ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1574429
This article is part of the Research TopicMotivations For Physical Activity - Volume IIIView all 18 articles
The Influence of Ego-Involving Climates on Perceived Competence and Commitment for U.S. Masters Swimmers
Provisionally accepted
- 1Kent State University, Kent, United States
- 2University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States
- 3University of Missouri Kansas City, School or Nursing and Health Studies, Kansas City, United States
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The climate adults experience in their sport and physical activity endeavors may be central for them staying active and promoting healthy aging. Researchers have focused on the adaptive effects of the task-involving climate on adults' sport experiences, though little attention has been given to the maladaptive influences of an ego-involving climate. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between Masters swimmers' perceptions of an ego-involving climate, competence, and commitment, as well as investigate the moderating effect of perceived competence on Masters swimmers' commitment within ego-involving climates. U.S. Masters swimmers (n = 566; Mage = 54.82; White 73.70%; female 67%) competing in coach-led programs completed an online survey.Latent moderated SEM analyses revealed that Masters swimmers' perceptions of an ego-involving climate did not predict their sport commitment, although the interactive effect of an ego-involving climate and perceived competence was significant for commitment. Conditional effects further revealed that while athletes with higher perceptions of competence showed a positive relationship between ego-involving climate and sport commitment, a stronger negative association was observed for Masters swimmers with lower perceptions of competence in an ego-involving climate. Adults, regardless of experience or expertise, can benefit from participating in physical activity and avoiding ego-involving tendencies is essential to fostering their commitment to staying active.
Keywords: adults, seniors, achievement goal perspective theory, physical activity, Motivational climate
Received: 10 Feb 2025; Accepted: 25 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wineinger, Fry, Long and Brown. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mary D Fry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, 66045, Kansas, United States
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