{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,13]],"date-time":"2026-08-13T04:30:43Z","timestamp":1786595443480,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,13]],"date-time":"2026-08-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1786579200000},"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. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Young judo athletes show highly heterogeneous pre-competition psychological states, yet prior variable-centered research has assumed a uniform linear \u201csupport\u2013anxiety\u201d relationship that masks individual differences. Using latent profile analysis, this study aimed to identify subgroups jointly defined by perceived social support and competitive state anxiety, examine unadjusted between-profile differences in depression and mental toughness, and investigate covariate-adjusted correlates of profile membership.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      A cross-sectional design was employed. A total of 222 young Chinese judo athletes were assessed using the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2), the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and the Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ). Standardized perceived social support and competitive state anxiety served as the indicator variables for latent profile analysis (LPA); the retained profile solution was selected by jointly considering the AIC, BIC, SABIC, entropy, and class proportions. Binary logistic regression was used to examine the covariate-adjusted associations of mental toughness and habitual stress with profile membership while controlling for age, sex, and history of acute sports injury. Independent-samples\n                      <jats:italic>t<\/jats:italic>\n                      -tests were used to examine unadjusted between-profile differences in depression and mental toughness.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      A two-profile solution was retained after jointly considering information criteria, profile size, classification accuracy, parsimony, and substantive interpretability (entropy\u202f=\u202f0.679). The Resource-Deprived profile comprised 36.5% of the sample, whereas the Supported\u2013Vigilant profile comprised 63.5%. The Supported\u2013Vigilant profile reported lower depression (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f&amp;lt;\u202f0.001) and higher mental toughness (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.035). Mental toughness was associated with higher adjusted odds of Supported\u2013Vigilant profile membership (OR\u202f=\u202f1.34, 95% CI [1.01, 1.80],\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.047).\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The retained profiles were distinguished primarily by jointly lower versus jointly higher levels of perceived social support and composite competitive state anxiety. In the Supported\u2013Vigilant profile, higher composite competitive state anxiety coexisted with lower depression and higher mental toughness; however, the present findings do not establish that anxiety was facilitative or that social support buffered its effects. These findings suggest that pre-competition psychological work should assess anxiety intensity together with perceived support and broader psychological adjustment, rather than uniformly pursuing anxiety reduction, while giving particular attention to resource-deprived athletes.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1921861","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,13]],"date-time":"2026-08-13T04:24:17Z","timestamp":1786595057000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Latent profiles of pre-competition psychological states in young Chinese judo athletes: associations with depression and mental toughness"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Yongsheng","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Art and Design, Weifang University of Science and Technology","place":["Shouguang, Shandong, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhining","family":"Niu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Physical Education and Health, Guangxi Minzu University","place":["Nanning, Guangxi, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zongyu","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sports Science, College of Education, Zhejiang University","place":["Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenjia","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Physical Education, China University of Mining and Technology","place":["Xuzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ruihan","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sports Science, College of Education, Zhejiang University","place":["Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Haitao","family":"Niu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Physical Education, Shandong University","place":["Jinan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"177","DOI":"10.3390\/sports12070177","article-title":"Intergenerational judo: synthesising evidence- and eminence-based knowledge on judo across ages","volume":"12","author":"Ciaccioni","year":"2024","journal-title":"Sports (Basel)"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"102556","DOI":"10.1016\/j.psychsport.2023.102556","article-title":"Martial arts, combat sports, and mental health in adults: a systematic review","volume":"70","author":"Ciaccioni","year":"2024","journal-title":"Psychol Sport 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