Social context and hardiness in the Central American athlete

Abstract

The objectives of this study are to identify the factors of social context that influence resistance to stress in high-performance athletes; and to determine which social context factor athletes perceive as the most influential for hardiness. Participants were 405 athletes from 23 sports disciplines, selected from national teams of 9 countries participating in the XII Central American and Caribbean Sports Games held in Boca del Rio Veracruz, Mexico, in 2014. The age range was 18 to 47 years (M = 24.2, SD = 5.07). Athletes answered two questionnaires assessing their perception of social context factors that influence athletic performance and traits of hardiness. The results showed that, from athletes’ point of view, themselves and their skills, as well as coaches, are the factors of social context that mostly influence hardiness. This indicates that athletes’ involvement in their sport widely depends on their internal characteristics and traits, besides of their coaches’ abilities.