The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between goal orientation and perceptions of the motivational climate initiated by parents among female volleyball players. Female volleyball players (N=204), ranging in age from 14 to 17 years (age M = 15.40), participated in the study. All subjects completed the 36-item Parent-Initiated Motivational Climate Questionnaire (PIMCQ-2) and the 13-item Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ). Stepwise multiple regression analyses were used to determine the relationship between the predictor variables and goal orientation. Specifically, a climate where parents emphasized success without effort predicted ego orientation. Also, the results indicated that an individual’s perception of a climate fostered by parents that focused on learning/enjoyment predicted task orientation. Overall, results from this study indicated that female volleyball players’ perceptions of what their parents prefer and consider to be important in the learning of physical skills was related to dispositional goal orientation.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the combined effects of task- and ego-orientation on adolescents’ perceptions of the parent-initiated motivational climate and competitive trait anxiety. Participants were 279 male and female adolescents (mean age = 14.41 years) who competed on organized sport teams. Based on a mean split on the two TEOSQ subscales, four goal orientation profile groups were created: high-task/high-ego, high-task/low-ego, high-ego/low-task, and low-task/low-ego. MANOVA results indicated that the high-task/low-ego group perceived that both their mother and father endorsed a learning and enjoyment motivational climate. In contrast, the high-ego/low-task group thought their mother and father valued a climate where success was coupled with low effort. In this group, fathers were perceived to cause worry about making mistakes. This group experienced the highest levels of competitive trait anxiety. For the high-task/high-ego group it was found that fathers emphasized a climate where success was linked to low levels of exerted effort and mothers were perceived to cause worry about making mistakes. However, the high-task/high-ego group also believed that both parents still valued learning and enjoyment in the development of physical skills. Lastly, individuals in the low-task/low-ego group perceived mothers to make them afraid of making mistakes in the learning of skills.

The purposes of this study were to determine the relationship between goal orientations and beliefs about the causes of success among elite athletes and to examine the psychometric characteristics of the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ) in high-level competitive sport. Male and female intercollegiate skiers (N=143) completed the TEOSQ specific to skiing and a questionnaire assessing their perceptions of the determinants of success in skiing. Factor analysis of the TEOSQ revealed two independent subscales that demonstrated acceptable internal consistency. Task orientation was positively linked with the beliefs that skiing success is a result of hard work, superior ability, and selecting activities that one can perform successfully, and ego orientation to the beliefs that taking an illegal advantage, possessing high ability, selecting tasks that one can accomplish, and external variables are reasons for skiing success. Factor analysis of the two goal orientation and four belief scale scores revealed two divergent goal/belief dimensions in competitive skiing.

Goal perspective theory assumes that personal goals serve as organizing principles, influencing the meaning of activities and how individuals respond to achievement experiences (Nicholls, 1989). This study examined the link between an individual’s personal goals, wider views about how sport operates, and trait anxiety level prior to or during competition. This investigation also determined the relation of gender and sport group to goal orientations, beliefs about the causes of success in sport, and multidimensional trait anxiety among sport participants. The sample consisted of 251 male and female high school, intercollegiate, and college-age recreational sport participants who completed the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ; Duda & Nicholls, 1992), the 21-item Beliefs About the Causes of Sport Success Questionnaire (BACSSQ; Duda & Nicholls, 1992), and the 21-item Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS; Smith, Smoll, & Schultz, 1990). Canonical correlation analysis revealed that sport participants higher in ego orientation than task orientation were more likely to experience concentration disruption prior to or during performance and believed that taking an illegal advantage, such as blood doping, would lead to success in sport. In general, women were more task oriented than men, and reported worrying and being somatically anxious prior to or during competition. Overall, high school athletes were more ego oriented than intercollegiate athletes. College-age recreational males were more apt than intercollegiate males and high school females to equate effort as the way to success in sport. Further, high school male athletes were more apt than intercollegiate males and all the female athletic groups to believe using an illegal advantage, such as performance-enhancing drugs, would lead to success in sport.