Satisfaction of Basic Psychological Needs and Goal Orientation in Young Athletes: a Test of Basic Psychological Needs Theory

Basic psychological needs theory (BPNT) is one of six mini-theories of self-determination theory proposing that satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness is essential for humans to thrive. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a relationship exists between the satisfaction of basic psychological needs and goal orientation, as well as to examine the contribution of these needs to goal orientation in young athletes. Two hundred and sixty-one males (64.8%) and one hundred and forty-two females (35.2%), as a total of four hundred three athletes (age=13.13±1.80 years; sport experience=2.99±1.85 years) from team (basketball, football, handball, volleyball) and individual sports (taekwondo, tennis, swimming, boxing, wrestling, judo, canoeing, and karate), voluntarily participated in the study and completed the Basic Psychological Need Scale and Task and Ego Orientation in Sports Questionnaire. The results showed that task orientation was significantly correlated with the three psychological needs, whereas ego orientation was not correlated with any of them. Multiple regression analysis showed that need for competence and need for relatedness significantly contributed to task orientation (F2,390=33.573, p<.001). The R2 value indicated that approximately 15% of the variance of task orientation could be accounted for by needs for competence and relatedness. These results suggest that the satisfaction of need for competence and relatedness can enhance athletes’ task orientation. These findings are discussed within the context of previous research, and some recommendations for application are proposed.