The Relationship Between Psychological Climate and Individual Effort of Members of Division I College Athletic Teams

Abstract

Athletes' effort is widely accepted to be a fundamental component of both their individual performance and the team's success (Giacobbi, Roper, Whitney, & Butryn, 2002). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceptions of psychological climate and self-reported effort. A modified version of the Psychological Climate Questionnaire (Spink, Wilson, Brawley, & Odnokon, 2013) and a self-report measure of effort was distributed to head coaches at 25 Division I athletic programs to share with their student-athletes. Data from 318 student-athletes, participating in 20 different sports, supported five of the six hypotheses in this study. An Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed five dimensions of psychological climate, which where then correlated with a composite score of individual effort. Specifically, perceptions of supportive management (r = .282), role clarity (r = .434), self-expression (r = .287), contribution (r = .428), and challenge (r = .338) were significantly related (p < .01) to self-reported effort. Furthermore, contribution (b = .53, p < .01), role clarity (b = .47, p &lt; .01), challenge (b = .38, p &lt; .01), and self-expression (b = .148, p < .05) were significant in the regression equation while holding all other independent variables constant. Overall, 30% of the variance in individual effort was accounted for by climate. These findings are in line with those of Spink et al. (2013) and further support the idea that how athletes perceive various aspects of their psychological climate is linked to the effort they put forth in practice and competition.