Personality and Motivation for Participation in Sport: Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation

In this research we examined the mediational role of emotion regulation in the relationship between personality traits and motivation for participation in sport in employees. In this cross-sectional study, 261 employees of Oil Company (98 male) participated and completed questionnaires of big five factors of personality (Costa and McGree, 1989), cognitive emotion regulation (Garnowski and Craig, 2006) and motivation for sport participation (Gill et al., 1983). Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling. The results indicate that extraversion and openness, in addition to having a direct effect on the motivation of sports participation, indirectly affect the motivation of sports participation through the mediating role of emotion regulation strategies. Agreeableness was also positively related to motivation for participation in sport via increased adaptive emotion regulation/decreased maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. Finally, neuroticism was positively related to motivation for participation in sport, through increased maladaptive emotion regulation/decreased adaptive emotion regulation strategies. The study reveled the mediational role of emotion regulation for personality traits and their association with motivation for participation in sport in employees.