Diogo Monteiro */**, Luc G. Pelletier ***, João Moutão */** and Luís Cid */**
(*) Sport Science School of Rio Maior, ESDRM-IPSantarém, Rio Maior, Portugal
(**) Research Centre in Sports, Health and Human Development, CIDESD, Portugal
(***) School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Citation
Monteiro, D., G. Pelletier, L., Moutão, J., Cid, L. (2018). Examining the motivational determinants of enjoyment and the intention to continue of persistent competitive swimmers. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 49(6), 484-504. doi:10.7352/IJSP.2018.49.484
Abstract
This study examined whether the motivational climate, the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, self-determined motivation, and enjoyment could explain why swimmers persisted for a period of six years and whether it could pre- dict their intentions to continue practicing swimming one more year. Multigroup analysis across gender, age-groups and years of experience were also analysed. 799 swimmers (450 males, 349 females), with ages between 12 and 22 years, completed a survey that included the proposed variables. The results support the adequacy of the final model in explaining the swimmers persistence over a period of six years and their intention to persist one more year. In sum, when coaches create a task-involving climate, this climate is conducive to the satisfaction of basic needs satisfaction. This in turn leads to more self-determined motivation, more enjoyment and more intention to continue the practice of one’s sport, independently of gender, age-groups and years of experience.
Keywords: Motivational climate, Basic psychological needs, Self-determined motivation persistence