Collegiate Athletes’ Motivational Styles and Athlete Satisfaction in Team Sports

Dalonie Washington, Grand Canyon University

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine if and to what extent there is a correlation between athletes’ motivational styles (intrinsic, external, identified, introjected, integrated, and amotivated) and the individual performance construct of athletes’ satisfaction within a two-year university system in the Western United States. The theoretical framework for assessing the correlation between athletes’ motivational styles and satisfaction is self-determination theory (SDT). Six research questions addressed correlations between athletes’ motivational styles of intrinsic, external, identified, introjected, integrated, and amotivated, and the individual performance construct of athletes’ satisfaction. The sample included 28 university student-athletes who play team sports within a two-year university system in the Western United States. The dataset included Sport Motivation Scale (SMS-II) and Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire (ASQ) instruments, which collected data within a single online system: Survey Hero. Due to COVID-19, the research study site was shut prematurely. Therefore, a low number of responses was collected from participants. A Kendall’s tau-b correlational analysis showed significant evidence to accept the null hypothesis and conclude there was no association between intrinsic t_b = 0.262, external t_b = -0.012, identified t_b = 0.114, introjected t_b = 0.23, integrated t_b = 0.068, and amotivated t_b = 0.075 motivation and athletes’ satisfaction (M = 14.89; SD = 4.59). A post hoc analysis was then performed on each research question and concluded that there is at least a 90.7% chance of committing a type II error. The results may not fit the general population across other states.

Keywords: Athletes’ satisfaction, motivational styles, self-determination theory