Building upon Deci's and Ryan (1985) Self-determination theory as well as the sportive behavioral correlates of the model of Commitment (Scanlan et al., 1976), this study tries to establish the relationship between motivation and commitment in youth sport. For this purpose 454 young competitive soccer players answered the Sport Motivation Scale (SMS) and the Sport Commitment Questionnaire (SCQ) during the regular season.The SMS measures the three dimensions of the Motivational continuum (the Amotivation, the Extrinsic Motivation and the Intrinsic Motivation). The SCQ measures the Sportive Commitment and its composing factors such as the Enjoyment, the Alternatives to the sport, and the Social Pressure. Our findings provided a clear pattern of the influence of motivation in sport enjoyment and commitment, outlining the positive contribution of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to enjoyment and commitment. Amotivation, contributes positively to alternatives to sport and negatively to enjoyment and commitment. It should be noted that extrinsic motivation has a higher contribution to enjoyment whereas intrinsic motivation has a higher contribution to commitment.

Several attempts to reduce the incidence of sport injuries using psychosocial interventions produced fruitful, although inconclusive results. This paper presents the effectiveness and implementation issues of a pilot 3-month stress-management and muscle relaxation program aimed at reducing sport injury incidence. Pre-post treatment-non treatment group comparison. The program was administered by a trained psychologist on a once-a-week, 1-h session basis. Seventy-four male soccer players from four National Youth league teams voluntarily participated. Teams were randomly assigned to either treatment/non-treatment group. Injury protocol, Self-monitoring cards, Athletes' satisfaction and commitment survey, Coaches' interview. Group main effect and Time-Group interaction effect were both statistically significant, F(1,60) = 8.30, p = 0.005, η2p = 0.121, with the average number of injuries larger in the post-treatment phase of non-treatment group (p = 0.005, η2p = 0.077). There was a significant decrease in the average number of injuries for the intervention group before and after implementing the program (p < 0.001, η2p = 0.309). A controlled implementation of a psychosocial program was effective in reducing youth soccer sport injuries, with a high level of satisfaction and commitment from the athletes, as well as high acceptance from the coaches.

The main objective of this study is to extend the stress and injury model of Andersen and Williams to other “negative” psychological variables, such as anxiety and depression, encompassed in the conceptual model of Olmedilla and García-Mas. The relationship is studied of this psychological macro-variable with two other variables related to sports injuries: the search for social support and the search for connections between risk and the environment of athletes. A combination of classic methods and probabilistic approaches through Bayesian networks is used. The study samples comprised 455 traditional and indoor football players (323 male and 132 female) of an average age of 21.66 years (±4.46). An ad hoc questionnaire was used for the corresponding sociodemographic data and data relating to injuries. The variables measured were the emotional states of: stress, depression and anxiety, the attitude towards risk-taking in different areas, and the evaluation of the perception of social support. The results indicate that the probabilistic analysis conducted gives a boost to the classic model focused on stress, as well as the conceptual planning derived from the Global Model of Sports Injuries (GMSI), supporting the possibility of extending the stress model to other variables, such as anxiety and depression (“negative” triad).

Despite the multiple benefits associated with practicing physical activity regularly, less than 20% of the population do it on a daily basis. Physical education classes could contribute, during childhood and adolescence, to consolidating adherence to healthy lifestyle habits. The present study involved 606 secondary school students between the ages of 13 and 19. We analysed the relationships between the perception of psychological control and support for autonomy, the satisfaction and frustration of psychological needs, mind-wandering and mindfulness, positive and negative emotions, motivation towards physical education classes, physical activity and the intention to be physically active—all through a structural equation model, which presented acceptable goodness-of-fit indices. The results showed that students who feel more autonomous see that their psychological needs are met and feel emotionally positive; this will result in the development of autonomous motivation towards physical education classes and physical activity that, in turn, could lead to a greater intention to be physically active.

This study attempts to analyze the relationship between two key psychological variables associated with performance in sports – Self-Determined Motivation and Competitive Anxiety – through Bayesian Networks (BN) analysis. We analyzed 674 university students that are athletes from 44 universities that competed at the University Games in Mexico, with an average age of 21 years (SD = 2.07) and with a mean of 8.61 years’ (SD = 5.15) experience in sports. Methods: Regarding the data analysis, firstly, classification using the CHAID algorithm was carried out to determine the dependence links between variables; Secondly, a BN was developed to reduce the uncertainty in the relationships between the two key psychological variables. The validation of the BN revealed AUC values ranging from 0.5 to 0.92. Subsequently, various instantiations were performed with hypothetical values applied to the “bottom” variables. Results showed two probability trees that have extrinsic motivation and amotivation at the top, while the anxiety/activation due to worries about performance was at the bottom of the probabilities. The instantiations carried out support the existence of these probabilistic relationships, demonstrating their scarce influence on anxiety about competition generated by the intrinsic motivation, and the complex probabilistic effect of introjected and identified regulation regarding the appearance of anxiety due to worry about performance.

ResumenEl conocimiento de las características psicológicas de los jóvenes deportistas puede ser muy valioso para que, junto a los indicadores físicos y antropométricos, posibiliten a sus entrenadores y técnicos individualizar los procesos de entrenamiento y de esta manera optimizarlos. Los objetivos de este estudio son establecer las características psicológicas de los jóvenes jugadores de fútbol, rugby y baloncesto y determinar si existen diferencias psicológicas entre ellos en función del deporte que practican. Los participantes fueron 149 deportistas varones, 36 eran jugadores de futbol, 70 de baloncesto y 43 de rugby, con una media de edad de 15.99±1.47. Se utilizó el Cuestionario de Características Psicológicas relacionadas con el Rendimiento Deportivo (CPRD). Los resultados indican que los jugadores presentan una tendencia similar en sus puntuaciones, aunque los jugadores de baloncesto son los que obtienen puntuaciones más bajas. Los futbolistas puntúan más alto en control de estrés, motivación y cohesión de equipo, mientras que los jugadores de rugby lo hacen en influencia de la evaluación del rendimiento y habilidad mental. En general, los deportistas manifiestan una buena capacidad para controlar el estrés, para gestionar adecuadamente la evaluación que se hace de su ejecución deportiva y una buena motivación hacia su práctica deportiva, aunque con un margen de mejora que sugiere implementar programas adecuados de entrenamiento. AbstractTo have knowledge of the psychological characteristics of grassroot team players can be very valuable so that, together with their physical and anthropometric features, may enable their coaches to individualize the training processes and thus optimize them. The objectives of this study are to study the psychological characteristics of football, rugby and basketball young players, and deter­mine if there are psychological differences between them regarding the sport they practice. The participants were 149 male athletes. 36 were soccer players, 70 basketball players and 43 rugby players, with a mean age of 15.99 ± 1.47. The Psychological Characteristics related to Sports Performance Questionnaire (CPRD) was used. Results indicate that all players have a similar trend in their scores, although basketball players are the ones who score lower. Footballers score higher in stress con­trol, motivation and team cohesion, while rugby players do so in influencing performance assessment and mental ability. In general, athletes shown a good ability to con­trol their stress; to adequately manage the external eval­uation made upon their performance, as well as a good level of motivation towards the practice of the sport. However, the data show that there is still room for im­provement that justifies the implementation of adequate training programs.