Top Highlights

• The satisfaction of these three BPNs explain individuals’ behavior along a motivational continuum, that goes from amotivation (no intention of behavior regulation or lack of willingness to act) at one end, passing through the controlled forms of motivation (external and introjected regulation), until the most self-determined forms of motivation (id...
• In this field, the self-determination theory (SDT; Deci and Ryan, 2000) and achievement goal theory (AGT; Nicholls, 1984) were considered the most comprehensive theoretical frameworks for understanding cognitive, behavioral, and emotional patterns associated with practitioners goals in sport contexts
• Several researches in the sport context have shown that athletes who perceive that their BPNs have been met, are able to better regulate their behavior in a more self-determined motivation (SDM), thereby achieving more positive consequences, such as lower dropout rates (Sarrazin et al., 2002) and increased well-being (Jowett et al., 2017)
• Still in line with this particular behavioral outcome, higher levels of SDM have shown positive associations with perceived effort, particularly when considering the influence of intrinsic motivation
• regarding environmental characteristics, autonomy-supportive behaviors by the teacher/coach have been associated with greater effort in several sport-related contexts and intentions to maintain future sports practice

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