Autonomy support in sport and exercise settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Drawing from self-determination theory (SDT) and a database of 1,320 correlations across 131 independent samples (N = 38,844), we conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of coach autonomy support in sport and exercise settings. Results showed autonomy support was strongly positively associated with athlete well-being and negatively associated with distress. Consistent with SDT, meta-analyzed correlations were strongest for autonomous forms of athlete motivation (ρ = .39) and weaker for controlled forms of motivation (introjected regulation ρ = .16, external regulation ρ = −.01), and negative with amotivation (ρ = −.19). We found strong positive associations between autonomy support and athlete basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness and very strong associations between autonomy support and other climate or behavioral supports for athlete basic psychological needs: competence support; relatedness support; structure; involvement; and task-involving climates. Effects were not moderated by culture, with collectivist and individualist cultures generally yielding effects in the strong range (ρ ≥ .35), providing support for the assumption within SDT of universal benefits of autonomy support. Effects were also not moderated across types of sport. We discuss implications of the review and suggest coach autonomy support is consistent with environments supporting autonomous motivation, basic psychological needs, and well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Coach autonomy support
• sport
• exercise
• systematic review
• meta-analysis
• self-determination theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/a6e4u/

Additional information

Funding

This first author was supported by a La Trobe University postgraduate research scholarship in conducting this research. This research was also supported by a research development award offered by the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne.