ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1657181
This article is part of the Research TopicTowards a Psychophysiological Approach in Physical Activity, Exercise, and Sports-Volume VView all 13 articles
The effects of self-efficacy, social support, and mental toughness on tennis umpires' professional identity: a study based on a latent variable mediation model
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chengdu Sport University, Chengdu, China
- 2Sichuan Technology and Business University, Sichuan, China
- 3Shanxi University of Chinese Medicine, XianYang，ShanXi, China
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Purpose: To explore the relationship between self-efficacy and professional identity among tennis umpires, and to explore the mediating role of mental toughness and social support in this process. Methods: The Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), Vocational Identity Scale (VISA), Mental Toughness Scale (CD-RISC10), and Social Support Scale (SSRS) were used to survey 399 tennis umpires in S Province from November 12, 2024, to November 19, 2024. Results: (1) Correlation analysis showed that self-efficacy and occupational identity showed a significant positive correlation (r=0.544, p<0.01), self-efficacy and social support showed a significant positive correlation (r=0.444, p<0.01), self-efficacy and mental toughness showed a significant positive correlation (r=0.432, p<0.01), social support and mental toughness showed a significant positive correlation (r=0.432, p<0.01), and social support and mental toughness showed a significant positive correlation (r=0.609, p<0.01).0.432, p＜0.01), social support showed a significant positive correlation with occupational identity (r=0.609, p＜0.01), and mental toughness showed a significant positive correlation with occupational identity (r=0.504, p＜0.01). (2) The results of path analysis showed that self-efficacy significantly and positively affected mental toughness (β=0.165, p＜0.01) and social support (β=0.593, p＜0.01); mental toughness significantly and positively affected social support (β=0.437, p＜0.01); and social support significantly and positively affected occupational identity (β=0.867, p＜0.01). (3) The results of the mediating effect showed that mental toughness partially mediated between self-efficacy and occupational identity, with an effect size of 0.067 and a 95% confidence interval of [0.006, 0.126]; and social support and mental toughness chained the mediating effect between self-efficacy and occupational identity. The effect size was 0.120 with a 95% confidence interval of [0.065, 0.190]. Conclusion: (1) Tennis umpires' self-efficacy, social support, and mental toughness showed a two-by-two positive correlation with professional identity. (2) Mental toughness plays a simple mediating role between self-efficacy and professional identity, and social support and mental toughness mediate between the two.
Keywords: self-efficacy, Tennis, UMPIRE, professional identity, social support, Mental toughness, chain mediation
Received: 01 Jul 2025; Accepted: 19 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 周, luo, liu, li and wen. 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: lan luo, Sichuan Technology and Business University, Sichuan, China
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