Motivation, Personality, And Trait Self-handicapping In College Club Athletes

Abstract

According to Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2017), motivation lies on a continuum from least (amotivation) to most self-determined (intrinsic). Personality traits have been shown to be related motivation in sport (e.g., Brinkman et al., 2016). Trait self-handicapping may be related to less self-determined motivation as athletes who use these strategies often fear failure for an upcoming, evaluative event and wish to control how they are perceived by others (Berger & Tobar, 2019). Despite about two million college students participating in club sports, research on these variables in this population is almost non-existent. PURPOSE: To examine the relationship between Big Five personality traits, trait self-handicapping, and motivation in college club athletes. METHODS: Data were collected from rugby (12 females, 28 males) and volleyball (15 females, 12 males) club athletes at a D-I university in the Midwest. Participants completed the Big Five Inventory, Self-Handicapping Scale, and Sport Motivation Scale - II. Factorial ANOVA and MANOVA were used to examine gender and sport differences for self-handicapping (SH), personality, motivation [intrinsic (INT), integrated (ITG), identified (IDN), introjected (ITJ), external (EXT), and amotivation (AMT)], and relative autonomy index (RAI). Personality traits and SH were included in stepwise multiple regression analyses to predict each type of motivation and RAI. RESULTS: Personality, SH, motivation, and RAI did not differ by gender or sport (p’s > .05). Thus, data were collapsed across gender and sport. Regression analyses revealed that Extraversion was the only significant predictor of INT [R = .32, p < .01], ITG [R = .36, p < .005], and IDN [R = .40, p < .001]. Negative Emotionality predicted ITJ [R = .29, p < .05] and SH predicted EXT [R = .26, p < .05]. No traits significantly predicted AMT (p > .05). Extraversion and SH predicted RAI in the final model [R = .38, p < .01]. CONCLUSION: Extraversion was related to more self-determined motivations in college club athletes. Athletes with more negative emotionality or who tended to use self-handicapping strategies reported less self-determined motivation. For these athletes, interventions that emphasize the intrinsic value of club sport participation may help decrease distress and self-handicapping behavior.