The relationships of psychological needs, self-determination motivation and self-handicapping among junior high school athletes

[[abstract]]The purpose of this study was three-fold : (a) to explore the predictive utility of psychological needs (autonomy, competence, relatedness) on self-determined motivation; (b) to explore the predictive utility of self-determined motivation on self-handicapping; (c) to examine the mediation effect of self-determined motivation between psychological needs and self-handicapping. Participants were 337 junior high school athletes in Taipei City (males = 214, females = 123), whose age ranged from 12 to 16 years. The measures consisted of Autonomy Scale, Competence Scale, Self-determination Motivation Scale and Self-handicapping Scale. The results showed that: (a) The autonomy, competence and relatedness positively predicted the intrinsic motivation, identified regulation and composite score of self-determined motivation. Specifically, relatedness expressed the best predictive power on intrinsic motivation and composite score of self-determined motivation, competence expressed the best predictive power on identified regulation. In addition, competence positively predicted introjected regulation and external regulation. Both competence and relatedness negatively predicted amotivation. Specifically, relatedness expressed the best predictive power. (b) In terms of the predicting of self-handicapping, amotivation positively predicted self-handicapping. Self-determined motivation negatively predicted self-handicapping. (c) Self-determined motivation showed the mediation effects in terms of the predictions of relatedness and competence on self-handicapping. Based on the results and discussion, the practical application of sports training and future research recommendations are suggested.