ISSN: 2226-6348
Open access
Despite the recognized importance of psychological skills training (PST) in sport, a significant gap exists in culturally relevant and structured PST resources for secondary school aged football players in China. Therefore, this study uses the ADDIE model as a guiding framework to create a valid and highly practical module to improve students' mental toughness and sport courage. The module's content validity was evaluated by a panel of six experts, demonstrating excellent content validity (S-CVI/UA = 0.83; S-CVI/Ave = 0.98). The module was also delivered to a secondary school football team (N=36), resulted in significant improvements with large effect sizes in the players' mental toughness and sport courage. In conclusion, by rigorously applying the ADDIE model, a theory-driven, context-relevant, and highly effective MTSC-PS module was developed, which helps to fill an important resource gap in the development of secondary school football players
Branch, R. M., & Varank, ?. (2009). Instructional design: The ADDIE approach (Vol. 722, p. 84). New York: Springer.
Branson, R. K., Rayner, G. T., Cox, J. L., Furman, J. P., King, F. J., & Hannum, W. H. (1975). Interservice procedures for instructional systems development: Executive summary and model (p. 0188). ERIC Clearinghouse.
Chinese Football Association Youth Training Program. Thecfa.cn. (2022). Retrieved 18 April 2022, from https://www.thecfa.cn/qsn/20201126/29099.html
Dick, W., Carey, L., & Carey, J. O. (2005). The systematic design of instruction.
Diment, G. M. (2014). Mental skills training in soccer: A drill-based approach. Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 5(1), 14-27.
Feddersen, N. B., Keis, M. A. B., & Elbe, A. M. (2021). Coaches’ perceived pitfalls in delivering psychological skills training to high-level youth athletes in fencing and football. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 16(2), 249-261.
Gross, M., Moore, Z. E., Gardner, F. L., Wolanin, A. T., Pess, R., & Marks, D. R. (2018). An empirical examination comparing the mindfulness-acceptance-commitment approach and psychological skills training for the mental health and sport performance of female student athletes. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 16(4), 431-451.
Guo, W. (2021). Scientific development of football need the improvement of mental and social ability [Chinese]. Soccer News, (3776), 10-11.
Harwood, C. G., Barker, J. B., & Anderson, R. (2015). Psychosocial development in youth soccer players: Assessing the effectiveness of the 5Cs intervention program. The Sport Psychologist, 29(4), 319-334.
Konter, E., Beckmann, J., & Loughead, T. M. (2019). Football psychology: from theory to practice. Routledge.
Kurt, S. (2017). ADDIE model: Instructional design. Educational Technology, 29.
Mayfield, M. (2011). Creating training and development programs: using the ADDIE method. Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, 25(3), 19-22.
Miçoo?ullari, B. O., & Ekmekçi, R. (2017). Evaluation of a psychological skill training program on mental toughness and psychological wellbeing for professional soccer players. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 5, 2312–2319. doi:10.13189/ujer.2017.051222.
Nesti, M. (2010). Psychology in football: Working with elite and professional players. Abingdon,
Permadi, A. A., Subarjah, H., Sidik, D. Z., & Nuryadi, N. (2021). The Influence of Psychological (Mental) Training to Improve the Performance of Football. JUARA: Jurnal Olahraga, 6(2), 162-170.
Russell, J. D. (1974). Modular Instruction: A Guide to the Design, Selection, Utilization and Evaluation of Modular Materials.
Thelwell R, Weston N, Greenlees I. Examining the use of psychological skills throughout soccer performance[J]. Journal of sport behavior, 2010, 33(1): 109-127.
Weinberg, R. S., & Gould, D. (2023). Foundations of sport and exercise psychology. Human kinetics.
Lan, J., & Rashid, R.-A. A. (2026). Developing and Evaluating the “MTSC-PS” Module to Promote Mental Toughness and Sport Courage among Football Players in Secondary Schools. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 15(1), 291–297.
Copyright: © 2026 The Author(s)
Published by HRMARS (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode