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