Examining relationships between passion types, conflict and negative outcomes in masters athletes

This study examined the Dualistic Model of Passion [Vallerand, R. J., Blanchard, C. M., Mageau, G. A., Koestner, R., Ratelle, C. F., Léonard, M., … Marsolais, J. (2003). Les passions de l’âme: On obsessive and harmonious passion. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 85, 756–767. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.4.756] among a sample of 121 (M age = 53.4, SD = 11.3) international-level masters track and field athletes. Using cross-sectional survey responses, we tested relationships between obsessive passion (OP) and harmonious passion (HP) types and negative sport outcomes. Using indirect effect testing as well as tests for simple mediation effects, we further examined how conflict intervened in the manifestation of negative outcomes, for OP and HP, separately. Results showed that OP and HP had opposite relationships with conflict, and with negative outcomes. OP was directly associated with self-pressure, and indirectly associated with negative emotions, amotivation and intent to reduce involvement through its association with higher conflict. HP was inversely and directly associated with negative emotions, amotivation and intent to reduce involvement; however, no indirect associations via conflict were apparent. The findings illustrate the dualistic nature of passion in a competitive adult sport sample, and suggest that the negative impacts of OP may depend on whether a passionate sport activity is conflictually internalised to one's identity.