Relationships Among Personality, Perfectionism and Dispositional Flow in Athletes: A Partial Least Square Path Modeling Approach

Understanding which psychological traits promote a flow state is crucial in the sport environment. This study aimed to examine whether personality and perfectionism among athletes were associated with the experience of dispositional flow. A sample of 216 athletes (Mage = 25.30; SD = 8.67; 129 men) completed self-report measures. Results of the partial least squares path modeling approach showed that extraversion was significantly positively associated with challenge skill balance, awareness, merging of action, clear goals, loss of self-consciousness, unambiguous feedback, and transformation of time. In addition, agreeableness was significantly negatively associated with sense of control. Besides, conscientiousness was significantly negatively associated with sense of control, clear goals, and autotelic experience. Finally, emotional stability was significantly positively associated with the transformation of time. In conclusion, it is important to highlight the influence of personality in the flow experience, which may hinder the performance of those athletes who have not developed certain personality traits. Also, it is noteworthy that extraversion is among the most salient personality variables in relation to flow. This has practical psychological implications for developing healthy environments and for identifying risk profiles that endanger well-being and performance among athletes.