Performance motivation of intact competitive and elite athletes and elite athletes with

Abstract

This paper highlights the findings on performance motivation in athletes. It examines differences along three dimensions across two categories of individuals divided by their respective sports performance. The research population consisted of 73 respondents, represented by intact competitive and elite athletes (n=66) and athletes with disabilities (n=7). The primary method of data collection was a standardized performance motivation questionnaire (D-M-V), which was distributed to athletes in the age range of 18 to 35 years. The dimensions in which we looked for significant differences were performance motivation, performance-promoting anxiety, and performance-hindering anxiety. We found statistically significant differences between groups of athletes at the 5% level in two dimensions, namely performance motivation (U=100, p=0.014) in favour of intact competitive and elite athletes and performance inhibiting anxiosis (U=127, p=0.05) in favour of poorer performance in athletes with disabilities. We did not observe statistically significant differences between intact athletes and athletes with disabilities in the other examined dimensions and levels of sports performance.