Transcendent motivations and virtue development in adolescent marathon runners

Abstract

Objective To understand how health, prosocial, and spiritual motivations correspond to changes in the virtues of self‐control, patience, and interpersonal generosity among adolescents and emerging adults. Method Participants included adolescent and emerging adult athletes (N = 396; 12–22 years, M = 18.42, SD = 2.03) on marathon training teams fundraising for a faith‐based charity. Participants completed self‐report questionnaires four times over six months. Participants were 63% female and identified as 61% Caucasian, 17% Latino/a, 10% African American, 6% Asian American, and 6% other. Results Bivariate latent growth curve models showed positive relations between baseline levels of transcendent motivations (spiritual, prosocial) and all three virtues (self‐control, patience, interpersonal generosity) as well as baseline health motivation and self‐control. Linear slopes in all three motivations were positively correlated with change in patience, and greater decreases in these motivations from wave 1 to wave 2 before recovering motivation in subsequent waves correlated with less change in patience. Only the linear slope in prosocial motivation positively correlated with change in generosity. None of the motivation slopes correlated with change in self‐control. Conclusions More than just sport participation is required to cultivate virtue in adolescents; instead, transcendent and non‐transcendent motivations are concurrently developing for athletes who increase in prosocial virtues.

Bidirectional Associations across Time between Entitativity, Positive Affect, Generosity, and Religiousness in Adolescents Training with a Religiously Affiliated Charity Marathon Team

“…Findings from this dataset reporting bivariate latent growth curves models relating motivations (spiritual, prosocial, health) to the development of three virtues (self-control, patience, and interpersonal generosity) have been previously published [20]. In addition, a manuscript analyzing these data is under review proposing a multi-factor structure for self-control that predicts race completion and race times [63].…”

“…Not only is generosity an indicator of positive adjustment during adolescence and emerging adulthood, but it also launches a trajectory of generativity that may continue across the life course [19]. Previous research has demonstrated that changes in generosity are predicted by initial levels of prosocial and spiritual (but not health) motivations among adolescents training for charitable marathons, and changes in generosity are also predicted by changes in prosocial motivations [20].…”

“…Participants completed the 10-item Interpersonal Generosity scale [15], which is a single-factor scale that measures six identifiable dimensions of interpersonal generosity (attention, compassion, open-handedness, self-extension, courage, and verbal expression). The scale has previously been used with adolescents [20]. Participants rated themselves on a 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 6 (Strongly Agree) scale for items such as "When it comes to my personal relationships with others, I am a very generous person" (open-handedness) and "My decisions are often based on concern for the welfare of others" (self-extension).…”

Modelo factorial en la motivación laboral y desempeño docente. Caso: Institución Educativa Emblemática Isabel la Católica, Lima – Perú

“…En ese sentido, las motivaciones han sido agrupadas en dos componentes: en primer lugar se encuentran las motivaciones internas que parten de necesidades, las cogniciones y emociones de las personas; en cambio las motivaciones externas pretenden determinar el comportamiento de los estímulos o el conjunto de hechos externos que permiten cambiar la conducta a partir de consecuencias sociales, ambientales y culturales (López-Arellano et al, 2017). Sin embargo, existe otra componente que ayuda a explicar mejor la motivación, por lo que se añade la motivación trascendente, la cual hace referencia a la consecuencia de una determinada acción que un individuo realiza y tiene un efecto en los demás indirectamente (Cedeno, 2004;Sánchez, 2019;Sanizaca, 2018;Schnitker, Gilbertson, Houltberg, Hardy, & Fernandez, 2020).…”

“…La motivación trascendente promueve el bienestar del personal que se refleja en los desempeños efectivos. Además, está más relacionado al aspecto cognitivo, bajo una cosmovisión de creencias, valores y principios del individuo, lo que lleva a un bienestar total y al deseo de aprender (Guerrero, La Rosa, & Díaz, 2015;Schnitker et al, 2020).…”