Abstract
This study examined whether (a) adolescent (Mage = 15.13, SD = 1.55) team-sport athletes’ (N = 137) perceived motivational climate, moral disengagement, and prosocial and antisocial behaviour differ in training and competition contexts, (b) moral disengagement mediates the relationship between motivational climate and prosocial and antisocial behaviour in training and competition, and (c) indirect effects between motivational climate, moral disengagement, and prosocial and antisocial behaviour are moderated by context. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that athletes reported higher performance climate and antisocial behaviour in competition than in training, whereas mastery climate, moral disengagement and prosocial behaviour did not differ between contexts. Moderated mediation analysis revealed that the relationships between mastery climate and antisocial behaviour, and between performance climate and antisocial behaviour, were both mediated by moral disengagement in both contexts. No mediation effect was moderated by context. The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of personal and contextual influences on athletes’ moral functioning in sport.
Highlights
Repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed that athletes reported higher performance climate and antisocial behaviour in competition than in training, whereas mastery climate, moral disengagement and prosocial behaviour did not differ between contexts
Moderated mediation analysis revealed that the relationships between mastery climate and antisocial behaviour, and between performance climate and antisocial behaviour, were both mediated by moral disengagement in both contexts
We examined whether: athletes’ perceived motivational climate, moral disengagement, and prosocial and antisocial behaviour differ across training and competition; moral disengagement mediated the relationship between motivational climate and prosocial and antisocial behaviour in each context; and, potential mediation effects were moderated by context
Summary
Ebbers obviously felt remorse, and without hesitation he approached the referee to convince him that it concerned a hand ball, and an invalid goal (Görtzen, 2012) In professional sport, this may be regarded as a notable moment of fair play considering the numerous “less positive” examples: To keep it with football, the hand (“of God”) ball from the Argentinean Diego Maradona in the 1986 world cup quarter final against England, and the one of the French striker Thierry Henry in the 2009 world-cup qualification match against Ireland, are both (in)famous examples in which the players did not admit their “unfair play”, and which eventually appeared to be decisive moments in these matches. It is vital to understand which factors influence these behaviours
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