A Comparison of Hardiness and Self Efficacy in Athletic and Non-Athletic University Students

Psychological factors play an important role in increasing physical fitness and success of athletes. Hardiness and self efficacy are considered as important psychological factors in determining the athletes’ success. The goal of the present study was to compare the athletic and non-athletic university students’ psychological hardiness and self efficacy. The method applied in the present study was correlatonal descriptive. The population consisted of all governmental and bojnord Islamic Azad university university students studying in 1390-91. Sample was 677 calculated based on kocran formula and there were 100 athletes and 566 non athletes' among these. The instruments employed in the study included Cobasa psychological hardiness Questionnaire and Bandera's Selfefficacy Scale (GSE). To analyze the data, the researcher applied descriptive statistics, Colmogrov-Smirnov test, the Chi-square test, the t-test to compare the two groups’ mean scores. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups’ mean scores of the independent variable ‘hardiness’ and its dimensions including commitment, challenge, and control in tow athletes and non athletes groups (t=4.99 and p>0.01), (t=2.12 and p>0.05), (t=5.64 and p>0.01), and (t=2.59 and p>0.01). The results also indicated a significant difference in the self-efficacy of the two groups of athletic and non-athletic students (t=8.96 and p>0.01). Increasing diligence resulting from participating in sport activities and controlling the stress resulting from emotional excitement control are considered as the conclusions drawn from the present study.