Abstract
The coach-created motivational climate influences variations in athletes’ motivation and emotional experiences. The present study aimed to examine social environmental antecedents of athletes’ emotions. Participants (N = 262, 52% female, M age = 22.75 ± 6.92) completed questionnaires assessing perceptions of coach-created motivational climates, goal orientations, motivation regulations, and emotions. The mediation effects of goal orientations (i.e., task/ego) and motivation regulations (i.e., autonomous/controlled) on the relationship between motivational climate (i.e., empowering/disempowering) and emotions (i.e., happiness, excitement, anxiety, dejection, and anger) were examined. Structural equation modeling revealed positive direct effects of perceptions of an empowering motivational climate on happiness. Indirect effects of empowering climate to happiness and excitement via task orientation and autonomous motivation emerged. Perceptions of a disempowering climate positively predicted anxiety, dejection, and anger via ego orientation and controlled motivation. Overall, the findings have implications for coach education as they highlight the importance of creating more empowering environments and avoiding or reducing social comparisons.
Highlights
Athletes’ experiences associated with performance have important repercussions for their performance and wellbeing [1,2]
We examined the relationships between perceptions of empowering and disempowering features of coach-created motivational climates, goal orientations, motivation regulations, and athletes’ pleasant and unpleasant emotions
No direct links were observed from disempowering coaching and unpleasant emotions
Summary
Athletes’ experiences associated with performance have important repercussions for their performance and wellbeing [1,2]. One of the social psychological predictors of athletes’ wellbeing and functioning is the coach-created motivational climate, which influences variations in motivation quality as well as emotional experiences [3]. The social psychological environment such as the one created by the coach is an important factor shaping athletes’ experiences and their quality of sport engagement [3,4]. Athletes perceive a task-involving climate in environments where coaches emphasize effort, accept errors as part of learning, and focus on improvement and cooperation. Coaches who emphasize comparison based on ability and rivalry, evaluate progress in terms of outperforming others, and provide differential attention and recognition to athletes of different abilities create an ego-involving climate
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