Bock, S., & Batterham, A. M. (2006). Practical significance of contextual sensitivity of goal orientations in youth sport. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 38(5), Supplement abstract 1743.

This study examined the sensitivity of goal orientations to different structured sport contexts. Male and female high school athletes (N = 206) completed the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ), with the stem modified to reflect different sport contexts - Physical Education (PE), structured training and practice (TP), and competition (COMP). Validity (and factorial invariance by gender) of the modified instrument was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis for each of the three sport context versions. A combination rule was used to evaluate the adequacy of model fit.

The combination rule criterion was met for all three versions of the modified instrument, signifying adequate validity. Coefficient alpha for the TEOSQ sub-scales ranged from 0.8 to 0.9 for the different context versions, indicating acceptable internal consistency reliability. For ego orientation, the PE vs. COMP comparison was very likely to be (boys; 97% chance) and likely to be (girls; 91% chance) practically significant. Statistically significant, but practically trivial differences for task orientation were observed for PE vs. TP and PE vs. COMP for boys , and PE vs. TP for girls. Similarly, for ego-orientation in girls, TP vs. COMP comparison was statistically significant but of little practical importance.

Implication. Task orientation appears relatively stable, whereas ego orientation is contextually sensitive in physical activities.

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