Exploring Need Fulfillment in Varsity Intercollegiate Student-Athletes’ Dual Roles: A Mixed-Methods, Person-Oriented Investigation

Abstract

Individuals competing in varsity intercollegiate sport are tasked with managing the dual roles of athletes and students. The purpose of current study was to simultaneously explore student-athletes’ perceived satisfaction of autonomy, competence and relatedness in sport and academics. A mixed-methods, person-oriented design was utilized. Quantitative data was collected with a sample of N = 238 student-athletes from various varsity intercollegiate sports. For sport, four clusters were revealed: ‘Low Need Satisfaction,’ ‘Moderately Low Need Satisfaction,’ ‘Moderate Relatedness,’ and ‘High Need Satisfaction.’ For academics, four clusters were revealed: ‘Low Need Satisfaction,’ ‘Moderate Relatedness,’ ‘Moderate Autonomy and Competence,’ and ‘High Need Satisfaction.’ Reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with a sub-sample of n = 12 student-athletes representing all clusters revealed four themes: (a) global factors sensitized student-athletes to the experience of basic psychological needs, (b) contextual factors determined fluctuations in student-athletes’ need fulfillment, (c) student-athletes perceived interaction effects in the satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs within the same domain, and (d) student-athletes’ sport participation had a cross-contextual influence on their need fulfillment in academics. Findings provide an understanding of student-athletes’ perceived basic psychological needs across the achievement domains of academics and sport.