Commitment in sport: Motivational climate, need satisfaction/thwarting and behavioural outcomes

Abstract

We examined whether motivational climate (autonomy-supportive coach climate; controlling coach climate) and basic psychological need satisfaction/thwarting (i.e., autonomy, competence, relatedness) were related to sport commitment (enthusiastic and constrained commitment) and self-reported behavioural outcomes (i.e., behavioural effort; intention to continue) in sport. Participants were 229 young adult athletes from a range of sports (M age = 19.70 years; SD = 1.51 yrs) who had participated in their sport for an average of 10.1 years (SD = 4.03 yrs). Path analyses revealed positive associations amongst autonomy-supportive climate, need satisfaction, enthusiastic commitment, and self-reported behavioural outcomes. Similarly, positive links were found amongst controlling climate, need thwarting, constrained commitment, and, to a lesser extent, behavioural outcomes. We also examined mediation effects: (a) the relationship between need satisfaction and behavioural effort was partially mediated by enthusiastic commitment; (b) the relationship between need satisfaction and future intentions was fully mediated by enthusiastic commitment; while (c) no significant mediation effects were found for need thwarting, commitment dimensions, and behavioural outcomes. Our results highlighted the role of enthusiastic commitment as an important psychological construct mediating the relationship between athlete need satisfaction and behavioural outcomes. We extended previous research examining sport commitment by integrating the multidimensional Sport Commitment Model (enthusiastic and constrained commitment) with need satisfaction and need thwarting in an effort to investigate self-reported behavioural outcomes in sport. Future research employing longitudinal research designs is needed to examine these relationships over time and with behavioural measures of effort, intention to continue, and actual persistence.