Safety behaviour and grit in sports performance among Ghanian university athletes

Abstract

Grit is consistency of interest, perseverance and passion for long-term goal in a chosen activity, which normally translates into better acievements. Grittier athletes are assumed to be more safety conscious since they want to produce better performance in competitions. Therefore, this study explored the influence of university student-athletes’ perseverance and passion for long-term goal attainment and safety behaviour in sports performance. The Grit Scale and Safety Behaviour items were used to collect data from a sample of 644 university athletes who took part in the 2018 Ghana University Sports Association Games (2018 GUSA Games). Results indicate that 46% of these athletes had won at least a medal during the competition. However, about 10.4% either consumed alcohol, a mixture of alcohol and energy drink, smoked tobacco and/or took illicit drugs such as tramadol, marijuana, fentanyl, morphine, etc. at least once a day during the competition. Binomial logistic regression analysis indicates a significant prediction of sports performance (χ² = 46.57, p = .001), with female athletes, those having higher grit scores and reporting health risk behaviours more likely being medal winners. However, female athletes with higher grit scores were less likely to engage in health risk behaviour, which could compromise the students’ sports performance and health status.

Keywords: Grits, perseverance, consistency of interest, health, safety behaviour, athletes, performance.