Investigating the Protective Factors for Perceived Stress Among NCAA Student-Athletes: An Examination of Social Support, Coping Skills, and Mental Toughness

Guided by Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional theory of stress and coping, this study aimed to investigate the individual and combined effects of age, gender, social support, coping skills, and mental toughness on perceived stress among NCAA student-athletes. Participants were 107 college student-athletes aged from 18 and 24 years. The majority of participants were recruited from Division I universities within the American Athletic Conference. Hierarchical multiple regression was employed to assess the incremental variance accounted for by each predictor set. Results showed that higher levels of social support and coping skills were significantly associated with lower levels of perceived stress among college athletes. However, the effect of social support and coping skills on stress dissipated when mental toughness was entered into the model. The final regression model identified mental toughness as the strongest predictor of perceived stress, accounting for 41.7% of the variance in perceived stress scores. The findings suggest that enhancing mental toughness may be an effective strategy for reducing perceived stress among college student-athletes. Furthermore, these results may inform coaches, instructors, athletic departments, and universities in developing targeted and effective intervention programs aimed at improving college student-athletes’ mental health.