Investigation of athletic mental energy scale and psychometric characteristics in athletes

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the effects of psychometric characteristics and certain variables on athletes' mental states and performance using the Athletic Mental Energy Scale (AMES). Method: The study involved 665 athletes, categorized into team (e.g., football, volleyball) and individual (e.g., swimming, wrestling) sports. It examined their athletic mental energy, psychometric traits, and demographics (age, height, weight, gender). The Athletic Mental Energy Scale, developed by Lu et al. (2018), includes 18 items across 6 subdimensions. For data analysis, one-sample t-tests were used for single-sample comparisons, independent samples t-tests for comparisons between two independent groups, and one-way ANOVA for comparisons among more than two groups. The level of statistical significance was set at p < .05. Results: Research findings showed that male athletes scored significantly higher than females only in the "calmness" subdimension (p < .05), with no gender differences in other subdimensions. Based on sport branches, significant differences were found in total athletic mental energy, "non-exhaustion," and "calmness." Team athletes had a significant difference in "non-exhaustion," while individual athletes showed differences in total score and "calmness" (p < .05). The significance level was low in football, and no notable differences were observed in other sports branches. Conclusion: According to the research findings, athletic mental energy scores were generally similar across gender and sport branches. A significant difference favoring male athletes was found only in the "calmness" subdimension. In individual sports, significant differences were identified in the total score and in the subdimensions of confidence, non-exhaustion, and calmness, with the strongest difference observed in "non-exhaustion" (p < .001). In team sports, the highest scores were found in football and volleyball, while the lowest were in cycling and rugby. The high effect sizes indicate that these differences should be considered.