Relation of Self-Determination Theory with Participation and Perfectionism Athletes: Moderating Role of Creativity

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between self-determination theory and participation and perfectionism with the moderating role of creativity in athletes of Urmia city.

The current research work was applied, and descriptive-survey and field research. The statistical population was the volleyball athletes of Urmia city, which in 2022-2023 equaled 1216 people. A statistical sample of 293 people was selected by the multi-stage cluster random method. Questionnaire research instrumentations; perfectionism (Gutwalls and Dunn, 2009), creativity (Di Lillo and Houghton, 2008), participation (Lonsdale, Hodge and Jackson, 2007), autonomy (provision of basic needs) (Lonsdale and Hodge, 2011), and failure to provide basic needs in sports (Bartholomew et al., 2011) they were. Reliability of questionnaires with Cronbach's alpha, respectively, were 0.75, 0.79, 0.76, 0.98, 0.79 were estimated. Data analysis by structural equation modeling method with the softwares SPSS V25 and Smart-PLS3.2.8 were performed.

The research results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between need fulfillment and lack of need fulfillment with participation and perfectionism in athletes, and there is a positive and significant relationship between creativity and participation in athletes, but between creativity and perfectionism, there is no significant relationship. Also creativity plays a moderating role in the relationship between meeting needs and not meeting needs with participation in sports, but it does not play a moderating role in the relationship between meeting needs and not meeting needs with perfectionism in sports.

By paying attention to providing basic needs and also providing conditions for the flourishing of creativity of volleyball players, it is possible to improve their level of perfectionism and sports participation.