Influence of Goal Orientations and Motivational Climate on Practice Strategies

Purpose

One of the primary goals of those who teach and coach is the development of individuals who pursue lifelong physical activity (Chen, 2001; Corbin, 2002; NASPE, 2004). In order to help young people pursue long-term commitments to physical activity, it is important to examine factors that can increase athletes' levels of motivation and skill development (NASPE, 2006). One theory that may be useful in this regard is achievement goal theory which postulates that dispositional goal orientations and perceptions of the motivational climate both play an important role in enhancing motivation (Ames, 1992; Duda & Balaguer, 2007; Nicholls, 1984). One motivational outcome that has been explored is practice strategies. Specifically, researchers have noted that a task orientation and a task-involving climate are positively correlated with adaptive practice strategies (Gano-Overway & Ewing, 2004; Lochbaum & Roberts, 1993). However, how goal orientations and motivational climate work together to influence practice strategies has not been thoroughly investigated. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the individual and interactive effects of goal orientations and perceptions of the motivational climate on practice strategies.

Methods

The participants were 128 middle school student-athletes (57 female and 71 male) who played on a variety of no-cut sport teams. A set of inventories was administered to the athletes near the end of their sport season. The inventories included measures of demographics, Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (Nicholls & Duda, 1992), Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire -2 (Newton, Duda & Yin, 2000), and a practice strategy use questionnaire adapted for use in sport (Gano-Overway & Ewing, 2004).

Analysis/Results

A hierarchical linear regression was conducted to explore the interactive effects of goal orientations and perceptions of climate above and beyond the main effects for practice strategies. The results revealed that task orientation and perceptions of a task-involving climate were positively correlated with practice strategies. However, these main effect findings were superseded by a two-way interaction between task orientation and perceptions of task-involving climate. Specifically, when athletes reported higher levels of task orientation, perceptions of the motivational climate did not seem to influence practice strategies, however, as levels of task orientation declined having higher perceptions of a task-involving climate resulted in an increase use of practice strategies.

Conclusions

Therefore for students with lower levels of task orientation, fostering a task-involving climate may be even more beneficial to help students develop practice strategies that may facilitate skill development.