The interplay between motivation, well-being, and character development in sport: Implications for responsible citizenship

For those who love sport for its own sake or look to this institution and life domain for its functional value, there are assumptions and aspirations regarding sport's potential for adding something to people's lives and society at large. This chapter explores the quality of the sport experience as a possible antecedent to civic engagement. One major premise is that sport can play a role in contributing to civic responsibility when the sport participation is linked to enhanced well-being and positive moral functioning among those involved. A corresponding thesis is that the character building and welfare promoting promise of sport is dependent on the motivational processes underlying participation. That is, the reason(s) why individuals partake in sport and the manner in which they judge their competence and interpret their goals are fundamental to understanding variability in the psychological, emotional, and society-related consequences of sport involvement. Within this treatise, we also argue that the social environments created by significant others (such as the coach) shape the motivation and optimal functioning of participants operating within such environments. Thus, these environments hold implications for the correspondence between sport engagement and the development of responsible citizenship.