Students’ achievement goals and beliefs of causes of success: Temporal relations and gender differences

Student Athletes' Causal Attributions for Sport and School Achievement in Relation to Sport Dropout and Grade Point Average

The present study longitudinally examined stability and change in the attributional profiles of Finnish student athletes (n = 391) in upper secondary sport schools. Moreover, it examined the extent to which these profiles, and changes in them, were associated with athletes' level of sport competition and school achievements and dropouts at the end of upper secondary sport school. Using latent profile analysis, five different and highly stable attributional profiles were identified for student athletes: (a) depressive (6.9%), (b) athletic self-serving (23.0%), (c) average (16.4%), (d) learned helplessness (30.9%), and (e) responsible (22.8%). The results further showed that over the 3-year study period, the responsible attributional style, wherein individuals take responsibility for successes and failures, predicted student athletes' subsequent high grade point average and low sport dropout rates even after controlling for the impacts of their earlier grade point average, gender, and type of sport.

The role of gender and coaching styles in adolescent student-athletes’ motivational orientations in sport and school

Research indicates that the dominant discourses of gender are ingrained in dual career (DC) practices critically influencing athletes’ motivation to construct a DC pathway. While it is important to ensure that all athletes have an equal access to construct a DC pathway despite their gender, there is a gap in the literature examining the role that coaches play in gendering of athletes’ DC pathways. The present study longitudinally examined the gender differences in student-athletes’ motivational orientations in sport and academics throughout high school and the role of coaching style in these orientations. The gender differences in coaching styles in terms of student-athletes’ gender, coaches’ gender, and their interaction were also investigated. The sample consisted of 248 student-athletes from six upper secondary sport schools across Finland. The participants filled in questionnaires at the beginning of the first year and at the end of the third year of upper secondary sport school. The results showed that female student-athletes demonstrated higher levels of mastery orientation than males in both sport and school domains. Affective coaching style predicted male student-athletes’ mastery orientation in sport and both male and female student-athletes’ mastery orientation in school. Finally, female coaches were reported using more of an affective coaching style than male coaches. The results suggest that athletes benefit differently from an affective coaching style based on their gender and that it is beneficial to educate coaches how to use an affective coaching style with their DC athletes.