Empowering or disempowering? The role of coach-created motivational climate in engagement and team cohesion in rhythmic gymnastics

Abstract

Objectives. The coach-created motivational climate is essential for shaping athletes’ performance, as well as their motivational and social experiences. Despite coaches’ crucial role and the complex demands of rhythmic gymnastics, fragmentary research on the motivational climate in this sport limits our understanding of how athletes perceive the climate and its relationship to athletes’ outcomes. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the perceptions of the coach-created motivational climate and its relationship with athletes’ motivational and social outcomes in rhythmic gymnastics.
Sample and settings. Eighty-eight competitive rhythmic gymnasts completed an online survey that included standardised questionnaires on engagement, team cohesion, and the five dimensions of the empowering and disempowering motivational climate.
Hypotheses. It was predicted that an empowering coach-created climate would be associated with greater engagement and team cohesion among gymnasts.
Statistical analyses. Correlations and multiple linear regressions were conducted to explore the associations between the motivational climate dimensions and athletes’ engagement and team cohesion.
Results. Engagement and team cohesion were both positively associated with autonomy-supportive, socially-supportive, and task-involving climates, and negatively associated with ego-involving and controlling coaching climates. Stepwise regression indicated that autonomy-supportive and task-involving climates emerged as the main positive factors in athletes’ engagement and team cohesion, both explaining over 44% of the observed variance. These findings align with previous literature, highlighting the importance of an empowering coaching climate.
Limitations. The study’s cross-sectional, self-report design and omitted questions may limit interpretation and generalisability. Findings should be interpreted as exploratory.