Development of the Mental Toughness Situational Judgment Test: A Novel Approach to Assessing Mental Toughness

Mental toughness (MT) has been shown to predict outcomes across a variety of high-stress contexts such as athletics, the military, and the workplace. Despite this, researchers have struggled to reach consensus regarding how best to conceptualize and measure MT. Specifically, MT assessments have focused on measuring general MT rather than domain-specific MT. The current study proposes a measurement model of MT grounded in social-cognitive theory and introduced an assessment of MT within a situational judgment test framework to assess MT in the workplace. Participants completed a battery consisting of the new measure as well as measures intended to establish construct validity. Factor analyses suggested a three-factor solution fit the data best. Furthermore, cross-structure analyses indicated that the new assessment avoided common-method bias in responding, as evident by weak correlations with measures of other constructs.