Understanding enjoyment in youth sport: A developmental perspective

Interactive Effects of Goal Orientation and Perceived Competence on Enjoyment among Youth Swimmers

“…The results of the present study indicate that the interaction between perceived competence and goal orientation profiles is not significant, i.e., swimmers of different goal orientation profiles enjoyed swimming equally, regardless of their level of perceived competence. This is consistent with the findings of McCarthy et al (2008) where the interaction between goal orientation and perceived ability did not make a significant contribution to the enjoyment of sport in the sample of young athletes. These results, however, do not support those of Nicholls (1989), Dweck (1999), Weiss and Ferrer-Caja (2002) and Whitehead et al (2004), which showed that highly ego-oriented athletes who also doubted their ability reported less enjoyment than their peers, and that highly ego-oriented athletes with high perceived ability did not differ significantly in their level of enjoyment compared to those who are strongly task-oriented.…”

“…This is consistent with numerous achievement goal orientation studies which confirm that those who are primarily ego-oriented and low task-oriented manifest maladaptive motivational patterns and are less satisfied in practicing their sports (Fox et al, 1994;Boyd & Yin, 1996;Stephens, 1998;Gould et al, 2001;Whitehead et al, 2003;Smith et al, 2006;McCarthy et al, 2008). Ego orientation is not related to enjoyment in sport (Boyd & Yin, 1996), and it is usually associated with variables such as competitive anxiety, www.ccsenet.org/ijps…”

“…3; unsportsmanlike behavior and a belief that only ability leads to success in sports (Duda, 1993). However, studies show that a higher enjoyment in sport is associated with high or moderate ego and high task goal orientation profiles (Fox et al, 1994;Smith et al, 2006;McCarthy et al, 2008). In the present study, we found that the mean responses for enjoyment in three goal orientation profiles are quite high.…”

“…and "How much do you like swimming?" These questions were adjusted by McCarthy et al (2008) and are based on instruments measuring enjoyment in sports from other studies (Babkes www.ccsenet.org/ijps International Journal of Psychological Studies Vol. 8, No.…”

“…Team sport participants (N=83) have reported significantly greater enjoyment and self-referenced competency as compared with individual sport participants (N=69) (McCarthy et al, 2008). Studies conducted so far (Biddle et al, 2003;Stephens, 1998) indicate the variables of goal orientation bear a significant relation to enjoyment in sports and perception of competence.…”