Achievement Motivation in elite athletes: application of 2X2 Achievement Goal Framework in swimming

Abstract

Over the past two decades, an increasing body of literature has supported the validity and utility of the 2x2 Achievement Goal Framework (Elliot & McGregor, 2001) often applied in schools but also in a sports context. In the present study, this model has been applied in a sports context and in particular with a sample of 96 professional swimmers of a medium to élite level. For this aim, we used the Achievement Goal Questionnaire for Sport (AGQ-S) (Conroy, Elliot & Hofer, 2003), analysed alongside other constructs such as orientation and motivational climate in sport, self-efficacy and performance satisfaction. The results suggest that it is mainly the mastery approach that has a key role in directing the motivation, assessing the performance and creating the climate context. Moreover, by comparing the medium-high level athletes with élite athletes, results show that achievement motivations are related to the satisfaction with their own performance in élite athletes.