Why Grateful Adolescent Athletes are More Satisfied with their Life: The Mediating Role of Perceived Team Cohesion

Since the positive psychology was emerged in the past decade, positive constructs contribute to athlete’s well-being had received considerable attention in sport. However, the parent of all virtues, gratitude is rarely discussed in sport psychology, not to mentioned its psychological mechanisms. In this regard, the aim of current study was to investigate the relationship between adolescent athlete’s gratitude and life satisfaction. In addition, we proposed team cohesion to be a potential mediator based on reciprocally-altruistic relationships induced by gratitude. Three hundred adolescent athletes were recruited for the current study and they completed a set of questionnaire. Structure equation modeling was used to examine our hypothesis. It was found gratitude positive related to athlete’s life satisfaction. More important, we found team cohesion partially mediated the relationship between gratitude and athlete’s life satisfaction which supported our hypothesis. This study contribute to the literature by identifying the essential psychological process behind the relationship. Implications and applications were discussed in term of gratitude literature.