Italian version of the task and ego orientation in sport questionnaire (original) (raw)

2005, Perceptual and Motor Skills

The 1992 Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire developed by Duda and Nicholls was translated into Italian and administered to 802 young athletes, 248 girls and 554 boys aged 8 to 14 years, drawn from a range of individual and team sports, to examine its factor structure. Data sets of a calibration sample (boys 12-14 years) and of four cross-validation samples (boys 8-11 years, girls 8-11 years, boys 12-14 years, and girls 12-14 years) were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis specifying, as in the original questionnaire, an Ego Orientation scale (6 items) and a Task Orientation scale (7 items). Results across sex and age yielded x2/df ratios ranging from 1.95 to 3.57, GFI indices above .90, AGFI indices ranging from .90 to .92, and RMSEA values not above .lo. Findings provided acceptable support for the two-dimension structure of the test. In the whole sample, the Ego factor accounted for the 27.2% of variance and the Task factor accounted for the 33.5% of variance. Acceptable internal consistency of the two scales was also shown, with Cronbach a values ranging from .73 to 25. Recent social cognitive research on the nature and determinants of achievement motivation in sport has focused on a goal perspective. The Achievement Goals Theory (Nicholls, 1984, 1992) assumes that perception of competence and personal meaning assigned to perceived success and failure are critical factors in motivational processes. The two primary goal orientations are labeled Task and Ego Orientation, and they reflect a tendency to judge subjective success and competence in different way. In Task Orientation, success and competence are considered on the basis of personal improvement and mastery through effort. In Ego Orientation, success and competence are a function of normative social comparison. In sports and exercise settings, task-oriented athletes tend to be interested in learning, demonstrating mastery and self-development. Their perceptions of ability are usually self-referenced, and they focus on the task with little concern for the outcome. In contrast, ego-oriented athletes tend to be interested in demonstrating superior ability to others and in winning. Their perceived ability is generally normatively referenced and their major focus is