Abstract
Introduction
Enduring participation in sport is partly driven by psychological commitment. Athletes' preferences and attitudes are important to predicting their participation (Ajzen, 1991). Drawing from the literature regarding passion and goal-directed behaviours (Vallerand & Miquelon, 2007) and passion and involvement (Wilson & Potwarka, 2014), this study explores the connection between passion and collegiate athletes' psychological commitment to sport.
Method and Results
Collegiate athletes participating in team sports at four Canadian universities (n = 587) completed measures of passion (Vallerand et al., 2003) and psychological commitment to their sport (Kyle et al., 2007). Cluster analysis produced four equally-sized passion profiles comprised of combinations of high and low harmonious and obsessive passion. A one-way ANOVA suggested that commitment to sport differed between the segments, F (3, 574) = 52.14, p < .001. Commitment was highest when both types of passion were high (M = 5.75) and lowest when both types of passion were low (M = 3.07). However, those with high levels of harmonious passion and low levels of obsessive passion (M = 4.57) were no more committed to participation than those with low levels of harmonious passion and high levels of obsessive passion (M = 4.67).
Discussion
Both harmonious and obsessive passion play important roles in collegiate athletes' commitment to sport. This finding challenges previous research that has shed a negative light on obsessive passion (Wilson & Potwarka, 2015). Participatory attitudes such as commitment are linked with positive and negative aspects of passion.
