Peer motivational climate in youth sport: a qualitative inquiry

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Abstract

Objectives

Little is known about the influence and nature of the motivational climate initiated by peer groups on children's sport behavior and experiences. To address this research need, in-depth interviews were employed in order to identify the factors that underpin the motivational climate created by peers in youth sport.

Methods

Individually and in small focus groups, 14 boys and 16 girls (N=30), aged between 12 and 16 years old from both individual and team sports, were interviewed regarding peer-induced characteristics of their motivational climates.

Results

Using content analyses, the following 11 dimensions of peer climate emerged: cooperation, effort, improvement, mistakes, intra-team competition, intra-team conflict, equal treatment, normative ability, autonomy support, evaluation of competence and relatedness support.

Conclusions

Some of the resulting dimensions are similar to the factors included in existing instruments assessing adult (i.e. PE teacher or coach-created) motivational climates. However, some facets of the climate unique to peer groups were also identified in this study. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for future research on the peer motivational climate are provided.

Section snippets

Participants

The sample (N=30) consisted of 16 females and 14 males from West Midlands, with ages ranging from 12 to 16 years (M=14.13, SD=1.38). Children above the age of 12 were selected, because most children at this developmental stage should be able to distinguish between effort and ability and, thus, are capable of differentiating between ego- and task-involving achievement criteria (Nicholls, 1989). The participants were British, predominantly Caucasians (77%), and were recruited from different

Results and discussion

The content analyses of the interview responses regarding the motivational climate created by peers in youth sport yielded 11 dimensions, 27 higher order themes and 113 lower order themes. Table 1 shows the general categories (i.e. dimensions) and their specific themes (i.e. higher order and lower order themes), as well as contains the number of participants and the associated percentage in each higher order theme and dimension. As the percentages indicate, the dimensions of peer motivational

Summary and conclusions

This study has focused on peer interactions and relationships and the role they may play in formulating a peer-induced motivational climate in youth sport. The existing literature on the structure and the consequences of perceived motivational climate in achievement contexts such as school, sport and PE has focused exclusively on the influence of significant adults, whilst ignoring the potential impact of peers. The in-depth interviews conducted in the present research offered considerable

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