The impact of sport type on goal orientation and self-regulatory skills among college athletes

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in goal orientation and self-regulatory skills (SRL) among student-athletes by the type of sport they play, namely individual or team sports, and the influence of athlete type and goal orientation on SRL. NCAA Division I student-athletes completed a survey to measure goal orientation, self-regulated learning skills, and a demographic survey. Findings from this study include that team sports athletes had higher scores of ego orientation compared to individual sport athletes, individual sport athletes demonstrated higher reflection SRL scores, higher ego orientation scores were associated with lower effort SRL scores, and task orientation had a positive relationship with all subscales of the SRL measure. Overall, our results suggest that athlete types may differ in measures of SRL and goal orientation, and they emphasize the importance of task orientation goals on SRL.