Supporting ice hockey coaches to promote youth players’ need satisfaction and enjoyment: A digital booster–supplemented intervention

Abstract

Few intervention studies have combined in-person and digital components to facilitate coaches’ supportive interpersonal behaviors and promote positive youth outcomes. Grounded in self-determination theory (SDT), we examined whether a workshop, with or without smartphone-delivered boosters using a just-in-time adaptive intervention (JITAI) logic, improved players’ perceptions of need-supportive coaching, basic psychological need satisfaction, and enjoyment. Participants were 393 youth ice hockey players aged 12 to 16 years from 13 clubs whose coaches were allocated to a workshop-only (partial implementation), workshop plus digital boosters (full implementation), or control condition. Outcomes were assessed over 10 weeks and analyzed using multigroup multilevel growth models. Condition × time interactions showed that relatedness support was higher in both intervention arms compared with the control group. Only the partial-implementation group showed gains in autonomy support and autonomy satisfaction. No effects were observed for competence support, competence satisfaction, or enjoyment, and no significant differences emerged between the partial- and full-implementation groups. The findings highlight the potency of brief SDT-based youth coach interventions while underscoring the need for longer evaluation periods to determine whether JITAI digital boosters may help sustain or amplify intervention effects. Coaches participated in a two-hour, in-person workshop about supporting players’ motivation and well-being. Some coaches also received short messages and videos digitally before practices and games for eight weeks. Players whose coaches attended the workshop felt their coaches showed more care and personal interest, and when coaches only did the workshop, players also felt they had more say and choice. The extra digital messages did not add benefits beyond the workshop over 10 weeks. A two-hour need-supportive education program can facilitate youth players’ perceptions of their coaches as supportive of their needs for intrinsic motivation over a 10-week period.JITAI digital boosters are not “silver bullets”; to be effective, they may need to go beyond repetition and timing by customizing delivery content to coaches’ and teams’ realities.Longer delivery and follow-up strategies should be implemented to examine whether digital boosters can sustain or amplify long-term intervention effects. A two-hour need-supportive education program can facilitate youth players’ perceptions of their coaches as supportive of their needs for intrinsic motivation over a 10-week period. JITAI digital boosters are not “silver bullets”; to be effective, they may need to go beyond repetition and timing by customizing delivery content to coaches’ and teams’ realities. Longer delivery and follow-up strategies should be implemented to examine whether digital boosters can sustain or amplify long-term intervention effects.