Mental toughness in Pakistani cricketers: A factor analytical approach

The aim of this study was to develop a culturally relevant scale of mental toughness for Pakistani cricketers with sound psychometric properties. In order to explore the phenomenology of mental toughness 20 national and international male cricketers were interviewed individually and their responses were recorded in verbatim. All the responses were collated, duplicate and vague items were discarded. The remaining items were transformed into a 4-point likert scale to assess the intensity of each item and altogether 48 items comprised the Cricket Mental Toughness Scale (CMTS). Further, 149 male cricketers with the age range of 16-28 years (M=18.79, SD=3.06) selected through purposive sampling, were given the CMTS final 48 items list, along with the Cricket Mental Toughness Inventory (CMTI, Gucciardi & Gordon, 2009) for concurrent validity. For discriminant validity the Sports Interference Scale (Donohue, Silver, Dickens, Covassin, & Lancer, 2007) and a demographic performa were also included. Exploratory factor analysis yielded 4 factors namely “Resilience”, “Preparation”, “Emotional Stability” and “Self Belief”. The scale was found to have highly internally consistent (α=.92), and split half reliability r=.91with moderate levels of concurrent and discrimanant validity. Results were further discussed in cross cultural context by highlighting its implication for Pakistani cricketers.