When Does Dispositional Gratitude Help Athletes Move Away From Experiential Avoidance? The Moderating Role of Perceived Autonomy Support From Coaches

Abstract

Experiential avoidance, the attempt to avoid negative experiences, can prevent athletes from reaching their goals. To mitigate this tendency, the authors offer a relational approach and propose that dispositional gratitude and perceived autonomy support from coaches will have an interaction effect in mitigating experiential avoidance. Time-lagged data from 140 athletes were analyzed. Dispositional gratitude and perceived coach autonomy support had a significant interaction effect on predicting experiential avoidance when Time 1 experiential avoidance was controlled. Those high in dispositional gratitude and perceived coach autonomy support decreased their experiential avoidance over time. Implications and application for experiential avoidance and gratitude are discussed.