Cognitive-affective sources of sport enjoyment in adolescent sport participants.

Boyd, Michael P. ; Yin, Zenong

Enjoyment is beginning to receive a resurgence of interest in the sport psychology literature. It has been described as a "positive affective response to the sport experience that reflects generalized feelings such as pleasure, liking, and fun" (Scanlan & Simons, 1992, pp. 203-204). These authors propose that uncovering the diverse origins of sport enjoyment is critical to a comprehensive understanding of positive affect and its relation to prolonged sport involvement. Inherent to their model is the proposition that enjoyment underlies greater commitment to sport. Although the construct has received empirical attention in the past, recent developments in the sport motivational literature suggest that contemporary approaches to the study of sport enjoyment be explored.

Enjoyment has generally been discussed with regard to intrinsic motivation. Deci and Ryan (1985) posit that enjoyment is derived from achievement behavior which is intrinsically motivating and provides perceptions of competence and self-determination. Scanlan and Simons (1992) argue, however, that to equate sport enjoyment exclusively to intrinsic motivation fails to acknowledge extrinsic sources. The authors contend that sport enjoyment is a "broader and more inclusive construct" derived from both internal and external origins. Wankel and Kreisel (1985) reported, for example, that although youth sport participants ranked intrinsic factors such as improving skills and personal accomplishment as important to enjoyment, extrinsically oriented factors such as winning and receiving rewards were also found to be important. It is paramount, therefore, that theoretical approaches consider both sources of sport enjoyment.

Research concerning sport enjoyment has yielded consistent findings. Enjoyment or the lack thereof, apparently are primary reasons for participation and dropout, respectively (Gill, Gross, & Huddleston, 1983; Gould, Feltz, Horn, & Weiss, 1982). Sport enjoyment has also been found to be associated with higher degrees of perceived physical competence and challenge, and adult satisfaction with motor performance (Brustad, 1988; Chalip, Csikszentmihalyi, Kleiber, & Larson, 1984; Scanlan & Lewthwaite, 1986; Wankel & Kreisel, 1985). Using qualitative data analysis, Scanlan, Stein, and Ravizza (1989) reported that elite figure skaters identified sources of enjoyment which included social recognition, movement sensation, and athleticism. These findings clearly point to both intrinsic and extrinsic antecedents of enjoyment in sport providing a theoretical framework from which to proceed.

Recent theoretical development in social-cognitive theory highlights the relationship between achievement goal orientation and sport behavior (Duda, 1992). Based on the work of Nicholls (1984, 1989), the paradigm offers an intuitively appealing approach to the study of enjoyment in sport. Task or ego achievement orientation, are said to impact upon the criteria individuals use to construe competence, and also influence subsequent achievement behavior including task choice, persistence, and performance (Nicholls, 1984). A task orientation entails the tendency to focus on mastery and self-improvement. Performing one's best or beyond personal expectations, provide perceptions of competence for those who are task-involved (Nicholls & Miller, 1984). Subjectively derived conceptions of competence apparently are internally grounded for individuals who subscribe to a task orientation. An ego orientation, rather, reflects a tendency to dwell on social comparison of ability and outcome, such as outperforming others on tasks of normative difficulty (Nicholls, 1989). For those who are ego-involved, demonstration of greater ability than others provides competence perceptions especially when greater effort must be exerted by others (Jagacinski & Nicholls, 1987). Perceptions of competence are therefore dependent exclusively upon external standards of performance for those who are ego-oriented.

In the sport literature, individual differences in achievement orientation have been reported to be associated with psychological and behavioral variables. A task orientation has been shown to be related to behavioral variation and attitudes toward sport, including mastery, cooperation, sportsmanship, and the belief that effort leads to success (Duda, 1989; Duda, Olson, & Templin, 1991; Duda & White, 1992). Conversely, an ego orientation has been found to be associated with unsportsmanlike behavior, legitimacy of aggression, and the belief that ability leads to success in sport (Duda & Nicholls, 1992; Duda et al., 1991; Duda & White, 1992). Intuitively, a task orientation, where competence is construed in regard to self-referenced, internally generated perceived ability, would induce intrinsic motivation and lend itself well to sport enjoyment. Ego orientation, however, and concomitant externally grounded perceived ability, may not be conductive to enjoyment.

A cognitive variable which has consistently emerged as a source of sport enjoyment is competence (Chalip et al., 1984; Scanlan & Lewthwaite, 1986; Wankel & Kreisel, 1985). Children with higher levels of perceived physical competence not only have been shown to be more likely to participate in sport, but to express more satisfaction with their involvement than do children with lower levels of competence (Burton & Martens, 1986; Feltz & Petlichkoff, 1983; Kimiecik, Allison, & Duda, 1986; Roberts, Kleiber, & Duda, 1981). Roberts (1992) contends that competence is central to the development of achievement behavior in youth sport and therefore merits consideration in any prospective examination of sport enjoyment.

An affective variable which has received little research attention is learned helplessness in sport. Such affect is said to originate from the perception that negative events are beyond one's ability to control (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978), and is characterized by avoidance of challenge as well as lack of persistence when confronted with difficult situations (Elliot & Dweck, 1988). In the sport literature, only limited research has attempted to uncover the correlates of learned helplessness with regard to sport behavior (Boyd, Yin, Callaghan, & Simons, 1993; McAuley & Duncan, 1989; Prapavessis & Carron, 1988). There appears to be a negative relationship between learned helplessness in sport and physical competence (Boyd et al., 1993). Further, research has shown that physical competence is closely associated with enjoyment in sport (Scanlan & Lewthwaite, 1986). It follows, therefore, that learned helplessness would be negatively associated with sport enjoyment.

Preliminary evidence also suggests that sport enjoyment is inversely related to age (Scanlan & Lewthwaite, 1986). Harter (1981) contends that as children grow older, an inherent curiosity and efforts toward controlling the environment concede to social comparison and evaluation in achievement domains diminishing intrinsic interest. In light of this argument, Scanlan and Lewthwaite (1986) reported that older children expressed less sport enjoyment than did their younger counterparts. However, in that study no relationship was indicated, positive or negative, between age and perceived ability (i.e., competence). Based on Harter's work, it would be hypothesized that perceived ability as well as enjoyment should subside with age. Scanlan and Lewthwaite (1986) however, do report a positive relationship between perceived ability and enjoyment, rendering the age-enjoyment correlation reported somewhat tenuous. In the present study, rather than age, number of years of participation in organized sport, was used to scrutinize the relationship between enjoyment and the time variable.

Based on the pertinent literature, it was hypothesized that both cognitive and affective variables would be significant predictors of sport enjoyment. Utilizing a multivariate approach, it was hypothesized that task orientation and perceived sport competence would have a significant, positive impact upon enjoyment in sport. Ego orientation, however, was predicted to be unrelated. Learned helpless effort in sport was predicted to be inversely associated. The time variable, years of participation in organized sport, was hypothesized to be positively related to sport enjoyment.

METHOD

Subjects

Male high school students (N=231) from the northeastern United States served as subjects in the study. Mean age of the subjects was 15.04 years (SD = .92) and all had participated in organized sport for at least one year. Informed consent was established through school administrators. All measures were completed voluntarily and anonymously in group settings.

Measures

Task and ego orientation in sport questionnaire. The Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ; Duda, 1989) was developed to quantify task and ego involvement in sport. The TEOSQ consists of task orientation (8 items) and ego orientation (7 items) scales. The instrument was factor analytically derived and has been shown to have acceptable psychometric properties including a stable factor structure and internal reliability (Duda, 1992). The TEOSQ has been used extensively in several recently published studies quantifying the two variables. Respondents are requested to think about how they feel when they are most successful in sport. The scale contains fifteen-items. An example of both task and ego orientation items respectively are: I feel most successful in sport when: I learn a new skill by trying hard (task); the others can't do as well as me (ego). A five-point Likert-type response scale is provided. Principle components factor analysis of the instrument, with varimax rotation, confirmed that two factors emerged that were consistent with the model. Cronbach's alpha was .85 and .78 for the task and ego orientation scales, respectively.

Sport competence. The Perceived Physical Competence Subscale of the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents (Harter, 1988) was used to measure perceived physical competence, herein referred to as sport competence. The 5-item scale is a slightly modified version of the same instrument originally developed for children, specifically designed to assess the construct in adolescents. An example of one of the items is: "Some teenagers do very well at all kind of sports BUT other teenagers don't feel that they are very good when it comes to sports." Subjects are first requested to decide which of the two teenagers is more like themselves, and then to choose whether their choice is "sort of true for me," or "really true for me." Scores for the items range from one (low) to four (high) and subjects' scores are derived by adding item totals ranging from four (low) to twenty (high). The instrument is widely accepted to be both psychometrically valid and reliable (Harter, 1988). Utilizing principal components factor analysis, all items were found to load on a single factor designated as sport competence. Cronbach's alpha for the scale was .87.

Learned helpless affect in sport. The self-worth and affect subscales of the Dimensions of Depression Profile for Children and Adolescents (Harter & Nowakowski, 1987), modified to the sport experience, was used to quantify learned helplessness affect in sport. The scale contains twelve items which have been shown to have acceptable psychometric properties (Harter & Nowakowski, 1987). A sample item is: "Some teenagers don't feel happy very often when playing sports BUT other teenagers do feel happy pretty often when playing sports." The response scale was identical to Harter's competence scale already described, with scores ranging from ten (low) to forty (high). Factorial validity was established as ten of the twelve items loaded on a single factor, labeled learned helpless affect in sport. Cronbach's alpha for the ten-item scale was .88.

Sport enjoyment. A scale was formulated from an instrument developed by Scanlan and her associates (Scanlan, Simons, Schmidt, Carpenter, & Keeler, 1991), and previous youth sport motivation research (Burton & Martens, 1986). Scanlan et al., (1991) report reliable psychometrics of their employment scale. The instrument contains five items purportedly related to enjoyment and positive affect in sport. The following items comprise the scale: like to play sports, like to compete, have fun in sports, enjoy playing sports, always play sports, answered on a 4-point scale using the Harter format. A sample item is: "Some teenagers have a lot of fun when it comes to sports BUT other teenagers don't feel that it is fun playing sports." Individual scores ranged from four (low) to twenty (high). Factor analysis was conducted on the five-item enjoyment scale revealing the existence of a single factor containing all five items. Cronbach's alpha for the instrument was .84.

Years of participation in sport. Participants were requested to indicate their total number of years of participation in organized youth sport ranging from their earliest experience (e.g., youth soccer, Little League baseball) through their current participation in organized sport. The mean number of years of participation in formal sport was 7.61 (SD = 3.14), indicative of a fairly extensive background for this particular sample.

RESULTS

Although the original sample consisted to 231 subjects, ten failed to complete the measures, and were therefore excluded from further analysis. Six outlying cases were identified, and also deleted, leaving the final sample at 215 subjects. The enjoyment scale was found to be negatively skewed (kurtosis = 1.382, skewness = -1.337), therefore a square-root transformation was used (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1989) for correction of the variable (kurtosis = -.395, skewness = .729).

All measures were initially subjected to principal components factor analysis (varimax rotation) in order to warrant usage in subsequent regression analysis. A .45 factor loading criterion (20% overlapping variance) was used in order for an item to be retained in the model (Comery, 1973). Using SPSS varimax rotation (SPSS Inc., 1989), five factors were clearly identified corresponding to sport enjoyment, task and ego orientation, sport competence, and learned helpless affect in sport (see Table 1). Two helpless affect items clearly did not load on their respective factor, and were eliminated from that scale.

In order to examine the relationship between sport enjoyment and the hypothesized predictor variables, standard multiple regression was [TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 1 OMITTED] performed using enjoyment as the dependent variable. Violations of assumptions for multiple regression analysis were initially examined including distribution normality, linearity, and homoscedasticity of the data, and found to be acceptable (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1989). Zero-order correlations among the independent and dependent variables were all found to be less than .70, assuring non-collinearity of the regression equation (Pedhazur, 1982). Table 2 displays the correlations between the variables, intercept, unstandardized (B), and standardized [TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 2 OMITTED] ([Beta]), regression coefficients. Also displayed are semipartial correlations ([sr.sup.2]), R, R-squared, and adjusted R-squared. A significant R for regression, F(4, 208) = 46.65, p [less than] .001, indicated a stable relationship between the independent and dependent variables.

Altogether, 53% of the variance in sport enjoyment could be explained by the predictor variables. Four of the five independent variables emerged as significant predictors of the enjoyment construct. Significant predictors of sport enjoyment were sport competence ([sr.sup.2] = .09), learned helplessness ([sr.sup.2] = -.05), years of sport participation ([sr.sup.2] = .04), and task orientation in sport ([sr.sup.2] = .01), accounting for 19% of the unique variance. Ego orientation, however, failed to enter the regression equation as a significant predictor of sport enjoyment.

DISCUSSION

The results demonstrated that adolescent sport participants who perceived themselves to be more competent in sport, and those who self-reported more task orientation in sport, expressed greater levels of sport enjoyment than did their counterparts. Multiple regression analysis illustrated, moreover, that sport enjoyment was also associated with number of years of participation, and inversely related to learned helpless affect in sport. Sport enjoyment, however, was found to be unrelated to ego orientation in sport, which failed to enter the regression equation as a significant predictor of the enjoyment construct. Such results clearly point to the salience of such positive affect in the youth sport environment and its relation to the onset of perceived ability in a manner consistent with a sport task orientation.

These findings underscore the importance of the development of sport competence, and collaborate earlier research also reporting perceived ability to be intimately associated with enjoyment in sport (Scanlan & Lewthwaite, 1986; Wankel & Kreisel, 1985). Competence was shown to account for the greatest amount of variance in enjoyment. The results also suggest that task orientation, where competence is construed with regard to self-referenced standards of performance, is instrumental in promoting enjoyment among adolescent sport participants. Assertion of mastery and high effort, characteristic of task involvement in sport, apparently is conducive to enjoyment. This should send a strong message to coaches and physical educators alike, that task-oriented instruction may play an important role in the onset of positive affective reactions to the youth sport experience. Task-involved goals uniquely provide individuals of all ability levels with the opportunity to construe competence perceptions and its accompanying enjoyment affect. The findings extend earlier research on sport enjoyment and enjoin the work done in both the social-cognitive and sport enjoyment literatures.

Ego orientation in sport apparently was found to be unrelated to sport enjoyment. This finding was not unexpected, however, as ego-involved goals in sport have been reported to be associated with variables including competitive anxiety, unsportsmanlike behavior, legitimacy of aggression in sport, and the belief that only ability leads to success in sport (Duda et al., 1990; Duda et al., 1991). As the results suggest, utilizing performance outcome as the sole criterion of demonstrated competence, does not induce favorable affective reactions to participation in sport. Although winning outcomes may evoke momentary social recognition and enjoyment (Scanlan et al., 1989), such affective gain may be transient in nature. As the present findings suggest, attention to chronic performance evaluation and relentless struggles to win, in the form of ego orientation, may impair sport enjoyment. Such evidence should reverberate to physical educators and coaches committed to youth sport supervision, that an overemphasis on winning and attention to externally based judgments of perceived ability does not necessarily lend itself to enjoyment in the youth sport domain.

Sport enjoyment was also found to have a moderately positive association with number of years of participation in organized youth sport. This finding is not consistent with earlier research which reports that younger children express more sport enjoyment than do youth (Scanlan & Lewhwaite, 1986). The authors contend that after about twelve years of age, sport participation declines considerably when, as they argue according to Nicholls (1984), a child's sense of perceived ability becomes cognitively stable and relatively unchangeable. However, the failure to report any correlation between age and perceived ability in that study relegated the age-enjoyment relationship reported somewhat tenuous. In light of Harter's (1981) model of competence motivation, similar decreases should evolve with age for both perceived ability and enjoyment.

In the present investigation, years of participation in organized sport was clearly associated with sport enjoyment (r = .48) indicating that age does not necessarily preclude enjoyment. Rather, perhaps a selection process ensues whereby less physically competent athletes discontinue sport participation due to an inability to demonstrate desired levels of ability, conceivably in a manner consistent with an ego orientation (Duda, 1992). Youngsters who do aspire to higher levels of competition, may continue playing because of ongoing motor skill acquisition and the enjoyment afforded them over time. Further, sport competence was shown to be moderately related to years of participation (r = .41) and strongly associated with enjoyment (r = .64), lending further support to the view that sport enjoyment is not necessarily suppressed over time. More research is needed to uncover the complex interrelationships among age, years of participation, perceived ability, and sport enjoyment before definitive inferences may be generated.

Learned helpless affect was found to be very negatively associated with sport enjoyment. Evidently, sport participation appears to be yet another situation in which individuals may potentially perceive little control over their achievement outcomes. Helpless affect in sport represents a unique form of the general construct that is well-discussed in the psychological literature, and characterized by avoidance of challenge and lack of persistence when confronted with difficult situations (Elliott & Dweck, 1988). Regarding the psychometric properties of the instrument used to quantify learned helpless affect, factorial validity of the scale was substantiated since principal components factor analysis revealed the existence of a single factor. Not only did such affect impact negatively upon sport enjoyment, but a strong negative relationship was demonstrated with sport competence, task orientation in sport, and years of participation. Although preliminary in nature, these results suggest the salience of learned helpless affect in youth sport and warrant further investigation of the construct, especially in light of the literature concerning dropout in children's sport. Practitioners would do well to examine the work done in reattribution training (Dweck, 1975, 1986). Children lacking competence in a particular domain who are taught to attribute failure to lack of effort rather than to low ability, subsequently exhibit greater persistence and performance than do untrained low-competence children. Instructional approaches such as these will not only serve to induce competence in children's sport, but as the results indicate, promote sport enjoyment.

Enjoyment has generally been discussed with respect to intrinsic motivation. The results encourage research on divergent sources of sport enjoyment including extrinsically (i.e., ego orientation) and affectively based origins of the construct. For instance, social recognition of sport competence has been reported to be an external source of enjoyment in sport (Scanlan et al., 1989). Yet the present results indicate that ego orientation and preoccupation with social evaluation, also externally based, is unrelated to sport enjoyment. Distinguishing social recognition and situation-specific, outcome-dependent sport enjoyment from dispositional orientation such as ego involvement, should be a goal of future investigation.

Although the correlational nature of this study limits interpretation of directional causality, the results do suggest that competence is central to the manifestation of sport enjoyment. Moreover, competence construed in reference to self, through a task-achievement orientation, evidently lends itself readily to enjoyment in sport. Orienting to the process of participation, rather than to the outcome of performance, may serve to maximize positive affective reactions to youth sport. The results further attest that as competence and task orientation increase, helpless sport affect and accompanying perceptions of lack of control are attenuated. It is imperative, therefore, that attempts be made by practitioners to instill a sense of competence and foster task orientation in all youth who initiate efforts to participate in children's organized sport in order to ensure enjoyment and long-term involvement.

Finally, research should concentrate on replication of the findings among other populations. The age-enjoyment relationship needs further examination in order to resolve the argument regarding length of participation, age, and enjoyment. New approaches should be tailored to the development of instrumentation for the measurement of learned helpless affect in children's sport which may facilitate current understanding of the variables responsible for attrition in youth sport. Sport enjoyment is critical to commitment in the sport domain and therefore merits ongoing scrutiny.

REFERENCES

Abramson, L.Y., Seligman, M.E.P., & Teasdale, J.D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87, 49-74.

Boyd, M.P., Yin, Z., Callaghan, J., & Simons, J. (1993). Correlates of learned helplessness in youth sport and physical activity. Applied Research in Coaching and Athletics Annual, 158-176.

Brustad, R.J. (1988). Affective outcomes in competitive youth sport: The influence of interpersonal and socialization factors. Journal of Exercise and Sport Psychology, 10, 307-321.

Burton, D., & Martens, R. (1986). Pinned by their own goals. An exploratory investigation into why kids drop out of wrestling. Journal of Sport Psychology, 8, 183-197.

Chalip, L., Csikszentmihalyi, M., Kleiber, D., & Larson, R. (1984). Variations of experience in formal and informal sport. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 55(2), 109-116.

Comery, A.L. (1973). A first course in factor analysis. New York: Academic Press.

Deci, E.L., & Ryan, R.M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum Press.

Duda, J.L. (1989). The relationship between task and ego orientation and the perceived purpose of sport among male and female high school athletes. Journal of Exercise and Sport Psychology, 11, 318-335.

Duda, J.L. (1992). Motivation in sport settings: A goal perspective approach. In G.C. Roberts (Ed.), Motivation in sport and exercise (pp. 57-92). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Duda, J.L., & Nicholls, J.(1992). Dimensions of achievement motivation in schoolwork and sport. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 290-299.

Duda, J.L., Olson, L.K., & Templin, T.J. (1991). The relationship of task and ego goal orientation to sportsmanship attitudes and the perceived legitimacy of injurious acts. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 62, 79.

Duda, J.L., & White, S.A. (1992). The relationship of goal orientations to beliefs about success among elite skiers. The Sport Psychologist, 6, 334-343.

Dweck, C.S. (1975). The role of expectations and attributions in the alleviation of learned helplessness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 674-675.

Dweck, C.S. (1986). Motivational processes affecting learning. American Psychologist, 41, 1040-1048

Elliott, E.S., & Dweck, C.S. (1988). Goals: An approach to motivation and achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 5-12.

Feltz, D.L. (1983). Perceived competence among interscholastic sports participants and dropouts. Canadian Journal of Applied Sport Sciences, 8, 213-235.

Feltz, D.L., & Petlichkoff, L. (1983). Perceived competence among interscholastic sport participants and dropouts. Canadian Journal of Applied Sport Sciences, 8, 231-235.

Gill, D.L., Gross, J.B., & Huddleston, S. (1983). Participation motivation in youth sports. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 14, 1-14.

Gould, D., Feltz, D., Horn, T., & Weiss, M. (1982). Reasons for sport attrition in competitive youth swimming. Journal of Sport Behavior, 5, 155-165.

Harter, S. (1981). The development of competence motivation in the mastery of cognitive and physical skills: Is there a place for joy? In G.C. Roberts & D.M. Landers (Eds.), Psychology of motor behavior and sport-1980 (pp. 3-29). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Harter, S. (1988). Manual for the self-perception profile for adolescents. University of Denver.

Harter, S., & Nowakowski, M., (1987). Manual for the dimensions of depression profile for children and adolescents. University of Denver.

Michael P. Boyd, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, Chicago State University.

Reprint requests to Zenong Yin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Division of Education, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas 98249.