AUTHOR=Schmid Michael J. , Charbonnet Bryan , Conzelmann Achim , Zuber Claudia TITLE=More Success With the Optimal Motivational Pattern? A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Young Athletes in Individual Sports JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=11 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.606272 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2020.606272 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=
It is widely recognized that motivation is an important determinant for a successful sports career. Specific patterns of motivational constructs have recently demonstrated promising associations with future success in team sports like football and ice hockey. The present study scrutinizes whether those patterns also exist in individual sports and whether they are able to predict future performance levels. A sample of 155 young individual athletes completed questionnaires assessing achievement goal orientations, achievement motives, and self-determination at t1. The person-oriented method linking of clusters after removal of a residue (LICUR) was used to form clusters based on these motivational constructs in order to analyze the relations between these clusters and the performance level 2.5 years later (t2). Similar to the studies in team sports, four motivational patterns were observed at t1. The