A Study Of The Effect Of Positive Thinking On Mental Fatigue In Speed Skaters And Interventions

The characteristics of speed skating training make it easier for athletes to develop mental fatigue,which not only affects their performance,but also endangers their physical and mental health,and even causes them to retire early.As a kind of "stress buffer",mindfulness has been recognized as a negative predictor of psychological fatigue,but how does it affect athletes’ psychological fatigue? What are the underlying mechanisms between the two? The mediating effect is a chain of causality,and the construction of a mediating model helps scholars to make causal inferences,but in the process of combing through the literature,it was found that previous studies were mostly cross-sectional investigations,which were easy to find correlations between variables,but the strength of the inferred causal evidence was insufficient.In addition,there is a lack of emphasis on the mental health of speed skaters,with limitations such as a single perspective and a lack of targeted interventions.Based on this,the following 2studies were conducted in this paper.Study 1,a cross-sectional study.Aims: To examine the effects of mindfulness on mental fatigue and the mediating role of mental toughness in speed skaters.Methods: Using speed skaters with frequent symptoms of mental fatigue as the target population,376 outstanding speed skaters from Hebei Province,Beijing,Heilongjiang Province,Jilin Province and Liaoning Province were given the Five Factor Scale of Mindfulness,the Mental Fatigue in Sports Scale and the Mental Toughness in Sports Scale through a questionnaire survey.Independent samples t-test,one-way anova,Pearson correlation analysis,structural equation modeling,and Bootstrap test were used to process the collected data.Results: Mental fatigue scores were lower in generalist speed skaters than in athletes at the Division I and lower sport levels;mindfulness scores were higher in speed skaters in the under-16 and 16-18 age groups than in the over-18 age group;and mental toughness scores were higher in male speed skaters than in female athletes.There was a significant positive correlation between mindfulness and mental toughness(r=0.46)and a significant negative correlation with mental fatigue and its 3dimensions(r=-0.48 to-0.37);mental toughness had a significant negative correlation with mental fatigue and its 3 dimensions(r=-0.50 to-0.40).Mental toughness partially mediated the effect between positive thinking and mental fatigue,with the mediating effect accounting for30.77% of the total effect.Mental toughness partially mediated the effect across the different dimensions of mental fatigue,with the mediating effect accounting for 28.85% to 36.00% of the total effect.Study 2,randomized controlled trial.Aims: To examine the effect of mindfulness intervention training on mental fatigue in speed skaters,to verify the mediating effect of mental toughness between the two,and to improve the strength of inferential evidence from the study.Methods: A mixed experimental design of 2(experiment condition)x 2(time)was adopted.44 speed skaters with high mental fatigue scores were randomly divided into experimental and control groups(22 in each group),with the experimental group receiving a 7-week positive thinking intervention and the control group receiving no intervention during this period.Results:Over time,the speed skaters in the experimental group showed a significant increase(P<0.05)in their levels of mindfulness and mental toughness and a significant decrease(P<0.05)in their levels of mental fatigue,while the control group showed no significant change(P>0.05)before and after the intervention.The main findings were:(1)Speed skaters’ mental fatigue was at a moderate to high level,and mindfulness,mental toughness and mental fatigue showed different characteristics in terms of gender,age,sport level and years of training.(2)mindfulness can directly influence the mental fatigue of speed skaters,and can also indirectly influence their mental fatigue through the mediation of mental toughness.(3)Mental toughness played a consistent mediating role in different dimensions of mental fatigue.(4)The mindfulness intervention designed in this study is feasible,and it can alleviate the mental fatigue of speed skaters both directly and indirectly through the mediating effect of mental toughness.