DOI: 10.56639/jsar.1936208 ISSN: 2687-6027

Investigation of Athletes’ Psychological Needs Across Different Sport Disciplines

Hayati Arslan, Emre Şimşek, Enes Beltekin, İhsan Kuyulu
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The aim of this study is to examine levels of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with psycho-logical needs among athletes across different sports disciplines, determine the relation-ship between these needs and the overall SPIDO score, and reveal differences in psycho-logical needs based on demographic variables. The Psychological Need States in Sport Scale (SPIDO) used in the study was developed by Bhavsar et al. (2020) and adapted into Turkish by Ünver et al. (2022). A total of 534 athletes participated in the study, including 234 females and 300 males. The data were analyzed using SPSS 25 software. Since the assumptions of parametric tests were met, an independent-samples t-test, a one-way ANOVA, and a Pearson correlation analysis were employed. The level of significance was set at p < .01 and p < .05. The results indicated no significant differences by gender. When examined by sport type, a significant difference was found only in the autonomy dissatis-faction dimension, favoring individual sport athletes. In terms of sports experience, ath-letes with greater experience reported higher satisfaction. Correlation analyses generally showed that the satisfaction dimensions of psychological needs were positively associat-ed with the overall SPIDO score. Autonomy and competence satisfaction demonstrated strong and significant relationships with the overall SPIDO score. Additionally, some strong positive relationships were observed among the dissatisfaction dimensions. In conclusion, the findings revealed that autonomy and competence satisfaction are strongly associated with the overall SPIDO score and that these needs make a significant contribu-tion to athletes’ psychological well-being. While the type of sport affected only the au-tonomy dissatisfaction dimension, sport experience showed significant variation across some satisfaction dimensions. Based on these findings, it is recommended to increase athletes’ participation in decision-making processes, provide regular and constructive performance feedback, and strengthen social support within the team. Such practices may help satisfy psychological needs and enhance athletes’ overall motivation.

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