The development of school and sports task values among adolescent athletes: The role of gender

Abstract

Successfully integrating elite sports with education requires motivation to commit oneself to both domains. This study examines the development of and gender differences in adolescent athletes’ task values for school and sports across the upper secondary school years. A total of 391 adolescents (aged 15–16 at the beginning of the study) were followed four times during sports upper secondary school. The participating student athletes were recruited from six sports upper secondary schools in Finland, which offer equal competitive sport opportunities for both genders. The results showed that school- and sports- task values are strongly related to each other. Males valued school less than females at the beginning of upper secondary school, and this gender difference remained, and also strengthened across years. No gender differences in sports-related task values were found. The findings indicate that females may be more committed to integrating elite sports and education than males due to their higher valuing of school.

The role of gender and coaching styles in adolescent student-athletes’ motivational orientations in sport and school

“…However, as no gender differences were found in relation to performance orientation, the null hypothesis concerning performance orientation in sports and school retains. Our findings suggest that, due to their mastery orientation, female athletes seem to invest into their DC and academic goals and are engaged to do well in both domains (see also Viljaranta et al, 2022). This can be explained by the fact that female athletes often experience cultural and societal pressure to excel in multiple roles simultaneously and are therefore more likely to invest in DC goals and identities compared to males (Ryba et al, 2021).…”

“…While the increased pressure for female athletes to be so-called ´superwomen´, who can succeed at everything, may support female athletes' athletic and academic excellence, it also positions them as inferior to men and vulnerable to psychological distress (Ryba et al, 2021). Although previous studies have shown that there may be gender differences in adolescent athletes' achievement motivation both in the domains of sports (Hanrahan & Cerin, 2009) and academics (Arens & Watermann, 2021), few studies thus far have specifically examined gender differences in student-athletes' motivational orientations in DC contexts (as an exception, see Viljaranta et al, 2022). Moreover, while the role of coach in athletes' sport motivation has been extensively investigated (e.g., Amorose & Anderson-Butcher, 2015;Knight et al, 2018;Smith et al, 2016), only a few earlier studies have aimed to understand the role that coaches play in athletes' school motivation and whether the role of coaches is gendered (Saarinen et al, 2020).…”