Achievement goal orientation of adolescent basketball players : differences in age, ethnicity, and gender

The main purpose of the study was to examine the achievement goal orientation of adolescent basketball players in order to better understand the influence achievement goal orientation had on these athletes, and to understand when the achievement goal orientation of adolescent athletes' may change from a higher task goal orientation to a higher ego goal orientation. Examining the achievement goal orientation of adolescent basketball players could have helped to identify the age at which most adolescents change the degree of their achievement goal orientation. The achievement goal of adolescent basketball players was examined, looking at differences based on the gender and ethnicity of the participants.The study included 250 adolescent basketball players ranging in age from 9 to 14 years old, and currently participating in basketball leagues and tournaments within Central Indiana and Western New York. All of the participants completed the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ), which consisted of four demographic questions examining the gender, age, ethnicity, and how long the adolescent had been participating in the sport of basketball on a team. The means of the two subscales, task and ego, were calculated for all of the completed questionnaires. The Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to analyze the data according to the four research questions. All four research questions were not significant; there were no significant differences in the adolescent basketball players' achievement goal orientation based on age, gender, and ethnicity. The only significant result was found for competitiveness of the facility, and only for ego goal orientation. It was concluded the more competitive the league and/or tournament the higher the ego goal orientation would be for an adolescent basketball player.School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise ScienceThesis (M.S.