ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sport Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicPhysical Education, Health and Education Innovation-Vol IIIView all 30 articles
The Effect of Grit on Psychological Well-Being in Collegiate Athletes:The Moderating Role of Social Support
Provisionally accepted
KYOO HO LEE*
Kyung-Rok oh- College of Physical Education, Kyung Hee University, Yongin City, Republic of Korea
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study aimed to examine how grit influences psychological well-being among collegiate athletes and whether perceived social support from coaches and teammates moderates this relationship. A total of 342 Korean collegiate athletes participated in the study by completing validated measures of grit, perceived social support, and Ryff's psychological well-being dimensions (autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, and positive relations). Using PROCESS Macro Models 1 and 2, the results showed that grit significantly predicted all four well-being dimension. Furthermore, social support moderated these associations: higher coach support weakened the effects of grit in certain domains, whereas teammate support strengthened grit's positive influence, particularly for interpersonal well-being. These findings highlight the complex interplay between personal and environmental factors in athletes' psychological adaptation. The study emphasizes the importance of fostering grit alongside supportive social environments to enhance collegiate athletes' mental health and sustained engagement.
Keywords: Collegiate Athletes1, Grit2, Psychological Well-being3, social support4, mentalhealth5, Environmental Mastery6, Personal Growth7, Positive Relations8
Received: 23 Sep 2025; Accepted: 05 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 LEE and oh. 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: KYOO HO LEE, evan9723@gmail.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.