Muslim and Christian students’ goal orientations in school, sport, and life

Abstract

Few investigations focused on goal orientations and motivational outcomes across school and sport contexts. In this study differences between Greek Christian (n = 275) and Muslim (n = 317) students were examined in sport, Greek language, achievement in general, and life in general. Muslims had higher scores on all scales assessing ego‐strengthening goal orientation, amotivation, and perceptions of fathers’ emphasis on ego and social approval goals than Christians. Muslims had higher scores on ego‐protection in sport and Greek language and lower on personal development in life than Christians. For both cultures, satisfaction in sport, school, and life corresponded positively to personal development and social approval goals. Finally, in school, sport, and life, amotivation corresponded positively to ego goal orientations