Mindfulness, psychological resilience, and cognitive reappraisal on athletic performance: a predictive model based on psychological mechanisms

Mindfulness is increasingly viewed as a psychological resource for athletic performance, yet the sequential mechanism through which mindful awareness is translated into performance through cognitive reappraisal and psychological resilience remains insufficiently examined. This study constructed and tested a predictive model linking mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal, psychological resilience, and perceived athletic performance among competitive university athletes.

A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted with 482 competitive university athletes recruited from 19 universities in Sichuan Province, China. Validated scales were used to measure mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal, psychological resilience, and perceived athletic performance. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the hypothesized direct paths, and bias-corrected bootstrapping was applied to test the mediating and sequential mediating effects.

Mindfulness was positively associated with athletic performance, cognitive reappraisal, and psychological resilience. Cognitive reappraisal and psychological resilience also positively predicted athletic performance, while cognitive reappraisal positively predicted psychological resilience. Bootstrapping supported the indirect effects of mindfulness on athletic performance through cognitive reappraisal and psychological resilience. The sequential mediation pathway from mindfulness to cognitive reappraisal, psychological resilience, and athletic performance was significant but modest, indicating a multi-stage self-regulatory process.

The findings suggest that mindfulness may enhance athletic performance not only directly but also through emotion-regulation and resilience-building mechanisms. By clarifying the pathway from mindful awareness to cognitive reappraisal, psychological resilience, and performance, this study extends the Mindfulness-to-Meaning perspective to competitive sport and provides evidence for staged psychological training programmes that integrate mindfulness, cognitive reframing, and resilience development.