Relationships and Sports: Mechanisms in Relational Motivation and Its Impact on Athletic Performance

<p>Relationally-Autonomous Reasons (RARs) for pursuing goals are motives that take one’s own personal needs and the needs and desires of close others into account. These relational reasons motivate people in pursing health, school, or sports goals. The purpose of this study was to identify what mechanisms drive relational motivation that in turn affects athletic performance. Participants (n = 156) in this study were student-athletes from various sports, who completed a questionnaire. Athletic performance was obtained and standardized through each athlete’s performance statistics within their sport. The results of the study revealed that closeness, support, accountability, and shared values predicted relational motivation in student-athletes, while coaching relationship and sport type did not predict RARs. In addition the findings showed effort is driven by RARs and coaching relationship but that effort did not predict athletic performance. </p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

Eastern Kentucky University

Year

2016

Author dc:creator

• Szarabajko, Alexandra

• Athletic Performance
• Coaching Relationship
• Motivation
• Relationally-Autonomous Reasons
• Relational Mechanisms
• Cognitive Psychology
• Exercise Science

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2016 Alexandra Szarabajko

Repository record dc:identifier

https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/435

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:encompass.eku.edu:etd-1433