Developing and Evaluating the “MTSC-PS” Module to Promote Mental Toughness and Sport Courage among Football Players in Secondary Schools

Abstract

Despite the recognized importance of psychological skills training (PST) in sport, a significant gap exists in culturally relevant and structured PST resources for secondary school aged football players in China. Therefore, this study uses the ADDIE model as a guiding framework to create a valid and highly practical module to improve students' mental toughness and sport courage. The module's content validity was evaluated by a panel of six experts, demonstrating excellent content validity (S-CVI/UA = 0.83; S-CVI/Ave = 0.98). The module was also delivered to a secondary school football team (N=36), resulted in significant improvements with large effect sizes in the players' mental toughness and sport courage. In conclusion, by rigorously applying the ADDIE model, a theory-driven, context-relevant, and highly effective MTSC-PS module was developed, which helps to fill an important resource gap in the development of secondary school football players