Associations between the perception of motivational climate created by coaches, dispositional goal orientations, forms of self-regulation and subjective vitality in young tennis players.

Abstract

A model based on the achievement goal theory (Ames, 1992; Nicholls, 1989) and self-determination theory (SDT, Ryan and Deci, 2000) was tested by hypothesising the sequential relationships among the perceptions of motivational climate created by coaches, goal orientations, motivational regulations (intrinsic motivation, identified motivation, introjected motivation, external motivation and amotivation) and subjective vitality. Ninety-four young elite female tennis players (mean age = 11.07 + - .78 years) in Spain participated in the study. The results showed that perceived task-involving climates and ego-involving climates respectively predicted the athletes’ degree of task orientation and ego orientation. Task orientation positively related to intrinsic motivation and negatively associated with amotivation, whereas ego orientation positively correlated to introjected motivation and external motivated. Lastly, intrinsic motivation was positively linked to subjective vitality, while amotivation was negatively associated with this well-being indicator. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and applied implications.