Do it for the team: Youth perceptions of cohesion and role commitment in interdependent sport.

Role commitment, defined as “a dynamic and volitional psychological bond reflected in the dedication to and responsibility for one’s role” (Eys et al., 2020, p. 91), is suggested to be a critical perception contributing to sport group functioning (Carron & Eys, 2012). As such, understanding what facilitates athletes’ commitment to their role responsibilities is important in a performance context. Across two studies, the present work sought to examine if (a) cohesion serves as a potential antecedent of the affective, normative, and continuance bases of role commitment, (b) the bases of role commitment subsequently relate to direct perceptions of role commitment, and (c) role commitment is associated with intentions to return. Youth team sport athletes from Canada (n = 187; Study 1) and Spain (n = 419; Study 2) completed surveys at two time points in their seasons. In Studies 1 and 2, cohesion perceptions at Time 1 positively predicted affective and normative bases of role commitment at Time 2. Further, affective and normative bases of role commitment were positively correlated with direct role commitment perceptions. Finally, in Study 2, role commitment was positively associated with intentions to return. This research project demonstrates that one way to promote role commitment may be to emphasize and enhance the social relationships among team members and the team’s unity toward achieving its goals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)