Gratitude and Adolescent Athletes' Well-Being: The Multiple Mediating Roles of Perceived Social Support from Coaches and Teammates

Abstract

Since the positive psychology was emerged from 2000s, these positive constructs contribute to athlete's well-being received much attention in sport. However, gratitude is a topic rarely discussed in the sport psychology. Thus, the current study aims at investigated the relationship between gratitude and athlete well-being. Furthermore, the mechanisms underlie the relationship was also explored. We proposed that the perceived social support from coach and teammate would be mediators. Participants were 291 adolescent athletes. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the hypothesis. Results indicated that gratitude is a positive related to athlete's well-being. Besides, multiple-mediators analysis indicated that both perceived coach and teammate social support partially mediated the relationship between gratitude and athlete's well-being. This study contributes to the gratitude and well-being literature by unpacking the essential psychological process behind the relationship. Implication and application were discussed in term of gratitude theory and social support. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.