Examining Sport Motivation in a Collegiate-Athlete Sample

Little research has comprehensively examined collegiate athlete motivations with respect \nto achievement-goal orientations (AGO) and basic psychological needs (BPN). Existing \nresearch has either excluded the social-goal orientation from analysis of collegiate \nathletes or has predominantly examined the relationship between only one BPN \n(autonomy), task, and ego-goal orientations. The AGO literature focuses primarily on \nyouth populations. Therefore there were two main purposes of the study. The first was \nto more comprehensively examine whether different AGO profiles (including all three \nAGOs: task, ego, and social) exist among collegiate athletes. The second was to examine \nthe relationships between perceived motivational climate, AGOs, BPNs, and motivational \nregulators of NCAA Division II collegiate-athletes. Participants of this study were men \nand women from various NCAA Division II sport teams. Motivational aspects were \nmeasured via paper-and-pencil questionnaire administration. Results will contribute to \nthe sport motivation literature and will have practical applications for NCAA coaches and \nadministrators.