Autonomous forms of motivation underpinning injury prevention and rehabilitation among police officers: An application of the trans-contextual model

Abstract

The present study applied the trans-contextual model (TCM) to understand the motivational processes underpinning workers’ injury prevention and rehabilitation intentions and behavior. Full-time police officers (N = 207; M age = 37.24, SD = 9.93) completed questionnaire measures of the TCM variables. Covariance-based SEM for the full sample revealed that the effect of autonomy support from supervisor on autonomous motivation for injury prevention (M-injury) was fully mediated by autonomous work motivation (M-work), and the effect of M-injury on intention was fully mediated by attitude and subjective norm. Variance-based SEM for the 87 participants who had recent occupational injury showed that the effect of autonomy support from supervisor on autonomous treatment motivation (M-treatment) was partially mediated by M-work, and the effect of perceived autonomy support from physician on treatment adherence was fully mediated by M-treatment. There was no effect of treatment adherence on recovery length. Findings support the motivational sequence of the TCM in an occupational context.