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Disability sports organizations could benefit from a better understanding of the factors leading individuals with disabilities to participate in sport. This study explored relationships among four sources of motivation (i.e., escape, self-esteem enhancement, self-improvement, and social interaction) and six forms of social support (i.e., emotional challenge, emotional support, listening support, reality confirmation, task appreciation, and task challenge) among 133 male and 60 female wheelchair athletes, ages 13–34 years. Differences in motivation and social support needs were examined according to athletes’ gender, age, playing level, skill level, years of participation, and future playing intentions. Results indicated that males were more motivated than females were by desire for escape and that long-term participants were more motivated than novices were by self-esteem enhancement. Escape, self-improvement, and social interaction were stronger motivators for high school athletes than for collegiate athletes. Importance of social support types differed according to skill level, playing level, years played, and future playing intentions.

The utility of Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory (1985) and Coakley’s unidimensional identity model (1992) has yet to be adequately assessed in understanding youth athlete burnout. This may be due to a lack of measures available to assess these relevant constructs in a youth athlete sample. Having such inventories would likely enhance practitioners’ ability to identify, prevent, and treat this phenomenon more effectively in young children. Therefore, the current study assessed the psychometric properties for modified burnout, motivation, and athletic identity inventories for a youth athlete sample. Participants included 88 youth swimmers ranging in age from 7 to 12 years, who completed measures assessing burnout, motivation, and athletic identity. Internal consistencies and exploratory factor analyses provided preliminary psychometric support for the use and continued evaluation of these revised measures with young athletes.

The purpose of this study was to explore adaptation through the manipulation of perceived task difficulty and self-efficacy to challenge the concepts postulated by the two-perception probabilistic concept of the adaptation phenomenon (TPPCA) conceptual framework. Twenty-four randomized performers completed a handgrip and putting task, at three difficulty levels, to assess their self-efficacy and perceived task difficulty interactions on motivations, affect, and performances. The TPPCA was partially confirmed in both tasks. Specifically, as the task difficulty level increased, arousal increased, pleasantness decreased, and the performance declined. There was no solid support that motivational adaptations were congruent with the TPPCA. The findings pertaining to the human adaptation state represent a first step in encouraging future inquiries in this domain. The findings clarify the notion of perceived task difficulty and self-efficacy discrepancy, which then provokes cognitive appraisals and emotional resources to produce an adaptation response.