5.4.3: Satisfaction with Sport Participation

The satisfaction that one gets when participating in sporting activities, whether as an individual or as part of a team, is an important part of good mental and physical well-being. However, some studies suggest that the rate of disorders such as depression and anxiety might be similar or even higher in athletes compared to nonathletes (Gouttebarge et al. 2019; Gorczynski et al. 2017; Moesch et al. 2018, Moore et al. 2025). One study sought to investigate how success, personality, emotional competence, and sport type (team or individual) are associated with sports satisfaction (Lepir and Lakić 2025).

The study was conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Athletes were contacted and surveyed through various organizations such as clubs, associations, and official competitions. Athletes were also contacted through high school and collegiate educational institutions. The survey was implemented with informed consent and the participants in the study were guaranteed anonymity. A total of 277 athletes participated in the study, of which 41% were female. The participants were an average age of 21.6 years old, with the youngest and oldest athletes being 15 and 39 years old, respectively. The participating athletes represented 16 different sports, including six team sports and ten individual sports. Participants were required to have a minimum of two years of active involvement in their sport, and regular participation in competitions at least at the regional level. The athletes were categorized into three success levels based on their competition level over the past year.

No gender differences were observed in terms of sports satisfaction. The researchers indicated that this conclusion is consistent with findings from previous studies from the 20 years preceding their study and gave several examples of previous research (Baudin et al. 2011; Bebetsos and Theodorakis 2003; Polman et al. 2007). One interesting result from the study was that athletes competing at the lowest and highest

levels expressed greater satisfaction than those competing at the middle level. The researchers hypothesized that athletes at the lowest level were either at the beginning of their careers or were those who participated in the sport as a recreational activity. In either case, these participants could have been under less pressure to perform. In contrast, those at the highest level have established themselves as successful athletes. Participants at the middle level may have found it difficult to reach that level and are finding it difficult to transition to the highest level, which may contribute to lower levels of satisfaction.

The type of sport played is also associated with differences in satisfaction, though the forms of the associations were complicated by the fact that they interacted with some of the other factors studied. Because of this complexity, we will not discuss these findings here. Regarding individual personality traits, the researchers found that conscientiousness and agreeableness were strongly associated with satisfaction, while extraversion (outgoingness associated with individuals who enjoy social interaction and external stimulation) and neuroticism (anxiety and self-doubt) had weaker associations with satisfaction. The researchers reported surprising results concerning openness. For individual athletes, there was a positive association between openness and satisfaction, meaning that more open individuals tended to have higher levels of satisfaction while for team athletes, the association was the opposite. Researchers also found that the ability of an individual to perceive and understand emotions was very weakly associated with sport satisfaction, while the ability to express and label emotions had a stronger association with sports satisfaction. The associations differed for the ability of an individual to manage and regulate emotions, with a strong association observed for individual athletes and a weak association for team athletes.

To measure the abstract ideas contained in this study such as satisfaction, personality traits, and emotional skills and competencies, the researchers used established measures developed by previous research. To measure an individual’s satisfaction with their participation in their sport, the Athletic Satisfaction Questionnaire was used (Riemer and Chelladurai 1998). This questionnaire measures sport satisfaction using fifteen ideas about what constitutes satisfaction in sports. The researchers found that some of these ideas were not relevant for the individuals in the study, and therefore the researchers used eight of these ideas, including such concepts as strategy, personal dedication, and individual performance. Each of these concepts was associated with specific questions in the survey. Additionally, the researchers developed two new concepts that measured support from family and friends and support from sport club management. Combining the relevant questions created a survey of 34 questions that measured 10 concepts. Because this survey changed an existing method, the authors used standard statistical techniques to conclude that the results were still statistically valid.

To measure personality traits, the authors used another standard questionnaire known as the “Big Five Inventory” or BFI (John et al. 1991). The BFI is a widely used self-reported personality trait questionnaire based on what is known as the Big Five model or the Five Factor Model (McCrae and John 1992). The questionnaire consists of 44 items covering five personality traits: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Using a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (disagree strongly) to 5 (agree strongly), the respondent evaluates how well a first-person-singular description applies to them. For example, a question might say, “I see myself as someone who worries a lot.” The aggregated score within each trait provides a measure of how strong that trait is in the individual. Once again, this is a well-known method for measuring personality traits that has been statistically validated and tested.

The “Emotional Skills and Competence Questionnaire” or ESCQ45 (Takšić et al. 2009) is a questionnaire based on the model that assesses three emotional competences: perceiving and understanding, expressing and labelling, and managing and regulating emotions (Mayer and Salovey 1997). Respondents use a five-point Likert scale (rated from never, scored as 1, to always, scored as 5) to assesses the extent to which each of the 45 statements corresponds to their personality. For example, one statement says, “When I see how someone feels, I usually know what has happened to him.” Once again, the original data is ordinal, but this particular questionnaire has been statistically studied and the calculations used by the researchers appear to be valid.