Analysis of the Prediction of Motivational Climate in Handball Players’ Fear of Failure

Abstract

Sports can at times become a negative socializing agent for athletes. The objectives here were to analyse the relationship between motivational climates (involving coaches and peers) and fear of failure in players according to gender and sports experience, and also to control for the extent to which these motivational climates predict the different aversive causes of fear of failure. To this aim, a non-experimental, descriptive, and sectional design was used in which participants answered the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire, the Peer Motivational Climate in Youth Sports Questionnaire, and the Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory. The sample included 479 handball players aged 16–17 years old (mean = 16.60; standard deviation = 0.50) who were playing in Spanish regional youth category handball teams. The results revealed that the task-involving training climate predominates in both genders over the ego-involving training climate, particularly in girls and in less experienced players. The peer ego-involving climate also predominates with respect to the peer task-involving climate in both genders, but this is particularly so for boys and in more experienced players. Furthermore, except for fear of feeling shame, which was predicted by the peer ego-involving climate, all the aversive causes of fear of failure are predicted mainly by the coach climate. The immediate environment was proved to be determinant in avoidance behaviours and fear of failure.

Effects of Motivational Climate on Fear of Failure and Anxiety in Teen Handball Players

“…The national federation, the regional federations, and the coaches of the different regional teams all granted permission prior to our data collecting after reading a letter explaining the objectives of the study and the way it would be carried out. Prior to the administration of the questionnaires to the participants, and in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA), they were presented with an informed consent form [15] for ethical compliance and data protection, ensuring the rigor of the investigation and the privacy of the information obtained. The consent obtained from the players and their parents or tutors was both written and informed.…”

“…Another important aspect is that players who perceive a coach task-involving climate in their training see defeat as a learning factor, and believe that success is achieved with effort, as opposed to those who were subject to an ego climate, for whom ability and tricks are the main tools by which to succeed in sports [1,21]. Furthermore, coaches who promote a task-involving climate see mistakes as part of players' learning processes, a stance that is transmitted to their players, who thus feel lower levels of fear of failure, as recently shown by Gómez-López, Ruiz-Sánchez, and Granero-Gallegos [15] in a study with handball players. On the other hand, the literature has shown that athletes' perceptions of a master's climate are associated with low levels of anxiety [41,46,50,51].…”

“…In a context of skill and achievement, in which athletes try to reach a goal and in which proving competence and ability is important [8], Roberts and Treasure [9] claim that physical and psychological well-being depends on the contexts where sports practice is carried out. More specifically, in the case of a team sport, such as handball, and at the height of adolescence, peers and coaches are the main social agents in a team [10,11] in terms of the motivational climate perceived during training [12][13][14][15][16]. As result of that self-evaluation cognitive process, and mediated for other psychological skills (e.g., perceived control or coping resources), it is not the perceived situations that directly cause the anxiety response, but certain situations of pressure or potential conflict that become stressful when they are assessed as threatening [17].…”

“…Different studies have shown that there is a positive relationship between the perception of a coach-initiated ego involvement motivational climate and the fear of failure [15,16,22,32,33]. Fear of failure triggers an assessment of the negative consequences (e.g., ridicule, shame, or stage fright) on the player's well-being of those potential emotions that players may feel after not performing a task correctly in front of their peers, coaches, or teachers [25,29,30].…”

Antisocial Behavior in Soccer Players: Using an Integrated Mediation Model of Personal Control and Social Learning Theory

“…The existing literature indicates that a mix of personal, situational, and social factors influence antisocial behaviors in sport (see Kavussanu, 2019). Specifically, athletes’ antisocial behaviors have been linked to individual characteristics (Hodge and Gucciardi, 2015; Kavussanu, Stanger, and Ring, 2015; Rutten et al., 2011) and the sports setting (i.e., the culture of the team, including the interpersonal relationships between coaches and players) (Gómez‐López, Ruiz‐Sánchez, and Granero‐Gallegos, 2019; Ruiz et al., 2019). For example, Malete, Chow, and Feltz (2013) demonstrated that coaches' endorsement of cheating leads to antisocial behavior of players.…”