The Personality and Resilience of Competitive Athletes as BMW Drivers-Data from India, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain

Samir Rawat; Abhijit P Deshpande; Radu Predoiu; Andrzej Piotrowski; Romualdas Malinauskas; Alexandra Predoiu; Zermena Vazne; Rafael Oliveira; Ryszard Makarowski; Karol Görner; Camelia Branet; Mihai Lucian Ciuntea; Doru Vasile Marineanu; Néstor Vicente-Salar; Davide de Gennaro

doi:10.3390/healthcare11060811

The Personality and Resilience of Competitive Athletes as BMW Drivers-Data from India, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain

Healthcare (Basel). 2023 Mar 9;11(6):811. doi: 10.3390/healthcare11060811.

Authors

Samir Rawat¹, Abhijit P Deshpande², Radu Predoiu³, Andrzej Piotrowski⁴, Romualdas Malinauskas⁵, Alexandra Predoiu³, Zermena Vazne⁶, Rafael Oliveira^{7

8

9}, Ryszard Makarowski¹⁰, Karol Görner¹¹, Camelia Branet¹², Mihai Lucian Ciuntea¹³, Doru Vasile Marineanu¹⁴, Néstor Vicente-Salar^{15

16}, Davide de Gennaro¹⁷

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Management Sciences, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Lavale, Pune 412115, India.
² MBA (Sports Management) Program, Symbiosis School of Sports Sciences and Board of University Development, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Lavale, Taluka Mulshi, Pune 412115, India.
³ Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, National University of Physical Education and Sports, 060057 Bucharest, Romania.
⁴ Institute of Psychology, University of Gdańsk, Jana Bażyńskiego 4 St., 80-309 Gdańsk, Poland.
⁵ Department of Physical and Social Education, Lithuanian Sports University, Sporto g. 6, 44221 Kaunas, Lithuania.
⁶ Department of Sport and Training Theory, Latvian Academy of Sport Education, Brivibas gatve 333, LV-1006 Riga, Latvia.
⁷ Sports Science School of Rio Maior-Polytechnic Institute of Santarém, 2040-413 Rio Maior, Portugal.
⁸ Research Centre in Sport Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal.
⁹ Life Quality Research Centre, 2040-413 Rio Maior, Portugal.
¹⁰ Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences, Academy of Applied Medical and Social Sciences in Elbląg, 82-300 Elblag, Poland.
¹¹ Department of Sports Education and Humanistics, Faculty of Sports, University of Presov, St. 17. novembra n., 08001 Presov, Slovakia.
¹² Faculty of Medical Engineering, Politehnica University of Bucharest, Splaiul Independentei 313, 060042 Bucharest, Romania.
¹³ Faculty of Movement, Sport and Health Sciences, Vasile Alecsandri University of Bacău, Calea Mărășești 157, 600115 Bacău, Romania.
¹⁴ Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest, 050663 Bucharest, Romania.
¹⁵ Department of Applied Biology-Nutrition, Institute of Bioengineering, Miguel Hernández University (UMH), 03202 Elche, Spain.
¹⁶ Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL), 03010 Alicante, Spain.
¹⁷ Department of Management and Innovation Systems, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 Fisciano, Italy.

Abstract

Background: Individual differences in personality and resilience are related to a variety of social behaviors. The current study sought to answer the question of whether BMW drivers exhibit different personality profiles and resilience levels compared with drivers of other car brands.

Participants and procedure: An international study was carried out in India, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain on a sample of 448 athletes using the 20-item Mini-IPIP and the Resilience Scale. The results of BMW drivers (n = 91) were compared with the results of drivers of other German car brands (n = 357).

Results: BMW drivers were characterized by higher neuroticism compared with drivers of other German car brands. They also showed higher resiliency, both in terms of total score and scores on the subscales of: personal coping competences and tolerance of negative emotions, tolerance of failures and perceiving life as a challenge, and optimistic attitude towards life and capacity for self-mobilization in difficult situations. The greatest difference was observed for the factor of tolerance of failures and perceiving life as a challenge. Using the Dwass-Steel-Critchlow-Fligner (DSCF) pairwise comparison test, gender differences between athletes (as BMW drivers and drivers of other German car brands, respectively) were discussed. Additionally, the results of the main logistic regression analyses emphasized that neuroticism represents a better predictor of BMW preference in the case of athletes (as drivers) than the scores obtained for resilience.

Conclusions: BMW drivers differed from drivers of other German car brands only with regard to neuroticism. A higher level of neuroticism can affect mental health and the overall quality of life in athletes; aggression and distress management are essential. Athletes (as BMW drivers) also showed differences in resiliency levels. Understanding the mechanisms of behavior among BMW drivers is possible through considering their personality and individual differences.

Keywords: Big Five; athletes; car drivers; personality trials; resilience.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.