Understanding Needs Satisfaction and Frustration in Young Athletes: Factor Structure and Invariance Analysis

Coaching dynamics in elite volleyball: The role of a need-supportive and need-thwarting coaching style during competitive games

Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, this game-to-game study among Flemish volleyball coaches and athletes had two primary objectives. First, we examined how variations in need-supportive and need-thwarting coaching styles related to variations in athletes' basic psychological needs, motivation, and coach-rated performance. Second, we examined whether athletes who perceived their coach as need-thwarting during a specific game would experience different outcomes based on the overall need-supportive or need-thwarting coaching style they encountered across games. Linear mixed modeling on data from 190 elite volleyball athletes (Mage = 23.95, 32.6 % male) and their 26 coaches (Mage = 48.12, 95.7 % male) indicated positive associations between game-specific need-supportive coaching and athletes' reports of game-specific basic psychological need experiences and motivation, as well as coach-rated performance, whereas game-specific need-thwarting coaching showed opposite trends. Athlete perceptions of a coaching style were more predictive of the outcomes than coach perceptions. Second, the lack of systematic cross-level interactions between game-specific coaching and team-level coaching indicated that the observed correlates of game-specific need-thwarting and need-supportive coaching hold regardless of the perceived overall need-thwarting or need-supportive style of the coach across games.

Swimming competitions in the era of COVID-19: Lessons from successfully hosting the International Swimming League

Background

Organization of mass sport events in the COVID-19 era is utterly complicated. Containments measures, required to avoid a virus outbreak, force athletes to compete under circumstances they never experienced before, most likely having a deleterious effect on their performance.

Purpose

We aimed to design a so-called athlete-friendly bubble system for the International Swimming League 2020 event, which is strict enough to avoid a COVID-19 outbreak, but still provides a supportive environment for the athletes.

Methods

To avoid the feeling of imprisonment, athletes were permitted to spend a certain amount of time in the parks surrounding the hotels. Such alleviations were possible to apply with strict adherence to the hygienic and social distancing protocols and regular COVID-19 testing. Evaluation of every COVID-19 positive case was key, and if prolonged PCR positivity or false positive PCR result was identified, the unnecessary quarantine was planned to be lifted. Return to play protocol (RTP) was planned, in case of a COVID-19 infection of an athlete inside the bubble. To test, if the athlete-friendly system provided a supportive environment, we evaluated athlete performance.

Results

11,480 PCR tests were performed for 1,421 individuals. 63 COVID-19 positive cases were detected, of which 5 turned out to be clinically insignificant, either because of prolonged PCR positivity or because of a false positive result. 93.1% of the positive cases were detected in the local crew, while no athlete got infected inside the bubble, as the two infected athletes were tested positive upon arrival. RTP was provided for two athletes. 85% of the athletes showed improvement during the bubble and 8 world records were broken.

Conclusion

The applied protocol proved to be effective, as no athlete got infected inside the bubble, moreover, the athlete-friendly system supported the athletes to improve their performance.

Assessment in Sport and Exercise Psychology: Considerations and Recommendations for Translation and Validation of Questionnaires

Translating and validating measurement instruments in sport and exercise psychology is not an easy task. Rather, it is a task that requires effort and time, for the process is not limited to a simple translation to translate words from one language to another, just in order to make valid and reliable measure. All researchers should be aware that the only proper way is to adopt rigorous and robust methodologies to conduct the process from the preliminary stage of translation to reaching the validation stage of the psychological variable. Only so is it possible to avoid creating fragile and inadequate psychological assessment instruments that can jeopardize the entire investigation to be held with its use. Thus, the main objective of this work is to promote reflection and discussion on the subject by presenting some considerations and recommendations about translation and validation of questionnaires for psychological assessment applied to sport and exercise domain.

Psychometric Assessment of the Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale with Professional Romanian Athletes

Background: Although athletes’ experiences of autonomy, competence, and relatedness play in key role in their motivation, performance-related outcomes, and wellness, there is no evidence to date on measures of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the Romanian sport context. Building upon self-determination theory, the objective of this research was to adapt the Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale and analyze its psychometric properties in the Romanian sport context. Methods: The participants were 642 professional athletes (354 males and 288 females; M_age = 22.81, SD = 5.78) who competed at the international and/or national level. Results: The results from confirmatory factor analyses psychometrically supported a six-factor correlated model, which was invariant across gender, age, and sport. Convergent validity was met by average variance extracted values between 0.60 and 0.74. Discriminant validity was underpinned by values from −0.72 to 0.72 for a heterotrait–monotrait ratio of correlations among the six factors. Reliability was endorsed by Cronbach’s alpha scores between 0.75 and 0.89, and between 0.76 and 0.89 for Raykov’s composite reliability coefficient. Criterion validity was supported by positive relationships of autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfaction to autonomous motivation, and positive associations of autonomy, competence, and relatedness frustration with controlled motivation and amotivation. Conclusions: The Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale is shown to be a valid and reliable measure of need satisfaction and frustration in professional Romanian athletes.

Adaptation and Validation of a Portuguese Version of the Sports Motivation Scale-II (SMS-II-P) Showing Invariance for Gender and Sport Type

In the present cross-sectional study, we adapted and examined the validity of a Portuguese version of the Sport Motivation Scale II (SMS-II-P) within a sample of 1148 Portuguese athletes (women = 546, men = 602) with a mean age of 18.45 years (SD = 5.36), participating in a variety of sports (i.e., football, basketball, swimming, and athletics). We conducted confirmatory factor analysis, convergent and discriminant validity analysis, and multigroup analysis across participants' sport type (team and individual) and gender. We also examined the correlations between the SMS-II-P behavioral regulations and basic psychological needs satisfaction. The results supported that the SMS-II-P had good psychometric properties and was invariant across gender and sport type. The scale demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity, and the subscales achieved adequate internal consistency. Correlations between the six types of regulation measured in the SMS-II supported the distinction between autonomous and controlled behavioral regulations, and the correlations between these subscales and other measures of autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfaction provided evidence of the self-determination continuum. Implications of this research for assessing Portuguese athletes and conducting future research are discussed.