Athletes’ Psychological Needs and Coaches’ Interpersonal Behaviors: A Within-Person Latent Profile Analysis
in Journal of Sport and Exercise PsychologyClick name to view affiliation
Basic psychological needs theory is limited by variable-centered studies focused on linear relationships between perceived needs-supportive/controlling coach behaviors. Therefore, latent profile analysis was used to determine if heterogenous profiles emerged from the interactive effects of needs-supportive and -controlling coach behaviors and the subsequent association with sport-specific mental health outcomes (i.e., burnout and subjective vitality). A total of 685 athletes took part (age = 23.39 years, male = 71%), and the latent profile analysis revealed five novel, diverse profiles, labeled as “supportive-developmental,” “needs-indifferent,” “overly critical,” “harsh-controlling,” and “distant-controlling” coaches. The profiles predicted significant mental health variance (adjusted R2 = .15–.24), wherein the “supportive-developmental” profile scored most favorably on 90% of the outcomes. The largest mean differences were observed against the “harsh-controlling” (n = 5), “overly critical” (n = 3), and “distant controlling” (n = 2) profiles. Overall, latent profile analysis revealed substantial nuance in athletes’ social contexts, predicting variance in mental health. Needs-supportive interventions are needed for “overly critical,” “harsh controlling,” and “distant controlling” athlete profiles.
Shannon and Breslin are with the Sport and Exercise Sciences Research Inst., Ulster University, Jordanstown Campus, Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, and the Inst. of Mental Health Sciences, Ulster University, Magee Campus, Derry, Northern Ireland. Prentice is with the Dublin Business School, Dublin, Ireland.
Supplementary Materials
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