Resilience and Emotional Reactions to Failure Mediated by Self-compassion and Emotion Regulation in Martial Artists

The present study aimed to examine a proposed model for the relationship between resilience and emotional reactions to failure, mediated by self-compassion and Emotion Regulation (ER) among martial artists.

A total of 286 athletes (191 males & 95 females; Mean±SD age: 20.98±3.30 years) from different disciplines of martial arts (taekwondo, karate, Judo, & wushu) engaged in league championship participated in the study. Athletes completed the Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ). The proposed model was evaluated using structural equation modeling.

The obtained results revealed that resilience has direct and indirect effects on emotional reactions to failure. Furthermore, self-compassion and maladaptive ER play a partial negative mediating role between resilience and emotional reactions to failure. However, the mediating role of adaptive ER was not significant.

The study data predicted negative emotional reactions to failure based on resilience, mediated by self-compassion and ER among martial artists; thus, these data indicate the necessity of paying attention to the development of resilience in martial artists. This method emphasizes self-compassion and the reduction of maladaptive ER for better recovery of failure and reduces its effects.