INVESTIGATING THE DYNAMICS OF ATHLETE SATISFACTION IN RELATION TO DIFFERENT PERFORMANCE LEVELS

Self-satisfaction is a process of effecting satisfying adaptation to one’s environment and thereby facilitating a self-satisfied person to act wisely in his surroundings. Since an athlete’s involvement is central to all athletic programs and endeavors, his satisfaction has both theoretical and practical implications relating to his performance outcomes. The present investigation was, therefore, undertaken to explore the level of self-satisfaction among hockey players participating at international, national and state levels. Subjects selected for the present study (N=120) were administered the Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire (Riemer and Chelladurai, 2000). Analysis of variance (3x2 factorial design) was used to compare the three performance levels and gender groups. Mean and SD values were calculated and post-hoc test was also applied to find out the direction of differences among these groups. The results revealed that the international players had significantly higher level of self-satisfaction as compared to the state and national players with regard to all the studied facets of athlete satisfaction. Even the national players have exhibited significantly better self- satisfaction than state players on the indices Ability Utilization, Budget, Medical Personnel, Academic Support and External Agents. Gender differences were noticed only on Team Performance indice. These results suggest that the players at lower rank were not as satisfied with the available facilities and the sporting environment as were the players participating at higher level. If the talent is to be nurtured the grass root level players have to be looked after equally well and given due attention by providing requisite facilities and opportunities conducive to their growth.