people define and evaluate themselves in terms of the groups to which they belong (Hogg & Abrams, 2001). It has been defined as “that part of an individual’s self-concept which derives from his/her knowledge of his/her membership of a social group (or groups) together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership” (Tajfel, 1981). Social identity is conceptualized as having three main dimensions namely, cognitive centrality (importance of being a group member); ingroup affect (positive feelings associated with group membership); and ingroup ties (perceptions of bonding, belongingness and similarity with other group members) (Cameron, 2004).
In the studies, the participants were encouraged to reflect on how they felt about their team, team mates and the sports club environment in general (Bruner et al., 2014; Rutten et al., 2008). They also used hypothetical scenarios to identify if the participants had engaged in that kind of prosocial or antisocial behaviour towards teammates or opponents (Bruner et al., 2014). In addition, they also indicated the normative expectations, manners, communication, and possibilities for participation in the team (Rutten et al.,2008).
The findings of these studies confirmed the important role teammates and the team atmosphere in shaping behaviours of athletes. Athletes who reported deeper feelings and attachment with being in their team reportedly engaged more frequently in prosocial behaviours toward their teammates such as offering constructive feedback or encouraging (Bruner et al., 2014). These findings were in line with the Social identity theory. In addition, the perceptions of how well the team functions and works collectively toward its goals (i.e., task cohesion) and sociomoral reasoning was found to be a significant factor that could explain the influence of team-membership on prosocial behaviour toward teammates and antisocial behaviour toward teammates and opponents (Bruner et al., 2014; Rutten et al., 2007).
However a surprising finding in contrary to previous studies was that young athl