Perceived Competence, Achievement Goals, and Return-To-Sport Outcomes: A Mediation Analysis

Elyse D’Astous, Leslie Podlog, Ryan Burns, Maria Newton and Bradley Fawver
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Elyse D’Astous: College of Health, Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, USA
Leslie Podlog: College of Health, Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, USA
Ryan Burns: College of Health, Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, USA
Maria Newton: College of Health, Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, USA
Bradley Fawver: School of Medicine, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 9, 1-15

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the potential mediating effect of achievement goals on perceived competence and return-to-sport outcomes among college athletes sustaining a sport injury. Altogether, 75 male and female college athletes from the United States who returned to sport after having missed competition for an average of 3 weeks due to injury, completed valid and reliable inventories measuring perceived competence, achievement goals, and return-to-sport outcomes. Results indicated that task-approach goals significantly mediated the relationship between perceived competence and a renewed sport perspective. These data suggest the importance of promoting competence beliefs and a task-oriented focus among athletes returning to sport following athletic injury. From a practical standpoint, clinicians can foster competence perceptions by integrating progressive physical tests assessing functionality and sport-specific skills/abilities. Furthermore, these data suggest that coaches, physical therapists, and significant others may do well to use language that orients injured athletes towards attaining success as opposed to avoiding failure, to emphasize effort, task completion, and correct form, and to avoid comments that compare athletes to others or to their preinjury standards of performance. From a theoretical standpoint, our mediation findings extend previous achievement goal research into the sport injury domain, further highlighting the importance of task-approach goals.

Keywords: approach-avoidance; collegiate athletes; injury; motivation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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