Relationships Among Personality Traits, Gender Roles, Goal Orientations, and Psychological Resilience in Adolescent Athletes: A Network Analysis Study

Abstract Background: Psychological resilience is a crucial psychological trait that influences the ways individuals cope with adversity and challenges, playing an important role in their adaptation and development. Personality traits, gender roles, and goal orientation may serve as significant protective factors for psychological resilience. Based on this, the present study adopts methods such as network analysis and mediation modeling to comprehensively explore the relationships among the above variables, aiming to provide corresponding strategies and recommendations for intervention approaches to psychological resilience. Methods: A total of 650 adolescent athletes completed questionnaires assessing the Big Five personality traits, gender roles, psychological resilience, and goal orientation. Network analysis was utilized to visualize the interconnections among variables, while mediation analysis examined the chain mediating effects of gender roles (masculinity) and goal orientation (task orientation) on the relationship between personality traits (extraversion) and psychological resilience. Results: The network analysis revealed stronger intra-variable connections compared to inter-variable connections. Key cross-dimensional associations included: “agreeableness” with “femininity,” “masculinity” with “task orientation,” “extraversion” with “masculinity,” and “personal competence” with “task orientation.” Task orientation demonstrated the highest bridge expected influence (BEI), serving as the central hub in the network. The mediation model confirmed the mediating roles of masculinity and task orientation, indicating that agreeableness indirectly influences psychological resilience through these factors. Conclusion: Personality traits, gender roles, psychological resilience, and goal orientation in youth athletes collectively form a dynamically interconnected network. Among them, agreeableness, through its bridging role between masculine and task-oriented traits, integrates the functions of both, thereby improving psychological resilience. This finding also provides intervention strategies for enhancing psychological resilience in youth athletes. These associative and exploratory findings warrant further verification through causal research.