PARENT AND COACH MOTIVATIONAL CLIMATE PROFILES AND ADOLESCENT ATHLETE GOAL ORIENTATION, ENJOYMENT, AND STRESS

Abstract

Quality sport experiences can facilitate positive youth development and lead to increased sport retention. Social agents, including parents and coaches, play an important role in the quality of sport experiences through the motivational climates they create. Although both parents and coaches play independent roles, the motivational climates of social agents need to be considered collectively as athletes may perceive complementary or contradictory climates from parents and coaches. Social agents who establish mastery climates focus on self-referenced standards and define success in terms of improving ability. They emphasize the importance of effort, improvement, and skill mastery. Conversely, social agents who establish performance climates focus on norm-referenced standards and social comparison processes to define success in terms of doing better than others. They emphasize the importance of winning and competitive outcomes. Athlete perceptions of mastery climates have been associated with adaptive outcomes such as self-esteem and enjoyment, while perceptions of performance climates have been associated with more neutral to maladaptive outcomes such as immoral behavior and stress. Athlete perceptions of motivational climate have been linked to youth and adolescent athlete goal orientations (i.e., mastery or performance), enjoyment, and stress. However, the way in which these motivational climates simultaneously interact to affect young athletes is unknown. Therefore, the first purpose of this study is to identify profiles reflecting various combinations of parent and coach motivational climates using latent profile analysis. The second purpose is to examine whether profile differences exist in adolescent athlete goal orientations, stress, and enjoyment. Following IRB and athletic director/club director approval, 347 middle school-aged athletes completed surveys inquiring about perceived parent and coach motivational climate, goal orientations, stress, enjoyment, and parent involvement. Overall, athletes perceived moderate to high mastery climates and moderate to low performance climates, as well as complementary climates from parents and coaches. Athletes reported high task orientations, moderate ego orientations, moderate stress, high enjoyment, and high parent involvement. Latent profile analysis identified 5 profiles based on mastery and performance climates initiated by parents and coaches. Further analysis indicated that team type (i.e., school or club) predicted profile membership. Athletes who perceived a mastery climate reported higher mastery orientations and greater enjoyment, as well as higher parent involvement than athletes who perceived a performance climate. These athletes reported higher ego orientations, greater stress, and lower parent involvement. Athletes who perceived that their team was not achievement driven reported moderate mastery and performance climates from both parents and coaches, as well as moderate task/go orientation and stress, with lower enjoyment than other athletes. Finally, athletes who reported high mastery and performance climates from both parents and coaches reported high and ego orientations. These athletes found their sport experiences to be enjoyable, but also stressful. This research fills a void in the literature by examining the interplay of simultaneous motivational climates and achievement goal orientations. In addition, the results of this study provide evidence that adolescent sport organizations should emphasize communication and training for coaches and parents alike. In this way, they can facilitate positive sport experiences that are enjoyable and minimize stress, which ultimately may lead to positive youth development and sport retention.