Psychological pressure and athletes’ perception of motivational climate in team sports

The differences in perception of motivational climate between athletes who differ in the feeling of pressure with regard to the sport they participate in were investigated. The sample consisted of 388 young male Croatian football and handball players. The Croatian version of the Perceived Motivational Climate Questionnaire was administered and pressure/tension subscale from the Croatian version of Intrinsic Motivation Inventory was used to evaluate a feeling of pressure during training and competition. The results showed the prevalence of mastery motivational climate. The feeling of pressure correlated positively with performance climate, and negatively with mastery motivational climate. Low-pressured athletes perceived more signs of the mastery climate in their environment than highly pressured athletes. The high-pressured athletes perceived significantly more signs of performance motivational climate in their teams in comparison to low-pressured athletes