Motivational characteristics are influential in shaping adolescents' desire to persist in sport or to discontinue their sport participation. Self-determination theory was utilized as the theoretical framework for this study. This theory examines whether sustained participatory involvement, defined as continued participation in the sport through the next year, was influenced by individuals' self-determined motivation and by the fulfillment of the three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Four hundred ninety two soccer players between the ages of 13 and 17 years comprised the sample. Results indicated sport dropout was explained by higher levels of amotivation, external regulation, and introjected regulation and by lower satisfaction of relatedness and autonomy needs. The findings of this study contribute to the knowledge base on sport dropout as they supported many of self-determination theory.Los aspectos motivacionales poseen una gran importancia sobre la persistencia o el abandono de la práctica deportiva en los adolescentes. En este estudio, partiendo de la teoría de la autodeterminación (Deci y Ryan, 2000), se trató de comprobar cómo incidían en la persistencia o el abandono los diferentes tipos de motivación y las necesidades psicológicas básicas de autonomía, competencia y relaciones sociales. En el estudio participaron 492 futbolistas, con edades comprendidas entre los 13 y 19 años. Los resultados demuestran que el abandono es explicado por altos niveles de desmotivación, motivación externa e introyectada, y bajos niveles de satisfacción con la autonomía y las relaciones sociales. Estos hallazgos pueden contribuir a conocer mejor el abandono deportivo y minimizarlo a partir de las propuestas de la teoría de autodeterminación.

The main aim of the research was to examine the relationship between motivational orientations and parents’ behavior with regard to the players’ motivational orientation, motivational climate, enjoyment and amotivation. The sample comprised 723 athletes (M = 12.37, SD = 1.48) and 723 parents (M = 46.46, SD = 2.56). Players were male and female who belonged to federative basketball, handball, football and volleyball teams. Parents and athletes completed questionnaires that assessed motivational orientations, parents’ involvement in the practice as well as enjoyment and motivation in the sport. Results showed a positive relationship between parents’ support of the sport and players’ enjoyment and a negative relationship with players’ amotivation. Moreover, in players who perceived more pressure from their parents, there was a positive association with amotivation and a negative one with enjoyment. Lastly, it was emphasized that appropriate parental participation can promote an increase of players’ enjoyment of and motivation for sport.

Objectives: Grounded on the self-determination theory, the aim of this study was to assess the impact of perceived need support/thwarting, psychological needs satisfaction/frustration and motivation on young soccer players' sport commitment. Equipment and methods: We used a sample of 430 male soccer players (M age ¼ 14.21 years, SD ¼ 1.67 years, range ¼ 12-18 years). Results: Structural equation model analysis (2 /df ¼ 2.31; CFI ¼ 0.91, TLI ¼ 0.89, GFI ¼ 0.91, SRMR ¼ 0.03, RMSEA ¼ 0.05) showed that coach supporting style positively correlated with players' needs satisfaction, which, in turn positively predicted intrinsic motivation, which, in turn positively predicted sport commitment. On another hand, coach thwarting style positively predicted needs frustration, which positively predicted amotivation, and amotivation negatively predicted sport commitment. Conclusion: The coach-created training environment can be crucial for the satisfaction or frustration of the basic psychological needs and, as a consequence, it could play an important role in young soccer players' sport commitment.

No abstract

Framed within Self-Determination Theory, the purpose of the present study was to test the effects of a training program with physical education (PE) teachers. Participants were 21 high school PE teachers (experimental group, n = 10; control group, n = 11), and their 836 students, aged 12 to 16 years. Teachers in the experimental group received a training program consisting of strategies to support autonomy, competence, and relatedness need satisfaction. A repeated measures ANCOVA was carried out for each dependent variable. After the intervention, students in the experimental group significantly increased their scores on autonomy support, relatedness support, autonomy satisfaction, autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and intention to be physically active, as compared to the control group. These findings emphasize the utility of a training program with PE teachers to promote the students’ psychological need satisfaction, and hence, self-determined motivation toward PE classes.