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Motivation profiles and competitive anxiety of young athletes in senior secondary schools

M.A. / The aim of the study was to explore motivational profiles and competitive anxiety in secondary school athletes who spend at least eight hours or more on sport during a week. The study included 267 adolescent athletes in secondary school ranging from grade 8 to grade 12, with a mean age of 15.52 (SD = 1.49). These athletes were asked to volunteer for the study in various schools in Johannesburg and Pretoria, South Africa. The sample comprised 189 boys and 78 girls who participated in a variety of sports. They were asked to complete a biographical questionnaire, The Task and Ego Sport Questionnaire (Nicholls, 1989) and the Sport Competitive Anxiety Test (Martens, 1982). The results indicated that the participants had a high task orientation as opposed to a moderate ego orientation in sport. Most of the participants had a moderate level of competitive sport anxiety. Two distinct motivational profiles emerged from the results: High Task/High Ego and High Task/Low Ego. No significant differences were found between gender and age groups with regards to motivational profiles and anxiety levels. A correlation was found between task orientation and ego orientation, but not between motivational profiles and anxiety.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:1880
Date08 December 2011
CreatorsOberholzer, Arisja
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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