The effects of having new individuals join a team introduce competitive and cooperative actions that are challenging to groups. Employing socialization tactics that provide tailored role information and cultivate opportunities for social connection is positively related to perceptions of cohesion. However, the socialization process likely relies on the specific actions undertaken by members of the group on their own behalf (i.e., proactivity behaviors). The purpose of the present study was to examine how individual proactive behaviors interact with the group's socialization tactics to predict group cohesion. Athletes' (N = 398) responses to surveys were analyzed via polynomial regressions and response surface analyses to examine the independent and interactive effects of the predictor variables on cohesion. The results pointed to the importance of employing socialization tactics that can work in tandem with proactive behaviors, such that both approaches contributed uniquely to the integration of new and existing members on sport teams.

The aim of the study was to identify distinct trajectories of perceived stress and control in athletes across a season of sports competitions and whether these trajectory memberships could be predicted by subdimensions of the emotional intelligence (EI). Latent class growth analyses were performed on a five-stage longitudinal measurement plan (to cover the entire sporting season). Four hundred fifteen athletes answered to the Brief Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Mastery Scale, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Attainment of Sport Achievement Goal Scale. The analyses revealed two trajectories of perceived stress (one trajectory adapted and one maladapted to performance) and two trajectories of perceived control (one trajectory adapted and one maladapted to performance). Moreover, athletes with higher emotional intelligence emotion regulation scores belong significantly more to performance-adaptive trajectories. The obtained results could contribute to the advancement of emotional intelligence intervention programs to optimize the dynamics of perceived stress and control within the sporting season.

The Model of Excellencism and Perfectionism has been proposed to differentiate the pursuit of high but realistic standards (excellencism) from the pursuit of perfectionistic standards. In a recent study, perfectionistic standards were positively linked to bottom-line mentality, moral disengagement, and tolerance toward electronic sign stealing (cheating) in professional baseball. In this follow-up study, we investigated the reactions of sports fans when the Houston Astros qualified for the 2021 World Series of Baseball 2 years after being found guilty of cheating. We found that fans of the Astros (n = 202) displayed a higher tolerance toward cheating than those of the Atlanta Braves (n = 265). Results of multiple regression (controlling for in-group vs. out-group status) showed higher tolerance toward cheating and doping in perfection strivers compared with excellence strivers. A winning-at-all-cost mentality and moral disengagement mediated the relationships between perfectionism and cheating attitudes.

The overall aim of the present study was to understand how dancers' perception and parents' own perceptions of parents' responsiveness and competence support were associated with dancers' self-perceptions and thriving. In total, 64 dancers and 91 parents for a total of 52 matching dyads participated in the study. Dancers were aged 7-24 years, trained on average 4.17 times/weeks, and were involved in Irish dancing for an average of 9.71 years. Participants completed self-reported questionnaires assessing their perceived responsiveness, competence support, self-perceptions, and thriving. Main analyses consisted of mediations performed with structural equation modeling. Results demonstrate that dancers' perceptions of their parents' responsiveness and competence support are associated with their self-perceptions and thriving. Responsiveness and competence support of their second parent was more strongly associated with thriving than responsiveness and competence support of the main parent. Parents' own perceptions of competence support were positively associated with dancers' thriving.

Burnout is a significant concern for student-athletes, affecting both their academic and athletic performance. This study examined the developmental dynamics of school and sport burnout among Finnish student-athletes across upper secondary school and into early adulthood. Using a structural equation modeling framework with the Cholesky decomposition method, we found that higher levels of school burnout at the beginning of upper secondary school predicted higher levels of sport burnout at later time points. School burnout in the final year of upper secondary school was found to predict higher sport burnout in early adulthood. Although no differences were observed in the development of burnout between sexes or sport types, females experienced consistently higher levels of sport burnout than males, and individual sports athletes reported more burnout than those in team sports during their final year. Early interventions targeting school burnout are essential to reducing sport burnout in transitioning student-athletes.

Despite trust being associated with a range of favorable outcomes across high-performing team contexts (e.g., enhanced satisfaction, performance), efforts to investigate the meaning of trust in sport remain limited. The purpose of this study was to explore (a) how athletes experience trust, (b) why it is needed within sport teams (e.g., beneficial outcomes), and (c) the mechanisms of trust development. Canadian U Sports athletes (N = 13) were recruited to participate in individual semistructured interviews, which were analyzed using a critical realist approach to reflexive thematic analysis. Athletes positioned vulnerability as an important consideration for trust, which was influenced by precursors (i.e., motive and risk) and facilitators (i.e., one's willingness to trust, perceptions of trustworthiness, and environmental affordances). Based on the outcome of trusting another person (i.e., individual- and team-level benefits or drawbacks), the relationship was either reinforced or undermined. Both theoretical and practical advancements to the field are provided.

Many adults worldwide do not meet current physical activity (PA) guidelines. Mental fatigue decreases the likelihood of choosing to engage in PA. Message framing may enhance PA motivation when fatigued. We examined the effects of mental fatigue and message framing on PA motivation with additional focus on the messaging "congruency effect." Three hundred and twenty undergraduates completed measures of dispositional motivational orientation and were exposed to either gain-framed or loss-framed messages before completing an effort discounting questionnaire. Results showed lower motivation to engage in PA of higher intensities and longer durations. Direct effects of message framing on PA motivation were not significant. Interaction effects revealed that participants receiving messages congruent with their dominant motivational orientation showed increased motivation for light-intensity PA and decreased motivation for vigorous-intensity PA as mental fatigue increased. Findings suggest that providing messages congruent with one's dominant motivational orientation may increase motivation for engaging in light-intensity PA when fatigued.

The aim of the study was to modify the Amotivation Toward Exercise Scale-2 by dropping the outcome amotivation beliefs subscale while retaining the capacity, effort, value, and task characteristics amotivation beliefs. Data from 515 Greek nonexerciser adults aged 19-64 years and 399 Greek nonexerciser older adults aged 65-82 years, men and women, supported the latent four-factor structure of the Revised Amotivation Toward Exercise Scale-2 scores within each sample separately. The hierarchical model was also supported. Measurement invariance of Revised Amotivation Toward Exercise Scale-2 scores was supported across groups of gender, age, body mass index, and educational levels within adults and older adults. Configural measurement invariance supported a replicable factor structure across adults and older adults. Metric and strong invariance was supported across middle-aged and older adults but not between younger and older adults. Full measurement invariance was supported between younger and middle-aged adults.

Control beliefs are adaptive for athletes coping with significant obstacles to sport. Our study tested whether the effects of setback-related primary (PC) and secondary control (SC) on adaptive sport-related outcomes were mediated via setback rumination in collegiate athletes. We recruited 200 collegiate athletes using Prolific, from both Canada and the United States of America (Mage = 22.3 years; 125 women, 69 men, five nonbinary individuals, and one nonresponse). We used structural equation modelling to test direct paths from Time 1 PC and SC and rumination to Time 2 competition anxiety and sport commitment and test indirect paths of PC and SC to the outcomes through rumination. Findings revealed PC directly increased sport commitment, and through higher rumination, PC predicted higher competition anxiety. Athletes' SC predicted lower competition anxiety via lower rumination. We discuss the implications of these findings for athletes managing significant sport setbacks and for sport personnel supporting athletes.

Athlete burnout is conceptualized as an enduring multidimensional syndrome, and longitudinal research is essential to understanding its development over time. However, much of the existing work has been limited to a small number of timepoints (≤3) or short intervals between waves (≤3 weeks), which fail to account for the chronic and complex nature of the syndrome. This study aimed to address these limitations by tracking burnout in adult athletes at 6 timepoints over a 21-month period for the first time. Data from 207 Gaelic games athletes were included in latent growth analysis to compare burnout trajectories of increasing complexity. A linear model best described all burnout symptoms. On average over the 21-month period, feelings of exhaustion declined, sport devaluation increased, and reduced accomplishment remained stable. Findings provide important insight into potential high-risk periods in the season and can help to inform targeted intervention or prevention efforts.

Members of swimming relays often show effort gains in relays (i.e., more effort and faster swimming times in the relay vs. the individual competition). The weakest relay members typically exhibit the most pronounced effort gains. However, the underlying psychological processes are unclear. Prior research suggests social comparisons with stronger fellow relay members, perceived social indispensability, or a combination of both processes as plausible mediators. In Study 1, using linear mixed model and regression analyses on N = 239 observations from 222 elite U.S. college swimmers, we found empirical support only for the social indispensability hypothesis. Study 2, a survey among N = 46 German national team swimmers, substantiated the results, because the athletes most often mentioned processes related to social indispensability as motivating them. Our findings offer theoretical conclusions for expectancy × value models on team member effort expenditure and practical implications for coaching and selecting the weakest members for swimming relays.

Quiet eye (QE), the visual fixation on a target before initiation of a critical action, is associated with improved performance. While QE is trainable, it is unclear whether QE can directly predict performance, which has implications for training interventions. This study predicted basketball shot outcome (make or miss) from visuomotor control variables using a decision tree classification approach. Twelve basketball athletes completed 200 shots from six on-court locations while wearing mobile eye-tracking glasses. Training and testing data sets were used for modeling eight predictors (shot location, arm extension time, and absolute and relative QE onset, offset, and duration) via standard and conditional inference decision trees and random forests. On average, the trees predicted over 66% of makes and over 50% of misses. The main predictor, relative QE duration, indicated success for durations over 18.4% (range: 14.5%-22.0%). Training to prolong QE duration beyond 18% may enhance shot success.

The study analyzed the gaze behavior and decision-making performance of 20 soccer assistant referees while judging offside events. Specifically, gaze behaviors, gaze entropy, and estimated quiet eye (eQE; defined as the last fixation prior to the attacker's ball pass) characteristics (i.e., location, onset, offset, and duration) were analyzed in relation to decision-making accuracy. Although a significant number of fixations were observed on the offside line, the highest viewing time corresponded to the ball carrier. The gaze behavior indicated a high distribution of fixations, as evidenced by high stationary gaze entropy (>90%). The assistant referees also distinguished offside from onside positions above chance. However, they displayed nonprolonged eQE on the offside line. As a result, no significant relationships were found between the eQE characteristics and decision-making accuracy. The study concludes that the absence of more functional gaze behaviors, specifically with longer eQE focused on the offside line, impaired the decision-making accuracy of nonexpert assistant referees in soccer.

Which opponent player to sequentially serve to in beach volleyball is crucial given the advantage of the attacking team. The sequential choice theory was tested in three studies by analyzing allocation strategies based on the hot hand belief. Study 1 showed strong belief in the hot hand of national coaches. In Study 2, we analyzed Tokyo Olympics data to explore how base rates and sequential selection rates varied in an elite sample. When base rates of players differed by 0.25, low-performing players were frequently selected. In an experiment with elite athletes, Study 3A demonstrated accurate base-rate-difference recognition but low base-rate-change recognition. Study 3B found that the hot hand is believed to be important but is not often detected. We conclude that players and coaches follow predictions of the sequential choice theory and believe in the hot hand, but do not have a shared understanding of how to use it.

Adopting both a self-determination theory perspective and a proactive, asset-oriented approach to coping with stressors, we propose a hypothesized model to explain physical education students' year-long development of course-specific grit-perseverance (Study 1) and mental toughness (Study 2). In both studies, we used a randomized controlled trial research design with longitudinally assessed dependent measures (four waves) to test a hypothesized model in which teacher participation in an autonomy-supportive teaching workshop (experimental condition) would increase students' T2 perceived autonomy-supportive teaching and T2 perceived autonomy-supportive classmates, both of which would increase T3 need satisfaction, which would then explain longitudinal gains in students' T4 grit-perseverance (Study 1) and mental toughness (Study 2). In both Study 1 (57 teachers, 3,147 students) and Study 2 (38 teachers, 2,057 students), a multilevel structural equation modeling analysis showed that the hypothesized model fit the data very well. We conclude that the developmental roots of grit-perseverance and mental toughness can emerge proactively out of the asset-oriented experiences of interpersonal support and psychological need satisfaction that are central to self-determination theory.

We investigated the role of saccades and microsaccades when different levels of basketball players were engaged in an ecological free-throw condition. All participants made more correct than incorrect shoots, with a movement time initiation shorter in amateurs than in near-expert groups. Near-experts had more stable gaze fixation than amateurs, with higher microsaccade rate and duration and lower peak velocity. Amateurs showed higher saccade rate, peak velocity, and amplitude than near-experts. The temporal sequence of near-experts' microsaccade rate increased after the saccade peak; on the contrary, in amateurs, the saccade peak is shown after the decrement in microsaccade rates. The spatiotemporal characteristics of microsaccades and saccades may reflect an optimal sampling method by which the brain discretely acquires visual information and can differentiate between participants who use a fixation before the critical movement time and participants who move their eyes to catch more visual cues to make decisions.