Relationship between psychological skill profiles and soldier physical fitness performance

Jon Hammermeister, Michael A. Pickering, Leigh Mcgraw, Carl Ohlson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

We examine the structure of soldier's psychological skills and assess the relationship between psychological skills profiles and physical performance with data from 427 soldiers from a Stryker Brigade. Exploratory factor analyses results provided empirical support for a three-factor structure that included foundation skills, psychosomatic skills, and cognitive skills. Cluster analysis revealed three emergent psychological skills profile groups: (a) strong skills, (b) weak skills, and (c) fearful focus clusters. Soldiers in the strong psychological skill profile group performed better than their peers in the other profile groups on the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) performance measure. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, research, and practice.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)399-411
Number of pages13
JournalMilitary Psychology
Volume22
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • General Psychology

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