INTRODUCTION

The world basketball has undergone great changes in the last years, with changes and evolutions in training to adapt to the specific requirements of the modality, mainly the ones related to tactical, technical and physical preparation (^{De Rose Júnior & Tricoli, 2005}).

In conjunction with the development of these characteristics, the psychological factor is central to the planning process as, in each one of those phases, the psychological requirements increase exponentially, and ^{Balaguer (2001}) pointed out that the psychological development in the sports training should be done from the initiation phase until the higher athletic performance. In this sense, ^{Álvarez, Balaguer, Castillo and Duda (2009}) point out many psychological features in each one of these training phases, and they suggest the need to develop these characteristics with physical, technical and tactical skills since the initiation in sports, with adequate support, specially about the motivational matters.

Motivation is considered a key element in the sports context, as it is an important link in the adhesion and maintenance to these programs, although its understanding is not always a simple task, because it is intimately linked to personal and environmental factors in an active, purposeful and directed process (^{Samulski, 1995}). For ^{Weinberg and Gould (1999}) the motivation for the sports practice depends on the interaction between the personality (expectations, reasons, needs, and interests) and environmental factors (ability, attractive tasks, challenges, and social influences). During life, the importance of personal and situational factors could change depending on the needs and opportunities that may happen.

One of the most studied theories in the sports context is the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) created by ^{Deci and Ryan (1985}), which is constituted of six microtheories: a) Cognitive Evaluation Theory; b) Organismic Integration Theory; c) Causality Orientation Theory; d) Goals Content Theory; e) Motivation and Relatedness Theory; f) Basic Psychological Needs Theory. Cognitive Evaluation Theory describes the processes in which social environments influence intrinsic motivation, high-quality performance, and well-being. On the other hand, the Organismic Integration Theory deals with the inherent tendencies of the internalization and social integration, cultural regulations and the social context factors that promote the internalization and integration. The individual differences that represent the developmental outcomes of the person`s interaction with the social environment over time are described by the Causality Orientation Theory. This mini theory presents three types of orientation: 1) Autonomous orientation, related to interests and values; 2) Controlled orientation, related to social controls and reward contingencies; 3) Impersonal orientation, related to behaviors without intentional orientation, with lack of control and perception of lack of competence. The Goals Content Theory is related to intrinsic aspirations with personal growth, meaningful relationships, community contributions and extrinsic aspirations, aiming at material rewards, fame, status and social recognition or avoiding punishment, guilt and shame. Motivation and Relatedness Theory, consisting in interconnecting the needs of relationship and autonomy and its synergism in truly responsive and mutually satisfying relationships; At last, the Basic Psychological Needs Theory, with the promotion of autonomy, competence, relatedness, with support for well-being, vitality, humor and health Ryan e Deci (2017).

Among all the micro-theories of TAD, the Basic Psychological Needs one tries to identify how people do activities on their own will, generating well-being, autonomous involvement in the activity and intrinsic motivation. However, to have a higher level of intrinsic motivation (considered a high-quality motivation), it is needed to satisfy three basic psychologic needs: Autonomy (self-government), Competence (perception and feel able to do something) and Social relatedness (building of affective relationships) (^{Ryan & Deci, 2000}a). Autonomy is directly related to the individual's own will to act, organize and perform the activity. The competence would be the adaptation to the environment to reach the desired results and to search challenges that are near to the level of his personal skills. The third psychological need, relatedness, is linked to the need to belong to a group or is also defined as the act to establish bonds or relationships (^{Ryan & Deci, 2000a}).

To ^{Ryan and Deci (2007}a), the self-determination theory could be divided in three large dimensions (intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and amotivation). In the intrinsic motivation the person begins the activity by her/his own will, interested in knowing it, generating commitment, satisfaction and sense of well-being. In the extrinsic motivation there is involvement in the activity, but it depends on external factors, with controlled actions, not often of their own will, although they help the person to keep higher index of motivation. Amotivation occurs when the person has no perception or identification about the importance of performing such practice.

According to ^{Ryan and Deci (2007}b), when an individual finds satisfaction, pleasure and enthusiasm in the activity, one can say that he/she is intrinsically motivated because he/she finds enjoyment without needing reinforcement or external rewards. Theoretically, intrinsic motivation could be divided into the following dimensions: a) Intrinsic motivation to Know (IM-K), related to personal factors linked to curiosity and search for understanding that the individual would like to have about the activity; b) Intrinsic motivation to Accomplish (IM-AC), related to personal factors, in which the athlete has pleasure in search of new skills and movements in the sports modality; c) Intrinsic motivation to Experience Stimulation (IM-ES), linked to personal factors leading the athlete to search in the sport challenging experiences that could cause excitement, pleasure and entertainment (^{Costa et al., 2011}; ^{Filho et al., 2011}; ^{Pelletier et al., 1995}).

However, some individuals tend to be involved in activities driven by external influences, and are, therefore, extrinsically motivated. Extrinsic motivation has the following dimensions: a) External regulation (extrinsic motivation) (EM-ER), related to external factors linked to rewards for good performance, as awards or financial achievement, and even achieving status with the teacher or group; b) Introjected regulation (extrinsic motivation) (EM-I), related to internal pressures that the individual has, constraints or shame to be involved in defective situations or that do not reach the best performance; c) Identified regulation (extrinsic motivation) (EM-ID), when the individual participates actively in sports because he/she believes that this helps him/her to grow personally (^{Ryan & Deci, 2007}b).

Amotivation is defined as the absence of motivation or demotivation (AM) and is characterized by the feeling of hopelessness in which nor extrinsic or intrinsic motivation affect the athlete`s performance, who does not feel like to continue practicing the modality (^{Ryan & Deci, 2007}b).

The self-determined motivation helps to develop the sense of well-being when the basic psychological needs are adequately met. Nevertheless, this theory is not based only on the social factors of the environment, but also in many variables, such the parental encouragement and how teachers manage their classes (^{Ryan & Deci, 2000}b). Parents are responsible for presenting sports to children and provide the resources for engaging their children in sport. In this sense, parents mold children`s sports experiences and contribute to motivation which can favor positive experiences of children in sports. <sup>Ouwehand and De Ridder (2008</sup>) consider that there is a relationship between parental support style, psychological well-being, success in sports and self-esteem development and satisfaction with life. To these same authors, parents have a significant influence in their children`s psychological development, as well as a critical role in their motivation, as much positively or negatively (^{Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998}; ^{Marholz, 2017}). To ^{McCarthy and Jones (2007}), children report an increase in pleasure when they perceive that their parents are positively involved and satisfied with their participation in sports. On the other hand, children report an increase in anxiety when their parents are incredibly engaged and have high expectations, and put pressure regarding the sports tasks.

According to ^{Arrindell et al. (1994}), parental styles could be split into: a) emotional support, defined as a series of parental behaviors providing to the children the sense of comfort and the confidence that they are approved as a person by their parents; b) overprotection, characterized by a behavior excessively concerned and leading to stress, interference in the child`s activities and higher standards of achievement, and imposition of strict rules; c) rejection, understood as behaviors intending to change the child`s will.

Besides parenting and teachers support, various psychological constructs could be related to motivation, and the effects of these constructs on motivation should be understood since motivation is linked to the future intention of practice in sports programs. In this sense, another psychological construct related to motivation is self-esteem. To ^{León, Boix, Serrano, and Paredes (2017}) and ^{Moreno-Murcia, Silva, Pardo, Rodriguez, and Hernandez (2012}) motivation contributes positively to the self-esteem of practitioners of physical activity and sports, since the higher the self-esteem, the higher the practitioner`s motivation. ^{Campillo, Zafra, and Redondo (2008}) also consider that sports could contribute to developing self-esteem, which could be defined as perceptions, thoughts, assessments, and feelings that direct to behaviors trends.

Another relationship that can be made with motivation is life satisfaction, which is characterized as an emotional and cognitive component that along with self-esteem accounts for the sense of well-being (^{Torregrosa, Belando, & Moreno-Murcia, 2014}). According to ^{Balaguer, Castillo, and Duda (2008}), life satisfaction contributes to the general psychological well-being, to the development of autonomy, to the decision making, and to the self-determined motivation. According to ^{da Silva and Rosado (2014}), life satisfaction is acquired through the sports practice and physical exercise, because when they are done regularly, and in a balanced way they contribute to the health`s improvement and to the life satisfaction.

Therefore, psychological aspects and parental support can influence participation and sports practice during childhood and adolescence and, in this sense, the association between different psychological constructs, parental style and self-determined behavior may allow a better understanding of the complexity of this phenomenon, in turn, can contribute to the development of children and adolescents in the early stages of sports practice. In this respect, the objective of this study was to verify the correlation between self-determined motivation and several psychological constructs, as parenting behavior, basic psychological needs, self-esteem and satisfaction with life within a female school basketball team.

METHOD

RESULTS

Table 1 presents means (M), standard deviations (SD) and total expected points for the dimensions collected by their related instruments.

Table 1. Means and standard deviation of the points get according to each variable collected. 

SD: Standard Deviation; TPD: total prewied for the dimension

In Table 2 there are positive and negative significative correlations identified among subdimensions, according to Pearson`s correlation (for those variables with normal distribution) and Spearman`s correlation for those variables that are not normal in its distribution. Results (r) are given according to the linear correlation coefficient, adopting significance level of (p<.05).

Table 2. Correlation of the dimensions with significative correlation 

^† Pearson´s Correlation Test

^# Correlation and Spearman;

^* p <.05;

^** p < .01

Table 2 shows significative correlation strengths (p<.05) among the variables (^{Dancey & Reidy, 2013}). The following dimensions were considered strong and positive correlations (r≥.7 e r≤.9): “Sports accompaniment from father x “Sports accompaniment from mother”; “Sports accompaniment from father” x “Sports support from father”; “Sports support from father” x “Sports accompaniment from mother”; “Sports support from father” x “Sports support from mother”; “Sports accompaniment from mother” x “Sports support from mother”; “Intrinsic motivation to accomplish” x “Extrinsic motivation for challenging experiences”.

The following dimensions were considered strong and negative correlations (r≥.7 and r≤.9): “Sports accompaniment from father” x “Self-esteem”; “Dissatisfaction from father with sports performance” x “Intrinsic motivation to accomplish”; “Technical influence from father” x “Dissatisfaction from mother with sports performance”; “Introjected regulation” x “Sports support from mother”; “Introjected regulation” x “Sports accompaniment from mother”; “Introjected regulation” x “Sports support from father”; “Introjected regulation” x “Sports accompaniment from father”; ”Extrinsic motivation to accomplish” x “Competence”; “Intrinsic motivation to know” x “Identified regulation”.

The following dimensions were considered moderate and positive correlations (r≥.4 and r≤.6): “Sports accompaniment from father” x “Sports support from mother”, and “External regulation (extrinsic motivation)” x “Autonomy”. The only moderate and negative correlation was “Dissatisfaction from father with sports performance” x “Discouragement”. The other dimensions didn't show statistically relevant correlations (p>.05).

DISCUSSION

The literature consistently shows that motivation as a construct is one of the important aspects to be considered to understand the individual differences that might influence continuity or abandonment of sports practice (^{Dias & Teixeira, 2007}; ^{Fernandes & Vasconcelos-Raposo, 2005}; ^{Ryan & Deci, 2007a, 2007b}). In this study, it was possible to verify the relationship between self-determined motivation and different psychological constructs within a female basketball school team, that allows to a better understanding of the complexity of this phenomenon.

It was seen in this study the negative association between intrinsic motivation to accomplish and the perception of competence, suggesting that the athletes investigated could feel pleasure in searching learning/improvement of their skills when they are unsatisfied with their capability to make these actions. That fact can be reinforced by the positive association between intrinsic motivation to accomplish and intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation, which denotes that trying to improve the skills might give a sense of pleasure and entertainment.

It seems that practice and engagement in a specific modality are more pleasure and possibility of development-oriented (^{Zanetti, Lavoura, & Machado, 2008}). In this competitive level, the sport is an environment to be explored; it is an activity that gives pleasure and, notwithstanding, its involvement is related to intrinsic dimensions of motivation, which stimulates the practitioners to obtain new knowledge and to accomplish in the modality. Additionally, the search for enhancement and new skills through sports activities has the purpose of satisfying the competence (^{Vissoci, Vieira, Oliveira, & Vieira, 2008}).

Higher levels of intrinsic motivation might also be linked to more curiosity, and guiding for the task and not for the ego, and this can lead to the understanding that the child could be more oriented to personal skills already acquired, or that could be obtained, and not to the evaluation of his/her performance compared to other colleagues` results in order to prove his/her ability (^{Lochbaum, Kallinen, & Konttinen, 2017}).

Investigating junior volleyball players` orientation to the task, ^{Ferreira et al. (2015}) remark that the higher the focus on the task, the higher the confidence of the practitioner and, consequently, the positive performance. However, in a recent metanalysis, ^{Lochbaum et al. (2017}) suggest that in the child development process there is a trend of ego-orientation and consequent dropping out the sport. Furthermore, the authors propose to conduct more research to understand this phenomenon. Meanwhile, unlike other studies (^{Almagro & Conde, 2012}; ^{Balaguer, Castillo, & Duda, 2008}) there was no correlation between the satisfaction of basic psychological needs with other forms of self-determined motivation.

In this study, it was also observed that the accompanying from parents during the sports activities is related with the support to the children. The parenting influence seems to be an essential aspect in children`s sports practice, because parents foster their entrance, favors the continuation of the process through their involvement, give emotional support and manage sports, educational and social demands (^{Albuquerque, Costa, Samulski, & Noce, 2006}; ^{Almagro & Paramio-Pérez, 2017}; ^{Côté, 1999}; ^{Côté & Hay, 2002a}).

Additionally, the negative relationship found between the parenting influence dimensions and the introjected regulation could suggest that the accompanying and support from parents lead the athletes to have fewer constraints and to feel less pressured when they make a mistake or experience situations of sports underachievement.

Such results are reinforced by the recent systematic review made by ^{Coutinho, Mesquita, and Fonseca (2018}). According to the summary of the studies, the authors suggest that the support and accompaniment from parents could minimize the negative aspects of the sports practice. ^{Côté and Hay (2002}b) think that the family, mainly the parents, have a central role in the sports environment because of their influence on children`s or teenagers` life experiences.

Additionally, the negative relationship found between the parenting influence dimensions and the introjected regulation could suggest that the accompanying and support from parents lead the athletes to have fewer constraints and to feel less pressured when they make a mistake or experience situations of sports underachievement.

Also concerning the introjected regulation, the positive association with self-esteem indicates that the decision of conflictive impulses in the sports environment - resulting from internal pressures, as constraint and shame to fail - could strengthen self-esteem and give more resources to the individual to face these pressures. Summing up, sports activities could contribute positively to the self-esteem of women (^{Bowker, 2006}; ^{Richman & Shaffer, 2000}).

In contrast, it was also observed that self-esteem could be related inversely with the accompaniment from father. These data dissent from other studies in the literature (^{Mizoguchi, Balbim, & Vieira, 2013}; ^{Sapieja, Dunn, & Holt, 2011}), and a possible explication for this could be the fact that, in the sample evaluated, the damages to self-esteem result from the children`s doubt to manage to correspond to the father`s approval. So, parental support focused in results could promote an environment of strict rules and unrealistic expectations, weakening the children`s self-esteem (^{Gomes, 2010}; ^{Vilani & Samulski, 2002}).

In parallel, the father`s dissatisfaction with the sports performance of the child seems to influence negatively his/her motivation to search new skills, and the higher technical influence of the father leads to a lessen dissatisfaction of mother with the sports performance of the daughter. Studies conducted by ^{Gomes (2010}) and ^{Vasconcelos and Gomes (2015}) also reported this trend of technical and sports influence from father.

In the study of ^{Vasconcelos and Gomes (2015}), however, this influence seems to predominate among male individuals, what lead the authors to point out a trend of more involvement from father in the sports activity and to ascribe to mother the support role in the same activity. ^{Gomes (2010} highlights in his study that the fatherly figure has more involvement and influence in the sports activity, positive or negative, concluding that aspects as dissatisfaction with unfavorable performance and the type of technical influence that they have to the sports activity could be improved in the relatedness between parents and children.

In this study, the father dissatisfaction with the sports result seemed to negatively affect the intrinsic motivation to accomplish, although it could not generate amotivation. In line with this finding, ^{Mizoguchi et al. (2013}) also found correlations between amotivation, negative aspects of fatherly influence and extrinsic motivation when analyzing the relationship between motivation and the parental support with junior baseball players. Thus, an answer to this result, in this sample, could be the fact that the athletes presented reasons of extrinsic motivation, what might suggest a certain level of motivation as a means for attending to the parent`s expectations for the sports performance.

One possible limitation in the present study is the fact that the some scales were translated directly into Portuguese and did not go through a validation process, which could minimize semantic problems from the simplistic translation of the instrument.

Considering the potential links between motivation and different psychological constructs, it is important to think about the development and participation of children and teenagers in the sports context. However, it is advisable to conduct new studies to verify these and other psychological constructs in different age groups, with a larger population and time of accompaniment.

USES

The results of this study indicate that for children and teenagers athletes to have higher levels of intrinsic motivation (of high quality) it is essential that parents have a balanced behavior about the sports life. The support to the effort of these athletes should be valued so that psychological attributes - like the perception of competence, self-esteem and life satisfaction - could be developed and, consequently, lead to a higher intention to practice.