The role of mental health in fostering mental toughness during an outdoor recreation academic camp / Auni Zafirah Mohamad and Aida Roha Abdul Rasid

Mental health issues like stress, anxiety, and depression negatively impact relationships, thinking, and overall well-being, especially among college students managing academics, finances, and new environments. Anxiety and depression, in particular, disrupt daily life and cause emotional struggles. Mental toughness helps mitigate these effects by building resilience and improving coping skills. This connection emphasizes the importance of early support and practical strategies to enhance well-being in challenging situations. This study utilized the DASS-21 scale (Moya et al., 2022) with a total of 21 items and the Mental Toughness 4C's framework (Haqiyah et al., 2023) with a total of 27 items to measure mental health and toughness. A total of 104 participants from the Final Outdoor Camp were analyzed after removing one outlier. Descriptive statistics (Mean ± SD) and inferential analysis (Spearman & Paired Sample T-Test), were applied to evaluate the collected data.