Competence, achievement goals, motivational climate, and pleasant psychobiosocial states in youth sport

Abstract

We examined the three-way interactions among competence (actual and perceived), individuals' dispositional goal orientation (task/ego), and perceived sport motivational climate (mastery/performance) in the prediction of pleasant psychobiosocial states (i.e. emotion, cognition, motivation, bodily reaction, movement, performance, and communication) as conceptualized by the Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning model. The sample consisted of 320 Italian youths (160 girls and 160 boys) aged 13-14 years who were involved in individual or team sports. The assessment included a perceived competence scale, a goal orientation questionnaire, a motivational climate inventory, and pleasant psychobiosocial descriptors. An actual competence scale was also administered to coaches asking them to assess their youngsters. Moderated hierarchical regression analysis showed that perceived competence, actual competence, and task orientation were the strongest predictors of pleasant psychobiosocial states. Moreover, actual competence and perceived competence interacted in different ways with dispositional goal orientations and motivational climate perceptions in the prediction of psychobiosocial states. It is therefore recommended that both constructs be included in motivational research.

Relationship between Healthy Habits and Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport among University Students: A Structural Equation Model

“…Task climate is related to intrinsic motivations, such as interest in the learning process or cooperative work. On the contrary, ego climate is associated with different extrinsic motivations and seeking to obtain better performance with the minimum effort or greater social recognition than other competitors [19,20].…”

“…Individuals with an ego-oriented conception are guided by extrinsic motivations for physical activity and often believe that skill is an entity which cannot be improved. They tend to feel successful when they demonstrate skill through social comparisons [17][18][19][20].…”

Typology of Motivation and Aggression on the Basis of Social Network Variables: Examples of Complementary and Nested Behavioral Types through Conventional Statistics

“…[37] reports that perceptions of mastery motivational climate in the PE class are positively correlated to positive feedback. When the motivational climate in PE class is task-oriented, the students feel self-worth, content [38], highly motivated [39] and show effort and persistence to their pursuit [40]. The invigoration of the students' self-confidence promotes the desire to develop their skills; engagement in physical activities and positive attitudes toward exercise [41].…”

Preliminary evidence for relations between motivation and beliefs related to exercise dependence

“…In general, developing mastery goals is regarded as more adaptive than performance goals. Specifically, mastery orientation is related to selection of challenging tasks, effective study strategies, positive attitudes toward learning, and positive affect, whereas performance goals are associated with selection of easier tasks, trivial learning strategies, concern for social status, and thoughts of escape and behavioural withdrawal when difficulties arise [6,7,12,21,25]. However, if high perceived competence is combined with performance goals, then they are expected to support positive achievement outcomes [15,35,43].…”