Basic Psychological Needs and Sports Satisfaction Among Brazilian Athletes and Coaches: The Mediating Role of the Dyadic Relationship

Even though sport satisfaction has proved an important element for youngsters to keep practicing sports, little is known on the sport satisfaction of coaches. Moreover, the coach-athlete relationship is acknowledged as a key element for sport success, but whether its importance is the same for coaches and athletes is yet to be investigated. Our study analyzed the mediating role of the coach-athlete relationship in associating the satisfaction of basic psychological needs and sport satisfaction of Brazilian coaches and athletes. 364 coaches and athletes participated in the study representing 182 dyads from different sports according to the following instruments: Basic Needs Satisfaction Sport Scale (BNSSS), Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaire, athlete and coach versions (CART-Q), and the Athletic Satisfaction Questionnaire (ASQ). Data analysis followed a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with a significance level of p < 0.05, generating results in which the mediating model for coaches was not adequately fit, while the direct model, without mediation, was adequately fit and explained 48% of sport satisfaction variance. For athletes, the mediating model has shown adequate fit and explained 81% of the sport satisfaction variance, leading us to conclude that the quality of the coach-athlete relationship can be considered a determining factor for the satisfaction of young Brazilian athletes’ basic psychological needs as well as sport satisfaction, but proved not as relevant to their coaches.