Basic Psychological-Need Satisfaction and Thwarting: A Study with Brazilian Professional Players of League of Legends

Daniela Lopes Angelo,Mario Reyes Bossio,Larissa De Paula Moura,Maria Regina Ferreira Brandão,Vânia Hernandez Souza,Rosemeire De Oliveira,Mariana De Freitas Corrêa,Marcelo Villas Boas Junior

doi:10.3390/su14031701

Daniela Lopes Angelo, Mario Reyes Bossio + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031701

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Abstract

Recently, the skill to play games has led to the professionalization of the activity in the form of “eSports” (electronic sports). Despite the popularity of eSports, little is known about its professional players from a psychological perspective. Given the importance of the coach-created environment in the athletes’ motivational processes, this study aimed to investigate the key psychological dimensions of the coach-created climate in 75 Brazilian professional players of League of Legends (LoL) considering the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Achievement Goal Theory (AGT). Fourteen hypotheses were tested, of which seven were confirmed. The empowering climate was a predictor of basic psychological-needs satisfaction and indirectly influenced autonomous motivation. The need satisfaction had a significant impact on both autonomous motivation and on lack of motivation, which, in turn, explained 56% of the variance in well-being and the intention to keep playing eSports. The disempowering climate was a predictor of psychological-needs thwarting but had no significant impact on autonomous motivation or lack of motivation. The results obtained support SDT and AGT in the context of eSports and were similar to those conducted with athletes from traditional sports, indicating that the empowering-and-disempowering-coaching-climates conceptualization applies not only to traditional sports athletes but also to professional eSports players.

Highlights

IntroductionGoal Theory (AGT) [1,2] and the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) [3,4]
This study aimed to investigate the critical psychological dimensions of the coachcreated climate in 75 Brazilian professional players of League of Legends (LoL) considering two contemporary motivational theories applied to the sport context: the AchievementGoal Theory (AGT) [1,2] and the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) [3,4]
Except for well-being, the intention to keep playing eSports, and non-motivation, five variables were modelled as higher-order Latent Variables (LV): 1. An empowering climate is a higher-order VL, and its indicators are TI, AS, and SS; 2

Summary

Introduction

Goal Theory (AGT) [1,2] and the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) [3,4] Such theories argue that the coach-created motivational climate impacts the development and maintenance of the athletes’ motivation, sustained participation in sports, and well-being [5,6]. Within the scope of these two theories, the AGT and SDT, the present study focused on the conceptualization of the coach-created motivational climate proposed by Duda (2013) [7], which incorporates the motivational climate that can impact athlete outcomes. The empowering and disempowering coach-created environment holds implications for the degree to which athletes’ needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness are satisfied or thwarted and how the athlete deals with their performance. A disempowering coach-created motivational climate can be interpreted as a controlling mo-

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