Relationship between Talent Development Environment and Mental Toughness among Adolescent Football Players

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status quo of talent development environment among adolescent football players and its relationship with mental toughness.

The statistical population of this study consisted of all the adolescent football players of Ahvaz city who were active in the football clubs of this city. Eventually, 181 adolescents with the age range of 12-15 years were selected. The tools used in this research were Talent Development Environment (Martindale et al., 2010) and Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaires (Sheard et al., 2009). The data analysis in this study was done by SPSS at significant level P≤0.05. One sample T-Test, Pearson correlation, and regression with Enter method ware used for data analysis.

The results of the research showed the status of the components of the talent development environment of football players is higher than average (except for quality Preparation). In addition, the research showed that there is a direct and significant relationship between the talent development environment and mental toughness.

The status of the components of talent development environment showed that there is an eligible condition for the talent development of young football players in Ahvaz city. The position of the qualitative Preparation component at the cutting point also refers to the insignificant attention of coaches and practitioners to provide the necessary guidelines and introduce effective methods to improve and increase the quality of adolescents' performance. In addition, the effect of the talent development environment on mental toughness also confirms the previous findings.