<![CDATA[The high dropout rate among female athletes during adolescence constitutes a systemic crisis in competitive sports. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of an intervention based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) in increasing retention intentions among female table tennis athletes in Indonesia. A quasi-experimental method employing a matching-only pretest-posttest control group design was used with 50 female table tennis athletes (25 in the experimental group receiving the SDT intervention and 25 in the control group receiving conventional training). Retention data were collected via questionnaires. Data analysis involved a paired samples t-test to assess within-group improvement significance, alongside an independent samples t-test and N-gain score analysis to evaluate mean differences and the effect size of the intervention's effectiveness between groups. Results indicated no significant difference in baseline conditions between the two groups (t = 1.854; p = 0.082). Following the intervention, both the experimental and control groups demonstrated significant increases in retention . Effect size analysis revealed that the SDT intervention group achieved a mean N-Gain of 0.5289, which was statistically significantly higher than the control group's mean N-Gain of 0.3115 (t = 3.699; p = 0.002). Upon verifying the distribution of effectiveness within the N-Gain data, it is concluded that the SDT-based intervention yielded a statistically more significant effect size compared to conventional methods. The SDT approach is convincingly more effective at enhancing retention intentions among female table tennis athletes in West Java.]]>
