TY - JOUR
T1 - Implicit beliefs of ability, approach-avoidance goals and cognitive anxiety among team sport athletes.
AU - Stenling, Andreas
AU - HASSMEN, Peter
AU - Holmstrom, Stefan
PY - 2014/10/3
Y1 - 2014/10/3
N2 - Abstract: People's implicit beliefs of ability have been suggested as an antecedent of achievement goal adoption, which has in turn been associated with behavioural, cognitive and affective outcomes. This study examined a conditional process model with team sport athletes' approach-avoidance achievement goals as mediators between their implicit beliefs of sport ability and sport-related cognitive anxiety. We expected gender to moderate the paths from implicit beliefs of ability to approach-avoidance goals and from approach-avoidance goals to cognitive anxiety. Team sport athletes with a mean age of 20 years (163 females and 152 males) responded to questionnaires about their implicit beliefs of sport ability, approach-avoidance goals and sport-related cognitive anxiety. Incremental beliefs, gender and the interaction between them predicted mastery-approach goals. Gender also predicted mastery-avoidance goals, with females reporting higher levels than males. Mastery-avoidance goals, gender and the interaction between them predicted cognitive anxiety, with females reporting higher levels of anxiety than males. Entity beliefs positively predicted performance-avoidance goals and the interaction between performance-approach and gender predicted anxiety. The indirect effects also showed gender differences in relation to performance-approach goals. Taken together, our results suggest that coaches trying to create a facilitating climate for their male and female athletes may be wise to consider their athletes' anxiety and achievement goal patterns as these may affect both the athletes' well-being and performance.
AB - Abstract: People's implicit beliefs of ability have been suggested as an antecedent of achievement goal adoption, which has in turn been associated with behavioural, cognitive and affective outcomes. This study examined a conditional process model with team sport athletes' approach-avoidance achievement goals as mediators between their implicit beliefs of sport ability and sport-related cognitive anxiety. We expected gender to moderate the paths from implicit beliefs of ability to approach-avoidance goals and from approach-avoidance goals to cognitive anxiety. Team sport athletes with a mean age of 20 years (163 females and 152 males) responded to questionnaires about their implicit beliefs of sport ability, approach-avoidance goals and sport-related cognitive anxiety. Incremental beliefs, gender and the interaction between them predicted mastery-approach goals. Gender also predicted mastery-avoidance goals, with females reporting higher levels than males. Mastery-avoidance goals, gender and the interaction between them predicted cognitive anxiety, with females reporting higher levels of anxiety than males. Entity beliefs positively predicted performance-avoidance goals and the interaction between performance-approach and gender predicted anxiety. The indirect effects also showed gender differences in relation to performance-approach goals. Taken together, our results suggest that coaches trying to create a facilitating climate for their male and female athletes may be wise to consider their athletes' anxiety and achievement goal patterns as these may affect both the athletes' well-being and performance.
KW - Motivation
KW - anxiety
KW - conditional process model
KW - gender differences
KW - team sports
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84926086447&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.mendeley.com/research/implicit-beliefs-ability-approachavoidance-goals-cognitive-anxiety-among-team-sport-athletes
U2 - 10.1080/17461391.2014.901419
DO - 10.1080/17461391.2014.901419
M3 - Article
SN - 1746-1391
VL - 14
SP - 720
EP - 729
JO - European Journal of Sport Science
JF - European Journal of Sport Science
IS - 7
ER -