title: Intrinsic motivation and sportsmanship: mediating role of interpersonal relationships.
abstract: This study analyzed the mediating role of interpersonal relations between intrinsic motivation and sportsmanship. Athletes (98 men, 97 women), ages 11 to 43 years, completed measures of intrinsic motivation toward sports, self-concept of social and family relations, and sportsmanship orientation. A structural equation model indicated that self-concept of interpersonal relations mediated the relation between intrinsic motivation and sportsmanship. Also, intrinsic motivation was directly and positively associated with self-concept of interpersonal relations, which, in turn, was positively and significantly related to sportsmanship. Variances explained by self-concept of interpersonal relations and by sportsmanship were 32 and 56%, respectively. The motivational interaction between the context of interpersonal relations and the sports context proposed in the hierarchical model of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation was discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Sociology, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, C/. Santa Juana de Arco 1, 35004 Las Palmas, Spain. jnunez@dps.ulpgc.es
authors.forename: Juan L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Núñez
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martín-Albo
authors.forename: José G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Navarro
authors.forename: Juana M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: González-Cutre
mesh_terms: D003163:Competitive Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D012938:Social Perception; D012944:Social Support; D013177:Sports / Q000523:psychology*; D013334:Students