Addiction, satisfaction, perception and beliefs about the causes of success in Spanish masters athletes

The aim of this study was to know the addiction to training and the relationship between this and the intrinsic satisfaction, perceptions and beliefs about the causes of success in their sport in a heterogeneous sample of 401 Spanish master athletes (over 35 years of age) who completed the questionnaire electronically. Also, get sufficiently robust predictive models, by sex, of their addiction according to these psychological variables. On one hand, it was found that addiction to training was moderate in men and women, and being cause from different causes than in other populations of athletes. On the other, that it was predicted by high ego orientation and/or low task orientation. In addition, each of the less desirable subscales of addiction (tolerance, lack of control and abstinence and craving), although with significant differences by sex, were usually predicted by the also less desirable subscales of intrinsic satisfaction, perception and beliefs on the causes for success. By contrast, the most desirable subscale of addiction (pleasure and relaxation), although predicted by the most desirable and positive subscale of intrinsic satisfaction (fun), there was no gender matching in the prediction by the subscales of perceived beliefs on the causes for success. These data, taken all-together, indicates that their training addiction should be treated fostering task orientation and fun, while trying to reduce as far much as possible ego orientation.