Examination of Student Cross-Country Runners’ Task and Ego Orientations, Challenge and Threat Levels

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The aim of this research is to examine the level of task and ego orientations, challenge and threat experiences of student cross-country runners as well as investigate their dispositional differences in goal orientations, challenge and threat levels according to demographic variables, and the link between ego orientations and challenge and threat experiences. 118 student-athletes voluntarily participated in this research. Since the data were not normally distributed, the Kruskal-Wallis test was used for group comparisons, and the Mann-Whitney U test was used for pairwise comparisons from nonparametric test methods. Results showed no significant differences in the task and ego orientations, challenge and threat levels of the participants in terms of their gender and whether they had a club license (p > 0.05). Significant differences, however, were found in the participants’ task and ego orientation levels (p < 0.05), while there were no significant differences in challenge and threat levels (p > 0.05) in terms of the department studied. There were significant differences in the participants’ task and ego orientations and challenge levels in terms of duration to be an athlete (p < 0.05) but there was no significant difference found in the participants’ threat level (p > 0.05). Overall, the results of this research provided valuable information to sports psychologists, managers, and coaches at universities to guide efforts to improve student athletes’ performance.