The mediating effect of personal growth initiative on the relationship between rumination/reflection and subjective well-being among university athletes

Abstract

　The purpose of this study was to examine whether personal growth initiative could mediate the relationship between rumination/reflection and subjective well-being among Japanese university athletes.
　One hundred and seventy Japanese university athletes (111 males, 59 females, mean age = 19.33 years) participated. The Japanese version of the Rumination-Reflection Questionnaire (Takano and Tanno, 2008) was used to measure rumination and reflection. Also, the Japanese version of the Personal Growth Initiative Scale Ⅱ (Tokuyoshi and Iwasaki, 2014) was used to measure personal growth initiative. Moreover, subjective well-being was assessed using the Subjective Well-Being Scale (Ito et al., 2003).
　Path analysis showed that rumination had no significant effect on PGI but had a direct negative effect on subjective well-being. Therefore, rumination had a negative effect on subjective well-being, but this effect was not mediated by PGI. On the other hand, reflection had a positive effect on PGI, and PGI also had a positive effect on subjective well-being. In addition, mediation analysis showed a significant indirect effect of reflection on subjective well-being via PGI. These results suggest that PGI may be a critical factor that can help to enhance subjective well-being among athletes with a low degree of reflection.