Team captains' leadership moderates autonomous motivation and adjustment of team members to athletic clubs' activities

Abstract

The present study investigated whether group motivation for participating in athletic club activities could be understood better by examining whether the interaction of athletes' autonomous motivation with their team's captain's leadership could predict team members' adjustment to activities of their club. The participants, 327 students in 24 clubs at 7 universities who were engaging in athletic club activities, completed a questionnaire. Analyses of their responses indicated that the team captains' skills in technical guidance, human relationship adjustment, and command moderated the relation between the athletes' autonomous motivation and the satisfaction of the club members with the clubs' atmosphere. When the captains were high on these skills, the athletes' autonomous motivation was related positively to their satisfaction with their club's atmosphere, whereas the athletes' satisfaction with their club's atmosphere was low when their team's captain was low on these skills. These findings suggest that a fit between individual factors and environmental factors may lead to adjustments to a clubs' activities and, furthermore, that there is a need to consider interactions between individual and environmental factors when considering individuals' adjustment.