Bullying in professional sports: psychological needs of athletes.

Background: This paper aimed to establish whether bullying in sports affects the satisfaction of such psychological needs as autonomy, competence, and relatedness in professional sports.

Methods: The instruments in this work were the Bullying Participant Behaviors Questionnaire (BPBQ), the Motivational Mediators Scale in Sport (EMMD), and the Psychological Needs Thwarting Scale (PNTS). The participants were 708 professional athletes.