Influence of Perceived Parental Education Styles on Hardy Personality in Sport

Abstract

Hardy personality plays a key role in sport due to the positive outcomes that has shown in sport performance. Consequently, it is salient to know which parental educational style is more related to positive characteristics of personality such as hardiness. Therefore, the objective of this research was to study the differences in perceived parental education styles in adult athletes with high and low levels of hardy personality. The sample consisted of 502 athletes from Spain (153 were women and 349 were men) between 18 and 64 years old (M = 27.76; SD = 9.11). A series of self-report questionnaires were fulfilled: an ad hoc sociodemographic questionnaire, the "Multifactor Self-Assessment Test of Child Adjustment", the "Marathon-Hardy Personality Scale" and the Oviedo Scale of Infrequency Response. Firstly, sample was grouped in two groups. Secondly, the results of independent sample t-test showed higher levels of father protectionism and mother restriction in the low challenge scores group. Also, men educated that perceived to be educated by authoritarian parents reported lower commitment. Results also showed higher levels of care education close to mother protectionism, father restriction and mother restriction in the low hardy personality group. It was concluded that there are other variables that influence more on hardy personality in athletes apart from parents. Although challenge, hardy personality and commitment in men reported an influence by parental educational styles.