Dimensions of Coaching Behavior, Need Satisfaction, and the Psychological and Physical Welfare of Young Athletes

Abstract

Grounded in self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of dimensions of coaching behavior to intrinsic need satisfaction and indices of psychological and physical well-being among male adolescent athletes. Participants were 265 British soccer and cricket players (M age = 16.44).Structural equation modeling analysis, using maximum likelihood robust method, showed athletes' perceptions of autonomy support, mastery focus, and social support from the coach to predict their satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness respectively. The satisfaction of the need for competence emerged as the most important predictor of psychological and physical well-being. The findings suggest that particular aspects of the social environment may be salient for fostering particular psychological needs. The results also underline the importance of perceived competence for the psychological and physical welfare of adolescents in team sports. Mental and Physical Welfare of Young Athletes 3Dimensions of Coaching Behavior, Need Satisfaction, and the Psychological and Physical Welfare of Young AthletesIn today's world of sport, pain rather than pleasure is often presented as the hallmark of what the motivated young athlete should feel. In quest of "the right body", many athletes starve themselves to be lighter or thinner, or inflate their body size via banned substances. Over-training in the pursuit of higher performance, although often leading to burnout and overuse injuries, is part of the sport experience for a number of sport participants (Gould, Udry, Tuffey, & Loehr, 1996). The literature suggests that the different social contexts manifested in sporting programs and, in particular, the behavior and interpersonal style of the coach, can play a major role in shaping the potential psychological, emotional, and physical effects (both positive and negative) of sport involvement (Duda, 2001;Smoll & Smith, 2002).One theoretical approach that may shed light on the potential implications of different aspects of the social environment in sport on the well-being of athletes is selfdetermination theory (SDT) (Deci & Ryan, 1985. Recently a sub-theory within SDT, termed basic needs theory (BNT) (Ryan & Deci, 2002), has been formalized to clarify the meaning of the concept of basic needs and their relevance to mental and physical health. BNT assumes three needs to be essential for the nurturance and growth of the human psyche: namely the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The satisfaction of the need for autonomy involves the experience of choice and the feeling that one is the initiator of one's own actions (deCharms, 1968). The satisfaction of the need for competence is fulfilled by the experience that one can effectively bring about desired effects and outcomes (White, 1959). Satisfaction of the relatedness need pertains to feeling that one is securely connected to and understood by others (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). According ...

Psychometric Evaluation of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS) in Italy

“…Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 F o r P e e r R e v i e w Italian Psychometric Evaluation of BPNSFS 3 research has also indicated that low need satisfaction is related with various maladaptive outcomes, such as burnout, internalizing distress, unhealthy weight control behaviours, organizational deviance, and other negative affective states (e.g., Costa, Soenens, Gugliandolo, Cuzzocrea, & Larcan, 2015; Inguglia, Ingoglia, Liga, Lo Coco, & Lo Cricchio, 2014; Lian, Ferris, & Brown, 2012;Reinboth, Duda, & Ntoumanis, 2004;Thøgersen-Ntoumani, Ntoumanis, & Nikitaras, 2010). More recently researchers have begun to investigate the explanatory role of psychological need frustration in predicting ill-being and diminished human functioning (Bartholomew, Ntoumanis, Ryan, Bosch, & Thøgersen-Ntoumani, 2011; Costa, Cuzzocrea, Gugliandolo, & Larcan, 2016; Costa, Ntoumanis, Bartholomew, 2015).…”

Instructional Quality and Attitudes toward Mathematics: Do Self-Concept and Interest Differ across Students' Patterns of Perceived Instructional Quality in Mathematics Classrooms?

“…Sarason and colleagues [43] propose that low-perceived social support may encourage downward social comparisons. Perceived social support further leads to the experience of relatedness to others, whereby facilitating students' intrinsic motivation [39,44]. Thus, studies show that the degree to which students' perceive teacher support in class plays a critical role in the development of students' self-concept and interest in mathematics [13,14].…”

Validación Española del "Learning climate questionaire" adaptado a la Educación Física

“…Además, se han utilizado otros indicadores, como el coefi ciente de fi abilidad compuesta, la AVE o la estabilidad temporal; todos ellos dan muestra de la fi abilidad y validez de esta escala con 14 ítems. Asimismo, indicar que esta escala ha sido analizada factorialmente tanto desde el ámbito del deporte, (Balaguer et al, 2009;Reinboth, Duda, & Ntoumanis, 2004; como de la EF (Hagger et al, 2003;Ntoumanis, 2005), obteniendo buenos índices de fi abilidad y ajuste.…”