The Importance of the Leaders’ and Coaches’ Motivating Style for Sports Club Members’ Motivation to Participate in Organized Sports: Study of Trickle-Down Effects

in The Sport Psychologist

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Tom De ClerckDepartment of Movement and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

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Annick WillemDepartment of Movement and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

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Sofie MorbéeDepartment of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

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Delfien Van DyckDepartment of Movement and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

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Leen HaerensDepartment of Movement and Sport Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.2021-0130
Keywords:
need support; motivational environment; self-determination theory; structural equation modeling
First Published Online:
01 Apr 2022
In Print:
Volume 36: Issue 3
Page Range:
153–161
Restricted access

A considerable amount of research based on self-determination theory has provided evidence for the pivotal role of the coaches’ motivating style in predicting sports club members’ motivation to participate in organized sports. This study also investigated the importance of the sports club leaders’ motivating style for members’ motivation. Specifically, it focused on the relation between the leaders’ motivating style and members’ motivation via the coaches’ motivating style (i.e., trickle-down effect), hereby relying on the perceptions of sports club members (N = 210). Results pointed to the existence of a trickle-down effect, showing that the leaders’ motivating style was reflected in the coaches’ motivating style, which in turn related positively to members’ autonomous motivation and negatively to members’ amotivation. This study provides a proof of principle of the trickle-down effect in sports clubs, urging researchers to further explore this effect in the sports context.

De Clerck (Tom.Declerck@UGent.be) is the corresponding author, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2140-9425

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