The Role of Dispositional Orientations and Goal Motives on Athletes' Well- and Ill-Being.

Natalia Martínez-González,Joan L Duda,Francisco L Atienza,Isabel Balaguer

doi:10.3390/ijerph19010289

Abstract

Findings in different contexts suggest that task orientation and ego orientation are related to adaptive and maladaptive motivational patterns, respectively. In sport, these personal dispositions could influence other important variables such as the goals that athletes pursue (and why they pursue them) during the season and their well- and ill-being. The main purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between athletes’ dispositional goal orientations, their goal motives, and their reported well-being (subjective vitality) and ill-being (physical and emotional exhaustion). The study involved 414 Spanish university athletes (206 female and 208 male) with an age range of 17 to 33 years (M = 20.61; SD = 2.58) that completed a package of questionnaires at the beginning of the season. Results of path analysis revealed that athletes’ task orientation was negatively associated to physical and emotional exhaustion indirectly through autonomous and controlled goal motives. In contrast, ego orientation was positively related to physical and emotional exhaustion via its link to controlled goal motives. Athletes’ task orientation directly and positively predicted subjective vitality, even though goal motives were not significant mediators. These findings support previous evidence about the protective role of athletes’ task orientation, in contrast to ego orientation, confirming its positive relationship with well-being and its negative one with ill-being. Additionally, it extends the knowledge regarding interdependencies between goal orientations and goal motives and how both contribute to athletes’ optimal or compromised functioning.

Highlights

IntroductionMany studies have tried to explain why not all athletes benefit from participating in sport
Over recent decades, many studies have tried to explain why not all athletes benefit from participating in sport
There was no significant relationship between this personal disposition and autonomous goal motives. These findings provided evidence that highly ego-oriented athletes pursue goals for reasons that are more outside their personal interests and values, which is in accordance with previous findings that have reported positive associations between ego orientation and less self-determined or controlled motivation regulations [17,18,19,20,21,22]

Summary

Introduction

Many studies have tried to explain why not all athletes benefit from participating in sport. One of the personal factors that is of great importance in competitive sporting contexts is the way in which athletes tend to define success, or differences in dispositional goal orientations. Goal orientations can be predictors, of the quality of sport participation, and of differences in why we pursue the goals that direct the behavior and responses of athletes over the season [8]. Dispositional differences in how athletes judge success can differentially influence the personal experience of their sport participation, even to the point of optimizing or compromising their functioning

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Discussion

Conclusion