: (1) Team cohesion has a significant positive effect on athletes' mental toughness. (2) Team cohesion influences mental toughness both directly and indirectly through the mediating roles of social support and self-identity, encompassing three mediation pathways: social support alone, self-identity alone, and a chained mediation through both social support and self-identity. Conclusion: Team cohesion not only directly enhances athletes' mental toughness but also indirectly influences it through the independent and chained mediating effects of social support and self-identity. Future interventions could focus on enhancing team cohesion to increase athletes' social support and strengthen their self-identity, thereby improving mental toughness.
Keywords: team cohesion, social support, self-identity, Mental toughness, Athletes
Received: 27 Jun 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 XU and TIAN. 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: wenhao TIAN, tiandku@163.com
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