Perceived motivational climate, need satisfaction and indices of well-being in team sports: A longitudinal perspective

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Abstract

Objectives

Grounded in the self-determination and achievement goal frameworks [Ames, C. (1992). Achievement goals, motivational climate, and motivational processes. In G. C. Roberts (Ed.), Motivation in sports and exercise (pp. 161–176). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics; Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The ‘what’ and ‘why’ of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behaviour. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227–268; Nicholls, J. G. (1989). The competitive ethos and democratic education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press], the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between changes in perceptions of the motivational climate to changes in athletes' need satisfaction and indices of psychological and physical well-being over the course of a competitive sport season.

Design

A field correlational longitudinal design, including two data collections over the course of a competitive season, was used.

Method

Participants were 128 British university athletes (M age=19.56; SD=1.83). Athletes completed questionnaires assessing perceptions of the motivational climate; the need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness; subjective vitality and physical symptoms.

Results

An increase in perceptions of a task-involving climate positively predicted an increased satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. In turn, changes in the satisfaction of the needs for autonomy and relatedness emerged as significant predictors of changes in subjective vitality.

Conclusion

Findings suggest that for sport participation to facilitate athlete well-being, the sporting environment should be marked in its task-involving features.

Section snippets

Participants and procedures

One hundred and twenty-eight (89 females, 39 males; M age=19.56; SD=1.83) athletes from a large British university participated in this study. The present study included two data collections over the course of 5 months. Two hundred and fifty-seven athletes took part in the first data collection. An attrition rate of 48% at Time 2 was predominantly due to the absence from practice of the athletes in question on the day of the data collection. Using dummy-coding (stay vs. dropout) to test for

Results

Means, standard deviations, and alpha coefficients for the study variables are shown in Table 1. On average, participants reported an increase in perceptions of the task-involving climate and a decrease in perceptions of an ego-involving climate from Time 1 to Time 2. They also reported higher levels of need satisfaction (i.e. autonomy, competence and relatedness), subjective vitality, and reported less physical symptoms across the same time period. Paired sample t-tests showed that all changes

Discussion

This study set out to investigate whether sport participation might play a role in contributing to or compromising health and how situational factors can influence the quality of athletes' sport experience and subjective well-being. More specifically, we examined the relationship between changes in facets of the social environment perceived to be engineered by the coach (i.e. the task- and ego-involving features) to changes in need satisfaction and indices of psychological and physical

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