The Relationship between Emotion Regulation Strategies and Mental Toughness in Elite Taekwondo Athletes

The propose of this study was to investigate the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and mental toughness in super League Taekwondo athletes. For this purpose, 110 taekwondo athletes were selected through random sampling from among Iranian Taekwondo participants in super League competition. Participants were asked to complete the questionnaire of emotion regulation and mental toughness. The data were analyzed by Pearson correlation, multiple regression (inward method) and Anova tests. The results showed a significant relationship between emotion regulation strategies and mental toughness. Regression analysis showed that reappraisal strategy positively and suppression strategy negatively predicts 48 percent of mental toughness variance. Finally, the results of ANOVA showed that there was a significant difference between male and female of taekwondo athletes in both emotion regulation strategies and mental toughness. According to the results of this study, emotion regulation strategies can be useful to conducting educational interventions and programs for Taekwondo mental toughness.