M. Blair Evans

Coach-Initiated Motivational Climate and Cohesion in Youth Sport

Purpose: The general purpose of the present study was to examine the link between cohesion and motivational climate in youth sport. The first specific objective was to determine if relationships demonstrated in previous research with adult basketball and handball participants would be replicated in a younger sample and with a more heterogeneous set of sports. The second specific objective was to examine whether sources of athlete enjoyment moderate the relationships between motivational climate and cohesion. Method: Athletes (N = 997; 532 girls and 465 boys; M age = 15.26 ± 1.20 years) completed measures pertaining to coach-initiated motivational climate, cohesion, and sources of enjoyment. Results: Bivariate and canonical correlations revealed positive correlations between perceptions of a task-involving motivational climate and both task and social cohesion, while ego-involving motivational climate was negatively related. Cluster analyses suggested that individuals perceiving a low task-involving climate and high ego-involving climate perceived their teams as less cohesive. Finally, the degree to which participants derived enjoyment through other-referenced competency served as a moderator in the motivational climate–task cohesion relationship. Specifically, the relationship between task cohesion and motivational climate was more pronounced for those individuals who were less likely to derive enjoyment through other-referenced competency. Conclusions: Youth athletes perceptions of coach-initiated motivational climate are related to cohesion. This relationship is, however, moderated by the degree to which athletes derive enjoyment through other-referenced competency. Motivational climate is an important variable to consider within team-building protocols intent on developing cohesion.

Interdependence and Social Identity in Youth Sport Teams

The degree to which team members believe that they rely on one another to perform successfully and achieve collective outcomes may relate to perceptions about the extent that they integrate the group within their own identity. This study examined the relationship between interdependence and social identity among 422 high school team sport athletes. Youth completed measures of task and outcome interdependence, as well as social identity. Multilevel analyses revealed that higher perceptions of outcome interdependence at an individual and team level predicted greater social identity. Results highlight the role of outcome interdependence on athletes’ perceptions of social identity in sport teams.

The Sooner, the Better: Exercise Outcome Proximity and Intrinsic Motivation

BACKGROUNDnDespite evidence that outcomes are highly valued when they are expected sooner rather than further into the future (Ainslie, 1975), limited research effort has been devoted to understanding the role of exercise outcome proximity. The purpose of this study was to examine how temporal proximity to positive outcomes influences exercisers intrinsic motivation. We expected that focusing people on temporally proximal exercise outcomes would increase intrinsic motivation, especially among low-frequency exercisers.nnnMETHODSnThis online experimental study was completed by 135 community exercisers (Mage u2009= 31.11, SD = 10.29; 62% female) who reported an average of 4.86 exercise bouts per week (SD = 2.12). Participants were randomly assigned to a condition that primed temporally proximal positive exercise outcomes (i.e. experienced during or directly following an exercise bout) or temporally distal outcomes (i.e. experienced after days, months, or years of regular exercise). Participants then reported perceptions of behavioral regulation in exercise.nnnRESULTSnAs expected, the proximal exercise outcome condition elicited increased intrinsic regulation among those participants who exercised less frequently (i.e. 1 SD below the mean).nnnCONCLUSIONSnThis study reveals the importance of considering proximity as an important dimension of exercise outcomes-particularly when promoting intrinsic motivation among relatively infrequent exercisers.

Assessing what generates precompetitive emotions: development of the precompetitive appraisal measure

Abstract Athletes’ precompetitive appraisal determines which emotion they experience with regard to an upcoming competition. Such precompetitive emotions have powerful and potentially destructive consequences for performance. To control and optimise these consequences, it is important to examine precompetitive appraisal. Currently, such efforts are hampered by the lack of a valid measurement tool. The present study aimed to develop a novel measure of precompetitive appraisal. Specifically, the Precompetitive Appraisal Measure (PAM) was constructed by adapting an existing self-report scale. Female and male intercollegiate team sport athletes (N = 384) completed the PAM, along with a measure of intensity and interpretation of precompetitive anxiety symptoms (CSAI-2D) prior to competition. On these responses, (a) a Principal Component Analysis and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the PAM’s suggested two-factor structure (Primary and Secondary Appraisal), (b) cluster analyses indicated the measure’s ability to distinguish theoretically congruent appraisal profiles (Threat and Challenge) and (c) a MANOVA and multiple regression analyses demonstrated that PAM-responses predicted precompetitive symptom intensity and interpretation. Further, analyses revealed that the majority of athletes appraised the upcoming competition as a challenge.

A meta-analytic review of studies using the Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior in Sport Scale: Associations among intergroup moral behaviors

Sport participation frequently involves prosocial behavior among in-group members (i.e., teammates), yet the competition found in sport often breeds hostility toward out-groups (i.e., opponents). Using sport as a lens to better understand associations among group-relevant moral behaviors, we conducted four meta-analyses to aggregate existing findings regarding associations among moral behaviors enacted in interteam realms (i.e., prosocial and antisocial behavior toward teammates and opponents). As a secondary goal, we tested whether sample age and gender distribution moderate these associations. A systematic literature search produced 39 relevant effect sizes (total N = 9,240) from studies that used the Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior in Sport Scale (Kavussanu & Boardley, 2009). Prosocial behavior toward teammates had a moderate positive association with prosocial behavior toward opponents, and antisocial behavior toward teammates had a strong positive association with antisocial behavior toward opponents. Age moderated the association between prosocial behavior toward teammates and antisocial behavior toward opponents such that there was a positive correlation across studies that sampled adult athletes, contrasting against a negative correlation for studies that sampled youth athletes. This aggregation of existing literature advances our theoretical understanding of how small group processes may shape athletes’ moral behavior and holds several practical implications. Notably, battling concerns that promoting in-group ties within sport teams may inadvertently foster out-group derogation, efforts to promote strong team environments (i.e., team-building) should align with strategies that also promote prosocial behavior outside of team boundaries.