Mental Toughness,Motivation And Coach-Athlete Relationship In Relation With Sport Performance And Athlete Burnout

This thesis is investigating aspects that contribute to higher sport performance on martial art competitions.Four main objectives were studied:predictive value of mental toughness aspects types of motivation,coach-athlete relationship,and training time on sports performance;mediation effects of motivation on a relationship between mental toughness and sport performance;mediation effects of motivation on a relationship between coach-athlete relationship and sport performance and moderation effects of coach-athlete relationship on connection between mental toughness,motivation and athlete burnout.This approach was derived from hypothetical model of improving sport performance and preventing athlete burnout,which is taking in consideration relationship between all included constructs and assuming importance of specific aspects of these constructs,rather than single factor approach to them.Correlational study was performed on 108 martial arts athletes from Croatia and longevity of training was taken in consideration.Sport performance was measured as participation and score athletes achieved on competitions,in the last two years of training,and instrumentation included MTQ48,(Mental Toughness Questionnaire 48;Clough,Earle,&Sewell,2002),SMS-28(Sport Motivation Scale-28;Pelletier et al.,1995),Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaire(CART-Q;Jowett and Ntoumanis,2003)and Athlete Burnout Questionnaire(ABQ,Raedeke&Smith,2001).Results showed significant correlations and predictive value of commitment,emotional control and confidence in abilities on sport performance.Also,intrinsic motivation to experience and extrinsic motivation for external regulation showed the highest level of connection with sport performance.Intrinsic motivation to experience showed significant mediating effect on the relationship between three aspects of mental toughness(commitment,emotional control and confidence in abilities)and sport performance,while extrinsic motivation for external regulation showed significant mediating effect on a relationship between coach athlete relationship and sport performance.Finally,coach athlete relationship proved to be a good moderator in a relationship between amotivation and athlete burnout.