Psychological traits associated with mental and performance resilience in long-distance and ultra-endurance runners: a systematic review

Evidence on psychological traits in distance running remains fragmented across constructs, race contexts, and outcome definitions, while previous syntheses have generally addressed mental health, motivation, personality, or sport resilience separately. This review aimed to integrate and critically appraise psychological traits associated with both mental adaptation and performance continuity in long-distance and ultra-endurance runners while mapping concentrations and gaps in the evidence.

This systematic review, reported in accordance with PRISMA 2020, searched PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science on 10 June 2026. Eligible empirical studies examined distance-running populations and associations between psychological traits or trait-like constructs and mental or performance resilience outcomes. Risk of bias was assessed using Joanna Briggs Institute checklists. The evidence was synthesized narratively and mapped by construct and outcome domain.

The searches yielded 469 records; after 40 duplicates were removed, 429 records were screened, 89 full-text reports were assessed, and 53 studies were included. Most studies were observational, using cohort or cross-sectional designs; the remainder used qualitative or mixed-methods approaches. Maladaptive pain coping was most consistently associated with poorer pain adaptation and a lower likelihood of race completion. Emotional intelligence and emotion regulation were primarily associated with mood and stress outcomes, whereas motivation, personality, perfectionism, mental toughness, resilience, and self-efficacy showed heterogeneous associations. Critical appraisal identified minor concerns in three studies, moderate concerns in 36, and serious concerns in 14.

By jointly mapping mental adaptation and performance continuity outcomes, this review clarifies recurring domain-specific associations and identifies major gaps in the endurance running psychology literature. However, 50 of the 53 included studies had moderate or serious methodological concerns, and the evidence was predominantly observational. The findings should therefore be interpreted as associations rather than causal effects and do not establish that modifying mental toughness or other psychological traits through training improves endurance running performance.

https://osf.io/mxce4.