Perfectionism and mental toughness comparison of licensed athletes engaged in team and individual sports: Sample of Adana province

This study was conducted to compare the mental toughness and perfectionism of licensed athletes engaged in team and individual sports. Target population of the study includes licensed athletes engaged in team and individual sports clubs in Adana province. 207 female and 399 male , in total 606 , athletes voluntarily participated in team sports and individual sports. It is observed that participants are in the branches of football (n = 167), basketball (n = 163), tennis (n = 136) and athletics (n = 140) . In order to determine the mental resilience of the participants in the study, the "Mental Resilience Scale (MRS)", developed by Madrigal, Hamill and Gill (2013) and adapted to Turkish by Erdoğan (2016), (Frost, Marten, & Lahart, 1990), Özbay and The "Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale" adapted into Turkish by Mısırlı Taşdemir (2003) and the personal information form given by the researcher were used. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was applied to determine the normality distribution of the data obtained in the study. In the analysis of the research, according to the variables of gender and marital status, Mann-Whitney U; and according to the variables of age, educational status, sports branch and year of doing sports, Krusukal-Wallis test was used. According to the data obtained, it was found that there is a significant difference in perfectionism in terms of gender variable, while no significant difference was found in terms of mental resilience. When mental resilience was observed according to the age variable, it is found to be significant only at the age of 18-21 and 34 years and over, whereas perfectionism examined by age variable was observed that the age variable remained significant in the sub-dimensions of perfectionism. As a result, It is found that individual characteristics of athletes engaged in team and individual sports play a role in identifying their level of perfectionism and mental resilience. Key Words: Team Sports, Individual Sports, Perfectionism, Mental Toughness