Team sports settings are challenging, dynamic environments in which coaches often benefit from proactive players who take initiative in providing valuable suggestions and feedback. Based on self-determination theory and achievement goal theory, this study examined the mediating role of a mastery and performance motivational climate in the positive relation between coaches' psychological need-supportive behavior and team athletes' proactivity. The study sample consisted of 75 male and 105 female volleyball players (Mage =21.92, SDage =4.92), whose level ranged from the highest national level in Belgium to the regional levels. They completed a questionnaire assessing coach need support, motivational climate and three primary types of proactivity (voice, taking charge, and upward communication). Multilevel structural equation modeling yielded a good fit for the hypothesized model. Consistent with our hypotheses, need support related positively to a mastery climate (β=0.74, P<.001), which, in turn, positively predicted proactivity (β=0.72, P<.001). Need-supportive coaching behavior negatively predicted a performance climate (β=-0.39, P<.001). Rejecting our hypothesis, a performance climate positively predicted proactivity, albeit to a smaller extent than a mastery climate (β=0.21, P<.001). These findings suggest that a need-supportive coaching style enables coaches to create a mastery climate. Such a climate seems to encourage athletes to be proactive, which enables teams to effectively tackle encountered challenges. The weaker but significant positive relation between a performance climate and proactivity will be discussed within the framework of social interdependence theory.
Keywords: coaching; group dynamics; self-regulation in sports teams.
© 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.