Psychological Profiles in Pickleball: Mental Skills and Positive Mental Health in Adolescent and Middle-Adulthood Players
Abstract
Pickleball has rapidly expanded across age groups, yet its psychological dimensions remain underexamined. This study compared perceived mental skills and positive mental health between adolescent and middle-adulthood pickleball players and tested whether the two constructs were related within each age group. A cross-sectional descriptive-comparative design was employed with 102 recreational players (46 adolescents; 56 middle adults) recruited from clubs in General Santos City, Philippines. Data were collected with the Unified Mental Skills Assessment Tool (UMSAT-6) and a positive mental health instrument and analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests, and Pearson correlations, and effect sizes. Both groups showed high to very high perceived mental skills and uniformly high positive mental health. Significant differences favoring middle-adulthood players emerged for perceived mental skills, t(100) = −2.613, p = .010, d = 0.52, 95% CI [0.12, 0.92], and in positive mental health, t(100) = −3.239, p = .002, d = 0.64, 95% CI [0.24, 1.04]. However, the two constructs were not significantly related among adolescents, r(44) = −.014, p = .927, 95% CI [−.303, .277], or middle-adulthood players, r(54) = −.042, p = .760, 95% CI [−.302, .223], indicating that they operated as relatively independent dimensions in this recreational sample. These findings suggest that, although pickleball participation is associated with favorable psychological profiles across the lifespan, mental skills development and well-being promotion may require distinct, developmentally informed strategies.
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