The influence of parents on achievement orientation and motivation for sport of adolescent athletes with and whithout disabilities

Abstract

The purpose was three-fold. First, to analyze the psychometric properties of scales used. Second, to test the relationship among athletes’ perceptions of parents’ goal orientation and their own goal orientation and intrinsic motivation. Third, to compare athletes with and without disabilities with respect to the infuence of parents on athletes’ achievement orientation and motivation for sport. Participants were 173 amateur athletes (80 with disabilities, 93 without disabilities). Structural equation models revealed that for the athletes with disabilities, task orientation and the perceptions of parents’ task orientation were related to athletes’ interest-enjoyment and effort-importance. For the athletes without disabilities, ego orientations showed a negative relationship to interest-enjoyment and a positive relation to tension-pressure, and task orientation was related to interest-enjoyment,perceived competence and effort-importance.