Self-Determination Theory in Sport: Differences between Athletes in Individual and Team Sports

Using a Self-Determination Theory (SDT) framework, this study examined the relationships between needs satisfaction and motivation and possible differences in these relationships for athletes in individual versus team sports. Participants were 260 college athletes from the University of New Mexico. Autonomy (r = .23, p < .001), relatedness (r =.36, p < .001), and competence (r =.12, p = .046) predicted intrinsic motivation among athletes. As predicted, amotivation was found to be negatively related to autonomy (r = -.29, p < .001), competence (r = -.18, p =.003), and relatedness (r = -.19, p = .002). Needs satisfaction measures were similar except for autonomy t (258) = 3.019, p < .010, which was higher for individual athletes. There was a not a sport by needs satisfaction interaction which indicated a similar pattern of intrinsic, p =.94 versus extrinsic motivation, p = .91 by type of sport (team or individual).