Campus Location

Abilene Campus (Residential)

Date of Award

5-2023

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5460-0003

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Psychology

Degree Name

Master of Science

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

David Mosher

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Cherisse Flanagan

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

David McAnulty

Abstract

Personal growth initiative (PGI) is an intrinsically motivated engagement in growth processes that contribute to their ability to excel in sporting performance (Robitschek, 1998), and PGI may also predict their grit as well. Like PGI, team cohesion influences both performance and well-being in athletes, and little research has explored how spiritually oriented coaching influences team cohesion. This study explored PGI, grit, competition anxiety, intrinsic motivation, and the impact of spiritual involvement in sports on team cohesion. A sample (N = 45) of collegiate athletes at private Christian universities completed self-report measures in a survey. PGI was not a significant predictor of grit. While PGI was negatively correlated with competition anxiety (r = -.41) and positively correlated with sport satisfaction (r = .41), a moderation analysis showed no presence of PGI moderating the relationship between competition anxiety and sport satisfaction. Intrinsic motivation predicted about 16.8% of the variance in PGI. Spiritually oriented coaching and team activities did not predict team cohesion. I discuss implications of the findings and future directions for research.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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