Academic resilience, mental toughness, and academic performance: interrelations and differences by students’ gender and origin (sports vs non-sports)

Introduction: Not many studies attempt to examine in depth how the role of academic resilience (AR) and mental toughness (MT) on academic performance (AP) is reviewed based on differences in students’ gender and origin (sports and non-sports). Objective: This study aims to explore in depth the relationship between age, AR, MT, and AP in sports and non-sports students. Methodology: A total of 175 students participated in this study, but 166 students (male = 64 or 38.55%; female = 102 or 61.45%) were analyzed further. Based on the origin of the study program, 81 (48.80%) students came from sports study programs, while 85 (51.20%) came from non-sports study programs. The average age of respondents was 18.87±0.77 years. The research data was taken using the Academic Resilience Scale (ARS), Mental Toughness Index (MTI), and GPA. Results: There is a significant relationship between AR and MT (r = 0.691; p < .001), while the age and AP variables are not corelated (p > .05). There is a significant difference in AP based on gender (F = 30.485; p < .001) and origin of study program (F = 50.522; p < .001), but there is no significant difference in the AR and MT variables (p > .05). Conclusions: This study has presented new evidence related to the interrelation of AP, AR, MT, and age variables. There is a significant correlation only in the AR variable with MT, while there is no significant relationship in the other variables. In addition, significant differences were only found in AP, while there were no differences in AR and MT, either based on students’ gender or origin (sports and non-sports).