The Influence of Reflected Appraisals on Female Middle School and High School Athletes' Self-Perceptions of Competence

According to the reflected appraisal process our self-perceptions are strongly affected by our perceptions of how others view us. That is, we come to see ourselves as we believe others see us. This study examined the relationship between athletes' self-perceptions of competence and how they perceive various others evaluate their ability (i.e., reflected appraisals). Specifically, this study tested whether the reflected appraisals of mothers, fathers, coaches, and teammates are predictive of athletes' self-perceptions of competence, and if so, are there differences in the relative influence of these significant others. A second purpose was to determine if the pattern of relationships between the reflected appraisals and the athletes' self-perceptions of competence varies depending on the athletes' age. Female middle school (n=66; M age=12.39 years) and high school athletes (n=88; M age=14.70 years) completed questionnaires assessing their self-perceptions of competence and how they perceived their mothers, fathers, coaches, and teammates evaluated their ability in sport. A multiple regression analysis conducted on the entire sample of athletes revealed that the reflected appraisals significantly predicted the athletes' self-perceptions of competence (p < .01, R²=.65). Mothers (b=.19), coaches (b=.24), and teammates (b=.47) were each significant predictors of the athletes' self-perceptions of competence, while the reflected appraisal of fathers (b=.08) was non-significant. Squared semi-partial correlations indicated that teammates accounted the greatest amount of unique variance in the athletes' self-perceptions of competence (sr²=.25), followed by coaches (sr²=.08), mothers (sr²=.05), and fathers (sr²=.01). Structural equation modeling was then used to test whether middle school and high school athletes differed in the pattern of relationships. Constraining the parameters to be equal across both groups did not significantly decrease the fit of the model relative to a freely estimated model (D df=6, D c²=12.44, p < .053); thus indicating that the pattern of relationships was the same for middle school and high school athletes. In sum, results provide support for the reflective appraisal process, and suggest that there is variability in the degree of influence various significant others have on female middle school and high school athletes' self-perceptions of competence, with teammates demonstrating a particularly strong effect.
Keyword(s): youth sports