Quality of motivation, self-control competencies, as well as past performance experience influence sport participation outcomes in developing athletes. Studies have shown that junior athletes high in self-determined motivation are less prone to experience burnout, while self-control competencies help developing athletes to be conscious and deliberate in their self-regulatory efforts toward elite sport performances and avoid negative sport participation outcomes. Combining the self-determination theory framework and psychosocial theories of self-regulation, the aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine how various types of motivation and self-control competencies together are associated with the development of burnout symptoms in junior athletes. High-level Norwegian winter-sport athletes from elite sport academies (N = 199; female n = 72; 16–20 years of age) consented to participate. Associations between six types of motivational regulation, self-control, and indices of exhaustion were investigated. We hypothesized that athletes’ self-control competencies are important to operate successfully, and influenced by different types of motivation, they are expected to help athletes avoid negative sport participation outcomes such as emotional and physical exhaustion. Structural equation modeling analyses were conducted to analyze these relationships, and results revealed some multifaceted associations. When identifying antecedents of sport participation exhaustion and burnout, there is a need to go beyond the unique framework of motivation theories, and explore what cognitive competencies ensure fulfillment of motivation desires. In the current study, differences in junior athletes’ quality of motivation influenced self-control competencies when predicting exhaustion. Interestingly, young athletes driven by self-determined (intrinsic, integrated, and identified), and controlled (introjected and amotivation) regulations in association with self-control offered the strongest negative and positive associations with exhaustion, respectively. Findings clearly indicate that motivation and self-control competencies are meaningfully interrelated when assessing burnout propensity in young developing athletes.

Recent development in the understanding of human motivation has highlighted the crucial and reciprocal role of motivation on cognitive processes (Baumeister, 2016; Englert and Bertrams, 2015; Jordalen, Lemyre, and Durand-Bush, 2016). In elite sport settings, athletes are subject to external forces that do not necessarily correspond with their inherent drives (Gustafsson et al., 2017; Kim, Reeve, and Bong, 2017). However, they seem to develop cognitive competencies to cope with external forces, when planning, monitoring, and reflecting on their high-level achievements (Bartulovic, Young, and Baker, 2017). The current study aims to explore likely interactions between motivation and cognitive processes as athletes develop from novice to elite levels. Five female Olympic and World Championship medallists were interviewed. A thematic analysis revealed how motivation and self-regulation competencies interchangeably influenced athletes' career trajectories asynchronously. Chronologically, four themes emerged: 1) Motivational shifts evoked planning and self-control competencies, 2) The external control constrained athletes' self-regulation, 3) Self-control and reflection in extrinsically driven athletes, and 4) Elite athletes' multidimensional motivation and selfregulation profile. Initially, intrinsic motivation prompted athletes' participation, but the competitive nature of sport activities led to a shift toward more external forms of motivation. This motivational shift was accompanied by changes in self-regulation competencies, particularly planning and self-control, rather than self-reflection. Over time, athletes' increased sport-specific self-confidence contributed to further refinement of self-regulation competencies and integrated motivational regulations. Rather than exploring motivation and cognitive competencies individually, current study findings highlight dynamic interactions between these concepts that influences athletes' ongoing development to elite level performances.

The depletion of self-control competencies has been explained by an external shift in motivation, and recent research has emphasized that controlled types of motivation and self-control competencies are positively associated with exhaustion in youth athletes. Using the self-determination theory (SDT) and self-control theories, this study examined associations between athletes' motivation, self-control competencies, and exhaustion experiences throughout a competitive season. A total of 321 winter sport youth athletes (173 males, 98 females, and 50 unknown gender; aged 16 to 20 years, M = 17.98, SD = 0.89) participated in this 10-week longitudinal study, including three time points. Using Bayesian structural equation modeling, associations between athletes' reported level of motivation regulations, self-control, and exhaustion throughout their competitive season were examined in two mediation models. Constructs were associated in a conceptual and consistent manner. Simple mediation models showed credible indirect and direct effects of motivation on exhaustion via self-control within amotivation, and intrinsic, integrated, identified, and external regulation analyses. These credible effects were not replicated in the focused mediation model, when controlling for self-control and exhaustion autoregressive effects. However, direction of effects in both models was consistent and congruent. Findings consistently supported the interplay between motivation and exhaustion via self-control in youth athletes over an important competition period of the year. Autonomous and controlled motivation interacted with self-control and, respectively, predicted perceived exhaustion negatively and positively. Thus, autonomous self-control motives are important in preventing negative sport participation development over time. However, simple and focused mediation models showed different results, suggesting a necessity for accurate considerations of analytical methods chosen to investigate longitudinal mediation. Specifically, future studies need to carefully consider the time interval between measurement time points when investigating changes in dynamic psychological constructs, and include autoregressive longitudinal effects in order to predict change in levels of the outcome over time.

Mechanisms leading to cognitive energy depletion in performance settings such as high-level sports highlight likely associations between individuals’ self-control capacity and their motivation. Investigating the temporal ordering of these concepts combining self-determination theory and psychosocial self-control theories, the authors hypothesized that athletes’ self-control capacity would be more influenced by their motivation than vice versa and that autonomous and controlled types of motivation would predict self-control capacity positively and negatively, respectively. High-level winter-sport athletes from Norwegian elite sport colleges (N = 321; 16–20 years) consented to participate. Using Bayesian structural equation modeling and 3-wave analyses, findings revealed credible self-control → motivation → self-control cross-lagged effects. Athletes’ trait self-control especially initiated the temporal ordering of the least controlled types of motivation (i.e., intrinsic, integrated, and amotivation). Findings indicate that practicing self-control competencies and promoting athletes’ autonomous types of motivation are important components in the development toward the elite level. These components will help athletes maintain their persistent goal striving by increasing the value and inherent satisfaction of the development process, avoiding the debilitating effects of self-control depletion and exhaustion.