Mental Toughness and Problem- Solving Skills from a Psychological Perspective: A Study on Physically Disabled Athletes

The aim of the study was to examine the mental en-durance and problem-solving skill levels of athletes with physical disabilities and whether there were differences between the variables. The study consisted of athletes with physical disabilities living in Istanbul, Antalya, and Ankara in 2021-2022. There were a total of 220 athletes, 66 women and 154 men, with physical disabilities in the national teams and camps. In the study, a personal in-formation form, Mental Toughness in Sports Inventory Scale and Problem-Solving Skills Inventory Scale were applied to participants. Data were analyzed by SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 24.0 software packages. Information about the participants, inventory and scale averages, and frequency (f) and percentage (%) values were de-termined. Since the scales showed normal distribution, parametric tests were applied. As statistical proce-dures, Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro Wilk Test, Inde-pendent Sample T-Test, One-Way Anova analysis, Tukey test, Pearson Correlation Coefficient Analysis, Multiple Regression and Confirmatory Factor analysis were ap-plied to determine the direction of significance. The significance level was determined as p<0.05. As a result of the analyses, no significant difference was detected between the mental endurance and problem-solving skill levels of physically disabled athletes and the vari-ables of gender, age, sports year, and being a national athlete. However, a significant difference was detect-ed in the variables of education level and branch. As a result of the correlation analysis, it was seen that there was a positive relationship between mental toughness and problem-solving skills of athletes with physical dis-abilities and that mental toughness also had an effect on problem-solving skills.