Mental Toughness in Sport Questionnaire (MTSQ-19)

Jacek Przybylski; Karol Karasiewicz

doi:10.18290/rpsych2025.0012

Published : 2026-04-27

No. Online First

Mental Toughness in Sport Questionnaire (MTSQ-19)

Jacek Przybylski

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2980-2440

Karol Karasiewicz

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5890-6118

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rpsych2025.0012

Abstract

Mental toughness is a very complex construct which has attracted the attention of scientists, competitors, coaches, and psychologists. The aim of this study was to develop an abbreviated version of the Mental Toughness in Sport Questionnaire (MTSQ), reducing the original 42-factor structure to 19 factors, and to evaluate the psychometric properties of this abbreviated instrument. The study group consisted of 559 athletes. The presented model is appropriately tailored to the data obtained from the target population. Compared to the previous version, the simplified 19-item measure demonstrated a significantly better overall fit. Moreover, all additional absolute indices of misfit yielded lower values in the 19-item model, further supporting its superior structural adequacy. Those results support the assumption of higher validity of the 19-item simplified measure compared to the previous 42-item measure of mental toughness. The MTSQ-19 demonstrates good psychometric properties and addresses a methodological gap identified in previous research on mental toughness in sport.

Keywords:

mental toughness, stress, sport psychology, mental training

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