{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T05:07:41Z","timestamp":1790140061645,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790121600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Investigating the mechanisms of future anxiety requires a sample exposed to both high career uncertainty and intense performance pressures. Sport sciences students represent a uniquely suited and critical population for this purpose, as their educational context simultaneously demands rigorous physical performance, highly competitive labor conditions, and the management of career-related ambiguities. Therefore, this study focuses on this specific sample to explore how future anxiety is associated with psychological wellbeing and whether mental toughness may serve as a protective mechanism.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This cross-sectional observational study examined 423 sport sciences faculty students. Participants completed the Future Anxiety Scale, Mental Toughness Inventory, and Psychological WellBeing Scale. Descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, regression analyses, structural equation modeling, mediation analysis, and moderation analyses were conducted to examine the relationships among future anxiety, mental toughness, psychological wellbeing, gender, and income level.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Future anxiety was negatively associated with psychological wellbeing (\n                      <jats:italic>r<\/jats:italic>\n                      = \u20130.378,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.001) and mental toughness (\n                      <jats:italic>r<\/jats:italic>\n                      = \u20130.340,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.001). Mental toughness was strongly and positively associated with psychological wellbeing (\n                      <jats:italic>r<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.770,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.001) and partially mediated the relationship between future anxiety and psychological wellbeing [indirect effect: \u03b2 = \u20130.247, 95% CI (\u20130.186, \u20130.099)]. Income level significantly moderated the association between future anxiety and psychological wellbeing (interaction \u03b2 = 0.190,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.001), indicating that the negative effect of future anxiety weakened as income level increased; however, given the highly imbalanced income groups, this finding should be interpreted as exploratory. Multi-group analyses suggested gender differences in some structural path coefficients (\u0394\u03c7\n                      <jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>\n                      = 18.924,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.001); however, the indirect mediation mechanism remained invariant across male and female students (\u0394\u03c7\n                      <jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>\n                      = 0.000).\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Analyses of the measurement sub-dimensions indicate that the \u201chopelessness about the future\u201d sub-dimension of future anxiety shows a stronger association with the outcomes than \u201cfear of the future.\u201d Hopelessness was associated with the largest negative coefficients for both mental toughness and overall psychological wellbeing. These findings suggest that mental toughness may be a particularly relevant mediator in relation to future-related hopelessness. Pending confirmation through longitudinal or experimental designs, interventions addressing hopelessness may be a useful focus for supporting mental toughness and wellbeing among sport sciences students.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1909115","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T04:54:15Z","timestamp":1790139255000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Future anxiety and psychological wellbeing among sport sciences students: the mediating role of mental toughness and the moderating roles of income level and gender"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"\u00c7etin","family":"Tan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical Education and Sports Teaching, Faculty of Sports Sciences, Firat University","place":["Elazig, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"\u00d6nder","family":"\u015eanl\u0131","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Knowledge Management, Besni Ali Erdemo\u011flu Vocational School, Ad\u0131yaman University","place":["Ad\u0131yaman, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mert","family":"\u00d6zg\u00fcner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Management and Organization, Besni Ali Erdemo\u011flu Vocational School, Ad\u0131yaman University","place":["Ad\u0131yaman, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zeynep","family":"\u00d6zg\u00fcner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, Hasan Kalyoncu University","place":["Gaziantep, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Abdullah","family":"Bing\u00f6lbal\u0131","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Recreation, Faculty of Sports Sciences, Firat University","place":["Elazig, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Esin \u00c7a\u011fla","family":"\u00c7a\u011flar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Recreation, Faculty of Sports Sciences, Hitit University","place":["Corum, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"\u0130rem","family":"T\u00fcrkmen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sport Management, Faculty of Sports Sciences, Hitit University","place":["Corum, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yunus Emre","family":"B\u00fcy\u00fckbasmac\u0131","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Recreation Management, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University","place":["Karaman, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"\u0130zzet","family":"Karakulak","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sports Management, Faculty of Sports Sciences, Mardin Artuklu University","place":["Mardin, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"\u0130smail","family":"Belli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Sports Sciences, Halic University","place":["Istanbul, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Serdar","family":"Ko\u00e7","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ministry of Education","place":["Mu\u015f, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"813","DOI":"10.21076\/vizyoner.1310873","article-title":"Psikolojik sa\u011flaml\u0131k ile kariyer kayg\u0131s\u0131 aras\u0131ndaki ili\u015fkinin incelenmesi: \u00d6\u011frenciler \u00fczerine bir uygulama.","volume":"15","author":"Aksu","year":"2024","journal-title":"S\u00fcleyman Demirel \u00dcniv. 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