Basic Psychological Needs in the Face of Achievement Vulnerability: A Study in Young Team Athletes

Introduction

• Adolescence is crucial for lifestyle acquisition.

• Sports enhance psychological and social processes.

• Psychological factors are vital for balance in sports.

• Pursuit of achievement exposes athletes to potential failures.

• Failures can lead to negative internal processes and achievement vulnerability.

• Team sports involve interdependence, affecting collective performance.

• Collective sports enhance social identity and support.

Fear of Failure and Perfectionism

• Perfectionism is multidimensional and develops during adolescence.

• It involves desires for high standards and negative cognitive tendencies.

• Classical models link perfectionism to fear of making mistakes.

• Maladaptive thoughts include social expectations and self-oriented demands.

• Flett and Hewitt describe three dimensions of perfectionism: self-oriented, socially prescribed, and other-oriented.

• Socially prescribed perfectionism involves thoughts like "it is what everyone would do in my situation".

• Self-oriented perfectionism includes thoughts like "I must always be the best at everything".

• Perfectionism can be adaptive in sports, enhancing self-efficacy.

• It can also lead to negative outcomes like ruminations and conflicts.

• Longitudinal studies show perfectionism can lead to maladaptive processes.

• High levels of excellence imposition involve pressure and concerns about failure, affecting mental health.

• Stoeber linked extrinsic motivation with vulnerability and intrinsic motivation with well-being.

• Functional perfectionism is associated with self-confidence and planning.

• Dysfunctional perfectionism is linked to fear of failure and anxiety.

• Stoeber et al.'s MIPS measures perfectionist efforts and concerns.

• Perfectionist Efforts = expectations, planning, time, and energy.

• Perfectionist Concerns = negative cognitive–emotional reactivity, magnification of external pressures, fears about the consequences of failure.

• Pineda-Espejel et al. adapted the MIPS to Spanish.

• Athletes compare themselves and experience incompetence when making mistakes.

• Fear of failure arises when athletes compare themselves to others or their past selves.

• Subjective interpretation of mistakes is influenced by public exposure.

• Fear of making mistakes is a subjective emotion with environmental antecedents and behavioral consequences.

• In team sports, mistakes can harm others, increasing self-devaluation.

• Perceived social valuation influences concerns in athletes.

Basic Psychological Needs (BPNs)

• BPNs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness.

• Competence: perceived ability and sense of mastery.

• Autonomy: ability to feel responsible for one’s behavior.

• Relatedness: feeling connected and supported.

• SDT: satisfaction of BPNs facilitates well-being and internalized goals.

• BPNs connect with intrinsically motivated behaviors.

• Frustration elicits distress and maladjustment.

• A sports environment should facilitate relationships, choice, and adequate practice.

• Athletes show greater intrinsic motivation and manage external pressure better when BPNs are met.

• NPBs satisfaction is a protective factor against maladaptive responses, such as anguish, anxiety, and fear of failure.

Objectives and Hypotheses

• The paper aims to explain how BPNs mediate the relationship between perfectionism and fear of failure.

• H1: Perfectionism will show a direct and positive relationship with fear of making mistakes.

• H2: Mediation of satisfaction with BPNs will exert an indirect and protective effect on the negative effects of perfectionism.

• H3: Reduce the fear of making mistakes.

Materials and Methods

• Design: cross-sectional, quantitative design with semi-random sampling and mediated prediction analysis.

• Sample: 372 young team athletes; Mage = 16.72 years (SD = 3.59; range 14–19 years old); 52.15% boys, 47% girls.

• Procedure: Preparation of list of sports clubs with teams aged between 12 and 19 years, drafting general explaining the objective of the study.

• Data collection complied with the Ethics Committee of the University of Granada (ID:1494/2017), following the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Variables and Instruments

• Perfectionism: Multidimensional Perfectionism in Sport Scale-2 (Sport-MPS-2).

  • 10 items, two factor. Striving for Perfection (e.g., “I strive to be as perfect as possible”) and Negative Reaction to Imperfection (e.g., “I get furious if I make mistakes”).

  • Responses were provided on a Likert-type scale from 1 (never) to 6 (always). Alpha Cronbach obtained was 0.87 and CFA description $[\chi^2 = 482.85; p = 0.00; \chi^2/gl = 3.73; CFI = 0.92; IFI = 0.90; TLI = 0.92; RMSEA = 0.06, SRMR = 0.04]$ showed robust.

• Fear of failure: Fear of Failure Inventory (PFAI-S).

  • Composed of 25 items, it considers the global factor “Fear of failure” (e.g., “when I make a mistake, it upsets the people I care about”, “when I am not successful, some people are not interested in me”).

  • Responses were provided on a Likert-type scale from 1 “I don’t believe it at all” to 5 “I believe it 100%”. The overall internal consistency (alpha) was 0.94, and the CFA showed and fit the internal structure of $[\chi^2 = 615.03; p = 0.00; \chi^2/gl = 3.02; CFI = 0.91; IFI = 0.92; TLI = 0.93; RMSEA = 0.07, SRMR = 0.03]$.

• Satisfaction of Basic Psychological Needs: The Basic Psychological Needs Scale (BP-NES).

  • 12 items divided into three dimensions to assess Autonomy ($\alpha = 0.83$; e.g., “The training program I follow fits my interests”), Competence ($\alpha = 0.79$; e.g., “I have had a great progression concerning the pursued result”), and Relation with others ($\alpha = 0.92$; e.g., “I feel very comfortable when I exercise with other athletes”).

  • Responses were provided on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The general internal consistency was 0.94 and the CFA described an internal structure to be adequate $[\chi^2 = 248.36; p = 0.00; \chi^2/gl = 2.38; CFI = 0.93; IFI = 0.92; TLI = 0.90; RMSEA = 0.07, SRMR = 0.02]$.

Data Analysis

• Descriptive, normality, reliability, and central tendency measures.

• Differential tests (Student’s t-test and ANOVA).

• Pearson’s correlation analysis.

• Thematic measurement model and hypothesized structural model tested using Mplus 7.4.

• Bootstrap confidence intervals (sample > 5000) corrected for bias for specific indirect effects.

• Fit indices: chi-square ($\chi^2$) statistic, the Tucker–Lewis index (TLI), the comparative fit index (CFI), and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA).

Results

Descriptive Analysis

• Multivariate normality criteria (skewness < 2.0, kurtosis < 7.0) were observed.

• Differential tests showed no significant differences in gender (Student’s t-test), while significant differences were observed in perfectionism (Soccer; F = 6.24; p < 0.01; d = 0.18), NPBs (Handball; F = 9.19; p > 0.001; d = 0.06), and fear of failure (Handball; F = 3.48; p > 0.001; d = 0.31).

• Regarding years of sport experience, significantly more major differences were found in both perfectionism subdimensions with 2 to 5 years of experience (F = 11.03; p > 0.001; d = 0.41) and fear of failure in those with more than 5 years of experience (F = 14.03; p > 0.001; d = 0.36).

• Striving for Perfection showed strong relationships with Negative Reactions to Imperfection (r = 0.46) and Fear of Failure (r = 0.51), and weak relationships with Relatedness (r = 0.13). Striving for Perfection showed positive and moderate relationships with Autonomy (r = 0.36) and Competence (r = 0.28), and inverse (although weak) with Relation (r = −13). Negative Reactions to Imperfection showed inverse and strong lineal relationships—Autonomy (r = -0.56), Competence (r = −0.64), and Relation (r = −0.48). Fear of Failure showed strong inverse relationships with the BPNs [Autonomy (r = −0.41), Relatedness (r = −0.38), and Competence (r = −0.45)].

Confirmatory Analysis

• Confirmatory factor analysis for a full measurement model showed an acceptable fit to the data: S-B $\chi^2$ (93) = 372 (>5), TLI = 0.96, CFI = 0.97, and RMSEA = 0.03.

• Correlations between latent variables were shown to be high evidencing the inexistence of multicollinearity (variance inflation factor = 2.00).

Correlation Analysis and Mediation Effects

• Partial correlations reveal positive and significant linear relationships between perfectionism and fear of failure.

• Relationships between Striving for Perfection were positive with Autonomy, Competence, and Fear of Failure, the relationship with Social Relation was negative.

• Negative Reactions to Imperfection showed negative and strong relationships with Autonomy, Competence, and Social Relation, while the relationships with Fear of Failure were positive.

• BPNs mediate the relationship between perfectionism and fear of failure ($\beta$ = 32.4; p < 0.01), with a significant indirect effect ($\beta$ = 0.18; p < 0.01).

• The mediation model test also worked for BPNs separately on BPNs [Autonomy ($\beta$ = 0.47; p < 0.01), Competence ($\beta$ = 0.52; p < 0.01), and Social Relation ($\beta$ = 0.41; p < 0.01]

Discussion

• The study aimed to describe the relationships between internalized perfectionism, the perception of satisfaction of basic psychological needs, and the fear of failure.

• H1, H2, H3 are confirmed.

• Controlling for type of sport and years of experience, direct relationships between fear of failure contrast with Stoeber and Stoeber [77] who showed that being is not related to experience.

• The results agree with studies that noted higher levels of fear of failure in less experienced athletes [36,78] or that younger athletes showed greater negative reactions to imperfection, poor rapport with peers, and did not feel accepted, worsening their performance [41,79,80].

• Connections between Striving for Perfection and the perceived satisfaction of the needs for Autonomy and Competence are positive, the links with the perception of the need for Social Relationships are negative each of the analyses performed.

• The prolific scientific literature justifying the positive value of satisfaction of BPNs thus fosters other adaptive psychological resources in team sports that have an impact on reducing the occurrence of fear of failure despite the existence of a strong influence of perfectionist tendencies. [23,52], ego orientations [58], or sport pressure [51].

Limitation

• Small sample size.

• The number of young athletes depending on the type of sport is not the same

• Cross-sectional approaches determine the temporal (and causal) sequence of events or to determine whether one variable directly influences another.

• The profile of the coaches.

Conclusion

The present work aimed to explain how perceived satisfaction with BPNs mediates the relationship between perfectionism and fear of failure in a sample of young athletes playing team sports. Vulnerability to achievement implies the susceptibility of people to interpreting results as being negative. Not admitting errors as being part of a process, as a way of learning, or of identifying what has been achieved means living with the agony and the devaluation of oneself and increasing the symptomatology of a perfectionist self- representation that acts comorbidly towards the appearance of any process of psychological vulnerability in athletes.

The present work therefore confirms the value of the individual efforts that the members of a sports team can make to perceive their basic psychological needs as satisfied. These are, at the same time, protective elements that strengthen the vulnerability of the perfectionism–fear of failure relationship.