Practicing to Succeed: The Effects of the Duration and Intensity of Sports Participation on the Development of Intellectual Resilience

Abstract

Past literature documents the ability for sports to foster the development of the growth mindset during youth development. The growth mindset, due to its endorsement of the importance of effort, practice, and skill development, enables individuals to be resilient when they are faced with challenges or adversity. This study tests the hypothesis that students with many years of sports experience, as compared to students with no sports experience, will demonstrate more resilience on a challenging intellectual task as a result of their greater endorsement of the growth mindset. No statistically significant differences were found between athletes and non-athletes on academic resilience measures and there was no significant effect of athlete status on mindset. Recruited athletes were found to have greater academic resilience compared to non-recruited athletes with comparable years of sports experience, suggesting that intensity rather than duration of sports experience has a greater effect on resilience. A recommended direction of future research would be to focus on the ability for institutionalized sport, such as college or professional level sports, to develop resilience in athletes.